Newsquest chief hits out at intrusive digital ads

The head of user engagement at Newsquest Direct – one of the UK’s biggest media firms – claims companies have shot themselves in the foot with their digital marketing strategies by bombarding consumers with intrusive ad formats.
Figures from the IAB released last November show that 18% of consumers in the UK have ad-blocking software installed; recent figures suggest it is even higher.
But in a blog post on the DMA website, Newsquest’s Nick Banbury maintains companies only have themselves to blame.
He wrote: “You’d think we would learn, as an industry, not to kill our cash cows. But we haven’t. [We have overused] pop-unders, pop-overs, interstitials, auto-play videos to the point where many people have had enough.”
Banbury reckons there are six things companies should be doing to counteract ad-blocking, including putting a stop to lazy and stupid retargeting; being smarter with data; giving people the option to turn off ads completely; educating people about the purpose of advertising; and invest in technology so that ads load quickly and display correctly.
Finally, he says, firms should consider what the visitor wants. “If we want to ask someone to sign up for an email, or complete a survey, or enter a competition, let’s allow people to spend some time on the site before we bombard them with calls to action.”
Banbury concluded: “You never know, just by being patient and looking at what they are browsing, we could learn something and serve them with much more relevant, personalised and effective ads.”

TOPICS:ad-blocking digital marketing