Daniel Powell-Rees from The Economist's presentation from Digiday's WTF Ad Blocking event in London - March 10, 2016

1. March 2016
Daniel Powell-Rees – Director of Revenue Operations
THE PUBLISHER’S RESPONSE TO
AD BLOCKING

3. ANY QUESTIONS?
3

4. THE
5
STAGES
OF PUBLISHER
RESPONSE

5. DENIAL – AD BLOCKING IS NOT NEW 5

6. DENIAL ALLOWED AD BLOCKERS TO
GROW UNCHALLENGED 6

7. ANGER – WE ARE LOSING MONEY 7
“We receive some donations from our users,
but our main source of revenue comes as
part of the Acceptable Ads initiative. Larger
entities pay a licensing fee for the whitelisting
services ”
But
“Adblock Plus users have the option to
display ads that are on the Acceptable
Ads list or to disable the Acceptable Ads
feature and browse completely ad-
free.”

8. ANGER - ACCEPTABLE ADS POLICY 8
"Ad blocking is robbery, plain and simple — an extortionist scheme that exploits consumer disaffection and
risks distorting the economics of democratic capitalism," Interactive Advertising Bureau President and CEO
Randall Rothenberg
Robbery
Extortion
Bribery

9. ANGER – SUING THE AD BLOCKER 9
German broadcasters RTL, ProSiebenSat1, Zeit Online
GmbH, Handelsblatt, Axel Springer have all sued ad block
plus.

10. ANGER – “CONSUMER CHOICE” 10
Ad blocker Shine blocks advertising at the source diverting
revenue away from publishers and into mobile phone carriers.
Got to love the Irony

11. BARGAINING – AD BLOCKERS 11
Over 700 companies have paid the bribeAcceptable Ads Program

12. BARGAINING – WITH THE USER 12

13. DEPRESSION – NO ONE WINS AN ARMS
RACE 13

14. DEPRESSION – AD BLOCKERS ARE HERE
TO STAY 14

15. ACCEPTANCE – SOMETHING IS
SERIOUSLY WRONG 15
“We messed up. As technologists, tasked with delivering content
and services to users, we lost track of the user experience.”
Scott Cunningham, senior VP-technology and ad operations at
the IAB

16. ACCEPTANCE – SOMETHING IS
SERIOUSLY WRONG 16
Those two words every publisher loves whispered
in their ear
“incremental revenue”

17. ACCEPTANCE – SOMETHING IS
SERIOUSLY WRONG 17
“If you walk into any publishing house and say, ‘I’ve got a way
you can make incremental revenue, here is a piece of Javascript
that will allow you to do it,’ that will go up immediately. We need
to put the user back into the equation,”
Ashwin Sridhar, global head of digital products revenue at The
Economist

18. ACCEPTANCE – IDENTIFYING THE REAL
ISSUE 18
Ad blocking is a symptom, not a disease

19. ACCEPTANCE – ADS ARE ANNOYING 19

20. MOVING FORWARD? 20
1. Understand your users!
2. Say no to, and get rid of annoying advertising
3. Educate consumers & give them a choice

21. SOLVE THE ISSUE FIRST 21
Unless we can show our users that we have heard
their concerns, ad blockers will continue to grow
Native/Content marketing
provides a less noisy experience
Standardise and engage
consumers in defining acceptable
ads

22. 22
EDUCATE YOUR CONSUMERS WITH
CHOICE
There is no one size fits all solution

23. KEY TAKE-AWAYS 23
1. Ad blocking is a symptom, not a disease!
2. Solve the issue first
3. Consumer education is key

24. ANY QUESTIONS?
24