Doomed: Why the current model of online advertising can’t survive
Fraud, corruption and the abuse of consumer rights are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to why online advertising can’t survive, explains Bob Hoffman in this crossposting from his blog, The Ad Contrarian.
The current model of online advertising – based on the three-headed monster of tracking, surveillance marketing, and ad tech – is unsustainable and will not survive. The forces against it are building and will shake up the advertising and marketing industries.
Here is why it is doomed:
It is too abusive of consumer rights and personal privacy
Yep.
That and ad-blocking. Ad-blocking software is pretty much always one step-ahead of its counter measures (which are by their very nature reactive) so seeing ads while browsing is pretty much optional now. Advertising online is so scummy (invasive pop-ups, borderline soft porn, auto-play etc) that even the tech-phobic are installing it now. Not that you’d tell the client that…
There are some interesting points here, but unfortunately Bob disconnected from reality with his first point:
“all sides of the political spectrum oppose erosion of privacy”.
Errr. Has he listened to the policies and statements of people like British PM Theresa May or our own Malcom Turnbull? Has he read about a guy called Edward Snowden? Has he noticed any decline in the use of online products that were implicated in this story of mass surveillance since it came out several years ago (I’m guessing he hasn’t)? And does he know who Cambridge Analytica (the company he quoted) is alleged to have helped get elected?
The truth is that politicians, broadly, love reducing privacy. And, in fact, they push corporations to do so. The EU has acted slightly differently and the GDPR is definitely likely to hot ad networks. However it’s hard to know whether the EU’s actions are truly driven by privacy concerns or just annoyance that most of the companies doing this stuff are American.
“it’s easy to say it’s coming, but it’s impossible to say when. It could be five months or five years. One thing I’m certain of, however, the current idiotic, wasteful and corrupt model is doomed”
Nothing like a statement that can never be disproven, Bob can you not see that this isn’t just an article about the problem, you are part of the problem with articles like this. Clickbait.
There are some very good points in this piece. Our pollies are so far behind the times with the free-for-all that is the internet and they really don’t seem to care. Trump’s mendacious use of it should be a wake-up call, but it seems to be viewed as a curiosity. Perhaps this is a case where Australia needs to watch and, perhaps, follow the EU rather than the US.
I’m not sure that digi-babies (really generation x,y and z – can’t we think of anything more descriptive of those born between a given period?) have anywhere near the same privacy concerns as us dinosaurs born in the last century. In fact our antiquated notions of keeping some things to ourselves are just simply passe, the foibles of a bygone era. They’ve grown up on a diet that’s constantly reinforced: transparency, share, like, expose – are all positive virtues and a fact of life.
Personally I doubt that unless advertising gets so in people’s faces, or the consequences of being tracked become so obviously harmful or detrimental to people’s social currency, that the fact advertisers can profile, track, stalk and sell to you will continue to be a reality that is voluntarily traded off for all the wonderful benefits that sharing your smashed avocado buffet breakfast brings.
Yet curiously its the digi-babies who are actually using software to protect themselves. We think the young are less concerned with privacy, but of course its this group which have pro-actively protected themselves whilst older (and possibly less tech savvy? I know its a stereotype but its seem accurate) generations have given away their data.