Yet, a various organizations and individuals have been creating challenges for the industry and expressing concerns over current marketing practices. Most recently, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the American Association of Advertising Agencies, and the Association of National Advertisers have teamed up to pressure the Coalition for Better Ads (CBA) to ramp up industry self regulation. According to Netimperative, the three organizations represent 2,400 brands, agencies, publishers, and technology companies. The CBA has influential members, including Google, Facebook, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever.
The organizations are seeking to curtail the use of eight mobile formats and four desktop ad formats that are “annoying, interruptive, or obstructive.” They want to fend off growing efforts by the general public and various technology providers to throw a wet towel on digital advertising.
For example, third-party ad blockers are growing in popularity. Indeed, more than 28% of American internet users have installed ad blockers, according to the Columbia Journalism Review. The three organizations are also concerned about other emerging technology challenges, including anti-tracking features found on Apple’s Safari 11 browser.
Other industry critics maintain that the digital marketing industry has failed to use creative approaches to develop alternatives to annoying ads. John Topolsky, the founder of Outline.com and a former Bloomberg web operations executive, maintains that digital advertising is still based on a style from newspapers. So reports the Business Insider.
Rather than find creative alternatives to advertisements shaped like boxes and rectangles, the industry has just increased the size of its promotional displays, he says. He maintains that many executives at big agencies are critical of banners and programmatic advertising. In the same article, Procter & Gamble Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard, who is well known for criticizing digital advertising, says the industry needs to find a solution to annoying ads and improve upon the ad experience for consumers.
Some publishers that have been critical of banner ads, including BuzzFeed, furthermore, have embraced the format, while Vox Media is now embracing programmatic advertising after having been critical of the technology. Unfortunately, past efforts to improve advertising have failed.
Project Devil, the Interactive Advertising Bureau's Rising Stars, the Online Publishers Association's Big Ads, and Brand.Net initiatives all sought to improve advertising, but their recommendations weren’t widely adopted and some of the programs have been canceled, according to Business Insider.
More recently, Google has released guidelines for what kind of ads are acceptable on Chrome, according to the Columbia Journalism Review. It has even published a report that identifies the LA Times and other publishers for using pop-up ads, which are not consistent with the guidelines. Other industry observers are critical of brands whose actions aren’t consistent with their marketing messages.
A recent Digiday article, for example, highlights State Street’s highly acclaimed Fearless Girl campaign that promotes equality for women and the company’s Gender Diversity Index fund. State Street, however, recently agreed to pay $5 million in response to allegations that it paid women and blacks less than white males. When agreeing to settlement, State Street denied any wrongdoing. The article strongly claims that the incident is “emblematic of a fraud problem in advertising.”
