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'The Future of Advertising is Fewer, Better Ads' (recode.net)

For more than a decade, the online advertising world has been dominated by "display ads," served up to consumers alongside web content, search results or social media posts. But they're not the only game in town, one digital ad exec says. From a report: "I think the advertising world going forward is going to be filled with fewer, better ads," Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer said on the latest episode of Recode Media. "The display advertising market is going to crater. By giving away stuff for free for so long, we've created an ad economy that is bigger than it should be," he added. Schafer says there's a untapped value in "nonstandard" ads, meaning branded content and other forms of advertising on platforms such as Snapchat, Musical.ly, WeHeartIt and Imgur.

47 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. When pigs fly... by moosehooey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah, sure. I'll believe it when I see it.

    1. Re:When pigs fly... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yep, AdBlock shows this page only had 32 ads blocked!

    2. Re:When pigs fly... by KiloByte · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well, most of us already see good ads. And the only good ad is one that takes 0x0 on the screen and no network requests.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    3. Re:When pigs fly... by houstonbofh · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I think the point is that you do not see it. Between ad blockers and just training yourself to ignore the distractions, ads have little to no meaning now, and advertisers are recognising it. The first reaction (force people to whitelist) is having little to no effect, and so advertising has to change. And if it becomes less obnoxious, people might actually start noticing them again.

    4. Re:When pigs fly... by npslider · · Score: 4, Funny

      Have you ever wished for flying bacon? Of course you have!

      Well folks, your dreams have now become a reality. For the low low price of just $19.95 you too can have your very own flying pigs!

      Yes, you heard right! Not just one pig, not two, but a whole flock of flying pigs! And if you act now, we will throw in a free dozen eggs. Finally the means to have a quick, and delicious breakfast, brunch, or dinner!

      *Wings sold separate, many restrictions apply, not available in any state that does eat meat, considered harmful while flying in the state of California, and subject to the laws of most third word countries.

    5. Re:When pigs fly... by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      I'm fairly sure if you start putting subtle ad elements into the stuff people are watching, people will make a drinking game out of "spot the product placement".

      Hell, you'll even get some YouTube channels doing nothing but videos about "5 product placements you surely missed in (show)".

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    6. Re:When pigs fly... by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Funny

      Great. Now I'm hungry and you sure as hell don't deliver to Europe. Typical. Great promises and then "only valid in US and Canada", right?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    7. Re:When pigs fly... by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Often, ignoring is the best case for them. There are several companies that I won't do business with because their ads make me barf.

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
    8. Re:When pigs fly... by npslider · · Score: 4, Funny

      Not valid in Canada. These are Great American Pigs, made and sold in the USA.

      Make Bacon great again!

      If you want your own bacon, you need to stop expecting America to do it for you, and tell your free-loading government to pick up the cost!

      Yes, I kid... I had coffee and am feeling like a smart aleck today. ;)

    9. Re:When pigs fly... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If there was some easy, anonymous way to support sites as an alternative to advertising I'd be happy to use it. Maybe there could be a browser plugin that tracks usage of sites that accept that form of payment (all data stored locally) and at the end of the month shows some stats and allows me to distribute my budgeted amount fairly with a couple of clicks.

      Sadly no-one has come up with a good way to do microtransactions. Crypto currencies are getting there, but the hassle of exchanging with fiat currency is probably enough to put most people off.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    10. Re:When pigs fly... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      The point is that zero ads is the best number of ads! I block ads in my browser. There are just too many, and they are too annoying (and headache inducing!) to not block them. Sites that request to be white-listed in my ad blocker, or that won't let me see content without white-listing or disabling my ad blocker, never get visited again, if I even bother to remember them! I just go elsewhere.

      I didn't always block ads online. I have been using computers since the DOS 3.3 days, since before the Internet was available to the average person and we had Bulletin Board Systems. Since the only way to access the internet was dial-up. I only started blocking ads when they became really annoying. Flashing red and yellow ads, pop-ups that covered content, auto-playing video ads etc... And when there started being more ads than content on far too many web pages!

      And I "cut the cord" years ago, dropping ad-infested cable TV for streaming services that not only cost literally 1/10th of what cable TV costs today, but have no ads. Advertisers have so annoyed many of us that there is no going back! The only ads that would (maybe!) be acceptable to me would be small, static ads that are directly related to the content of the page that they are displayed on, with maybe 1 ad per page, and not splitting one page worth of text into several pages to display more ads.

      If there are new, innovative, worthwhile products out there, I will find out about them eventually. But most of the stuff being pushed the hardest is crap that I will never want and don't need (IoT crap etc...)

    11. Re:When pigs fly... by Opportunist · · Score: 3

      In a comedy this can actually be used to comedic effect. Why not? Why not even have a character complain about it? "Oh c'mon, you sponsored by Subway or what?" "Yeah (munching) Why you asking?"

      If done right, it could even be good for a laugh.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    12. Re:When pigs fly... by tepples · · Score: 4, Funny

      the only good ad is one that takes 0x0 on the screen and no network requests.

      Not everybody agrees with this claim. Imagine doing a web search, but when you visit each of the top several results, you

      Subscribers can read the rest of this comment

    13. Re:When pigs fly... by Aighearach · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If they include a store on the site and sell branded items useful to visitors, lots of people will buy them just to support the site. You don't have to try to replicate or distribute the advertising payment model in order to find alternatives.

    14. Re:When pigs fly... by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 2

      Fewer ads,
      Better ads.
      Ads are saved.
      Burma Shave.

      --
      Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
  2. Native ads by DogDude · · Score: 2

    The future is media companies going back to having advertising salespeople, and dumping all of these stupid ad networks.

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.
  3. The Following Slashdot Post... by npslider · · Score: 2

    The Following Slashdot Post is sponsored by Apple. And now a brief special video, narrated by Sir Jony Ive:

    (5 minute Apple Quality ad)

    We now return to your Post: "Apple still has way more money than it knows what to do with, and that's OK!"

    1. Re:The Following Slashdot Post... by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 2

      Just a regular day on /. then.

  4. Re:Seriously? by gnick · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Advertising isn't about what you need. It's about what you can be persuaded to buy. "Need" doesn't factor in.

    --
    He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
  5. It is clutter not advertising by jonsmirl · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My adblock current reports having blocked 1.6M ads -- 1.6 million! No one looks at 1.6M ads, they are just clutter.

    I loaded my RSS feed yesterday. 1,200 ads blocked from a single use of my RSS reader. No one looks at 1,200 ads from a single use of an RSS feed. These ads are just clutter to be ignored and blocked.

    And I truly hate autoroll video ads with sound. Good way to guarantee I will never buy your product.

    1. Re:It is clutter not advertising by Solandri · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Have you looked at a newspaper? They're also filled with thousands of ads. No single reader will look at all thousand. What the advertisers are counting on are the one in a thousand readers who sees their ad.

      I agree with you and TFA though that this is a terrible and inefficient way to do it. Unfortunately, the better way to do it - fewer but targeted ads tailored to better suit your interests and needs - is vehemently opposed by the pro-privacy crowd. The more accurately they can target the ads to you, the more people oppose it as a bigger invasion of their privacy. There's a solution in here somewhere, we just have to find it. (Maybe prohibit collecting and selling of profile info, but allow a user to generate/reset his/her own profile. Advertisers are then allowed to read that profile and present an appropriate ad.)

    2. Re:It is clutter not advertising by omnichad · · Score: 3

      Every time I've tried without one I get redirected to some crap site.

      Don't use ad-blocker in place of cleaning up the malware on your computer. I've never been redirected.

    3. Re:It is clutter not advertising by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      The ads in newspapers are heavily regulated and can't be animated or noisy.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:It is clutter not advertising by The-Ixian · · Score: 2

      I was going to chime in with exactly this.

      You have to be careful these days. There absolutely exists ad network deployed malware which will attempt to log in to your home router using default credentials in order to upload custom firmware or change stuff like DNS settings.

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
  6. Here's the problem to solve... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 4, Insightful
    From TFA:

    ...“There is a lot of audience that’s spread out on places that are not [Facebook and Google], especially younger audiences,” he said. “As audiences get younger, it’s becoming increasingly harder to reach them where everybody else is able to get reached.”...

    That's it. That is all the mention of the recipients (aptly a.k.a, "targets") of the advertising. The advertising industry hasn't a clue what the targets of the advertising want with advertising, nor do they seem to care.

    .
    The advertising industry seems to think that so long as advertising is presented, it is welcomed. That is wrong, just wrong, on so many levels.

    Until the advertising industry fixes that major and fundamental problem with their industry, advertising will be unwelcome.

    1. Re:Here's the problem to solve... by ausekilis · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The funny part is some of the best places survive on next to no advertising budget. Costco is a prime example of a company that is incredibly popular and doesn't spend money on advertising (well, outside of their coupon mailers to their members).

      How do they do it? They have competitive pricing, great customer service (return policy, friendly staff, etc...), they follow all distribution rules (they self-check all of their meat before it's put out on shelves), and they take care of their employees. Every Costco I've been to has been stupidly busy during rush hour and all-day Saturday.

      Word of mouth and customer good will can go a very long way.

  7. Re:We don't need ads by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The McRib is a classic example of something that is really popular, but limited term item on the menu. It is that way on purpose, because scarcity creates a subconscious desire. I know people who do not eat at McD's at all, except when McRib is out. Then they eat there all the time, not just for McRib. It is really weird when you think about it.

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
  8. Food ads okay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    Personally, my family relies on ads from our local grocers to help us stay on budget. So some ads are okay.

    1. Re:Food ads okay by npslider · · Score: 2

      Let's face it... the future of noodle ads is dice-cut vegetables! ;)

  9. Re:Seriously? by omnichad · · Score: 2

    This is why "well-known" brands get to price gouge. People assume there's nothing cheaper (or better for the same price) and just follow the same habits. Competition is good, overall. And competition requires some amount of advertising.

    Look at how many people using iPhones on AT&T. AT&T is the default choice for those over a certain age, but it's by far the most expensive mainstream carrier.

  10. There is two ways ads can survive by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Entertainment and information is what people want. Until now, ads invariably did one thing: Interrupt our access to entertainment and information. And guess what: People don't like that.

    Your key to getting your ads not only seen but actually associated with something good and something people want is to tie your ads into entertainment and information. Don't interrupt it, accompany it. Red Bull has really understood that. Know that Red Bull Air Race? Some crazy people flying around at breakneck speed and giving the onlookers the thrill of their life. And everyone knows that it's Red Bull that makes this thrill possible. That's cool! That's what people want! And they associate that sugar water with daredevil action and having a good time.

    Have you ever seen a Red Bull ad? I haven't in the past 10 years.

    So sponsor entertainment! It needn't be something huge, go and see what YouTubers have tons of followers and ponder how you can become part of their show. Note, this is important: DO NOT get them to endorse your product, YOUR PRODUCT has to become part of their show. It has to be part of the "cool". But, and this is also again important, it must not take over the show. Else that Youtuber is considered a sellout and his followers will leave. Your job is to find out how your product fits into his routine and your product must not break his routine, for that's why people are watching him!

    If you prefer something more "serious", try to sponsor something closer to documentaries. That is a mostly uncharted land and I really wonder why. Because people doing serious documentaries are usually considered credible and trustworthy by their viewers, so why not use them for your product? Again, the product has to match the person, the style and the documentary (it's kinda pointless to have an archaeologist drink a cup of coffee from fine porcelain on a digging site, but he could hold a cup whenever he's talking to the camera and take a sip whenever he's in the picture but not talking while showing some ruins or something). And again, subtlety is key. People love finding stuff out themselves. Let them! Maybe even make it some sort of game.

    That's where you can thrive. And people will actually love you and your product for it instead of considering you an invasive nuisance. Because yes, you can force us to endure your ads. But you cannot make us watch. And you cannot force us to like something that we consider obnoxious and invasive because it interrupts what we're looking for: Entertainment and Information. Become part of that entertainment and information and we'll actually love you. And your product.

    And we buy what we love.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  11. Re:We don't need ads by TWX · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's limited in part because McDonalds only offers it when the price of pork has fallen below a certain threshold. They've intentionally built up this mystique around it to further increase profitability when it is available.

    Disney has used a similar technique for different reasons through the years when it comes to releasing their films on home-media formats. They do large "limited" batch runs of their movies and market "for a limited time only!" to try to drive additional sales. In-fact if you look at their history, you'll find that even if a particular title is pressed for only a finite amount of time, they stop production when demand drops, not based on some pre-chosen timetable, and most of their popular titles have been released on every popular consumer format. You'll find VHS, DVD, and Blu-Ray, and for some titles you'll even find Betamax, CED, and HD-DVD before those formats went stale. In reality they produce a title until the market won't bear it any longer then they stop, so that those who didn't get on the bandwagon with a particular format and lament that will do so next time around, and everyone else will re-buy what they already have in the new format as well.

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  12. FTFY by tomhath · · Score: 2

    The advertising industry seems to think that so long as advertising is presented, it is welcomed.

    The advertising industry thinks that so long as they get paid, all is well.

    Businesses need to wake up, they're being scammed by the sellers of advertising space

  13. Re:Seriously? by freeze128 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Pay close attention to Car commercials on TV... everyday cars like Ford, Chevy, etc., will try to sell you on their specs (value, toughness, awards won), but high end luxury cars (Lexus, BMW) try to sell you on a FEELING. The feeling you get driving it. The feeling you get just sitting in it. It's completely subjective and unable to be measured.

    Know any computer manufacturers that use that technique? (Apple)

  14. Re:Seriously? by npslider · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Apple is no longer a BMW... but rather a 3 year Ford design marketed as "new" with a different color paint job, and a custom multi touch shiftier.

  15. Advertising is staying - thank goodness by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 2

    As long as those advertising clowns believe that advertising is going to earn a them an extra few, clueless customers, advertising will be staying. That is a good thing for those of us who use ad blockers - we won't see their stupid ads, but those stupid ads will carry on paying for things. Since there will always be clueless customers, and since the advertising clowns will always have the suspicion that advertising captures such morons, advertising will stay. And we won't see the ads. Things are good.

  16. Best ads: the 3 Bs by cellocgw · · Score: 2

    Joe Bob Briggs had it locked for movie quality . For quality ads, I say skip the bodies and beasts.

    --
    https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
  17. Re:We don't need ads by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

    The McRib is available when the price of pork is low. You aren't getting premium meat in there and they aren't willing to raise the price. The scarcity angle is just a positive side-effect.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  18. How to have better ads by taustin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1. Do not serve malware. Ever. No matter what it takes. If you have to have an actual human being (who isn't a moron) personally review every single ad every single time it is served to prevent malware, that is what you have to do. If you cannot achieve this, close your doors and get a real job.

    2. Do not serve ads that contain so much a) animation or b) scripting that they slow down the browser to the point it is unusable. Or that it crashes. Ever. If you cannot achieve this, close your doors and get a real job.

    3. Do no serve ads that use more bandwidth than the web page they're embedded in by two or three orders of magnitude. Ever. If you cannot achieve this, close your doors and get a real job.

    4. Do not serve popup or popunder ads, or ads that load any additional windows of any kind. Ever. If you cannot achieve this, close your doors and get a real job.

    5. Do no serve ads that float on top of content, and do no rescale when I zoom in my browser because the web designer doesn't believe in using integer values for font sizes. It makes it literally impossible to read the content. Just do not do this. Ever. If you cannot achieve this, close your doors and get a real job.

    6. Do no serve ads that cover more than 25% of the screen that is visible when the page initially loads. Ever. If you cannot achieve this, close your doors and get a real job.

    7. Stop blaming your victims when you can't make a living because you refuse to do any, much less all, of these things. It is your fault you can't make your boat payment, because you are stupid, dishonest, and lazy. You deserve to live in a cardboard box, and have no choice but to eat your own home for food.

    1. Re:How to have better ads by Quirkz · · Score: 2

      You forgot, 8) don't play sound, ever, without the viewer's explicit okay.

  19. Commercials are getting better. by NoSalt · · Score: 2

    Used to, I absolutely hated commercials; I still do to a large degree. However, many advertisers are getting better, and there are, actually, some commercials that I enjoy watching.

  20. Re:Seriously? by istartedi · · Score: 2

    While basic essentials like food, water, etc. don't need to be advertised, other things do. How did I find out about the C-64? A commercial. Was it a need? At the time we didn't think so; but looking back, it was. I don't know where I'd be if we didn't have one. Dead? No; but with much fewer interesting things in life. Now in the modern era, kids are playing with things like Rasberry Pi boards and stuff. How do they find out about it? Sites like this? And when some start-up pitches a product like that on this site, what do people say? "Slashvertisement". A product placement or startup interview isn't an "ad" in the traditional sense; but it serves the same purpose.

    As much as we might hate to admit it, some level of advertisement is necessary.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  21. Re:Seriously? by Aighearach · · Score: 3, Interesting

    When they measure the responses, even though people respond differently after seeing the ad those people don't believe it is because of the ad. They will almost always be able to identify better-sounding reasons. That's actually the whole point, and why the advertising is typically so stupid. If it was a logical response they were targeting the ads would look very different.

  22. No. Not at all. by emaname · · Score: 2

    My experience is that the advertising industry has inserted itself into the relationship between the customer and the supplier. Coming from a rural community, this was what I saw. My parents and grandparents were farmers. They didn't buy anything until they *needed* it. I can't emphasize the word *needed* enough. We were not flush with cash so many times we just made do with what we had.

    On the rare occasion one of us would actually intend to purchase something, we would go to the local feed store or grocery store and ask questions of the owners or the other customers. Back in those days, that's how it worked. There was such a thing as a community. People who lived and worked close together. They also had the tendency to look out for one another and help one another. So that's where you got your product info. Not from some "jacked up" "insanely enthusiastic" huckster. These neighbors and store owners were the early version of Consumers' Reports." If a product was good, you found out about it. And once you found out about it you... and this is KEY... looked for it because *you were interested* in it. You didn't buy it because some person on amphetamines was pitching it.

    Okay, sorry for the rant, but the point is there has to be a desire for a product before the chance of a purchase exists. Just because a manufacturer decides to flood the freakin" society in every conceivable form and fashion with their exaggerated claims and "in your face" effects does not mean their product will sell any more.

    So here's my advice to manufacturers. Make a good product and sell it at a reasonable price. You'll probably find that people will buy it and like it and you'll develop a reputation for having a good product at a reasonable price. Then tell the advertising hucksters to go pack sand. If you have a good marketing department you won't need much advertising. And if your product/service is good, you won't need to lie your ass off to sell it.

    So AFAIC, you advertising people and just STFU. If and when I want your product and if I find out it's worthwhile, I'll come looking for it.

    --
    An effective "democracy" creates the illusion the people have a say in their government.
  23. Re:Once the majority of sites demand whitelisting by mrchaotica · · Score: 3, Informative

    In theory, you could use YaCy and adjust the algorithm yourself. Self-hosting my search is still on my "to-do" list (not my "done" list), though.

    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  24. Not in a million years ... by gordguide · · Score: 2

    Advertisers who choose quality over lowest common denominator? Never going to happen. If that industry had any ... and I mean any ... ethics, there would not be late night ads for copper pots on TV. Or anywhere. There would be no way to get fake Viagra; you'd have to get the real thing from a real pharmacy with a real prescription from a real doctor. And the web would not have driven people into ad blockers in the first place.

    Let's not forget, Hosts files have been around for ... I don't even remember when I installed one for the first time, but it was around the time you could get broadband instead of dialup for the first time. So let's say 25 years. Probably longer, but I can only talk of my own experience.

    Yet, few people actually installed them. It was the banal drivel wallpapering every website on the planet that drove ordinary people to seek out simple browser add-ons that kill ads. And it was the demand for those plugins that got developers to build them in the first place. The industry has no-one to blame but themselves.

    And now we get this "it wasn't us, it was the other guy" plea from them to please let them serve us ads. Pretty please. We're sorry.

    Well, they're sorry all right, but not in the meaning they intended.

  25. Re:For the best possible hosts file? by Coren22 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Maybe we just need a mod for spam. Then we can identify the spammers, and they might be filtered out to not be able to post anymore. What do you think about Ads for hosts file engines, and how we go about blocking such ads that are both offtopic and misplaced?

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?