Dive Brief:
- Ad tech startup Free All Media is getting past ad blocking tech with iframe coding in publishers’ content management systems.
- It sees interactivity, such as sweepstakes with a call-to-action to provide an email address, as a long-term cure for user fatigue that has led to the current state of ad blocking adoption.
- Free All Media’s ads are seen as regular content by ad blocking software allowing them to be viewed by website visitors.
Dive Insight:
In the cat-and-mouse game of ad blocking technology and ad tech firms hoping to get their ads in front of viewers, startup company Free All Media thinks it has a winning combination of coding and content to get digital ads served to actual viewers. Free All Media’s concept is turning ads into interactive content that requires action on the part of the viewer, such as entering an email address or receiving a coupon.
Brian McCourt, Free All Media's CEO and founder, told Adweek, "Ad buyers are saying, 'Impressions are not enough. We focus on [solving] fatigue and inundation of ads."
Realistically Free All Media’s coding workarounds aren’t likely to thwart ad blocking tech creators, and disguising advertising as content is not providing the end users with an authentic experience. Overall marketers are better served understanding ad blocking is growing. According to PageFair and Adobe up 41% in 2015 as of June, and likely even higher now that ad blocking technology has received so much media attention. The advertising community also needs to pay attention to the path to long-term success that has been laid out by the IAB and the World Federation of Advertisers: user experience should supersede revenue goals.