More than 60 per cent of consumers are aware of several options for removing ad blockers, which signal a serious and growing threat to the digital advertising industry, a new Accenture report says.

Ad blockers are technological methods for automatically removing or altering advertising content such as videos, images, and text on a Web page. The blockers enable TV, smartphone, tablet and PC users to load video files more quickly, view more clean-looking Web pages, reduce bandwidth consumption, and increase their privacy by removing tracking and profiling systems of video advertising delivery platforms.

The survey of 28,000 consumers across 28 countries also finds that more than four in 10 (42 percent) said they would pay to eliminate ad interruptions.

“Ad blockers are a relatively new threat to the digital advertising industry,” said Gavin Mann, Accenture’s Global Broadcast Industry lead.

“Consumers are increasingly willing to pay for blockers because too many ads are poorly targeted. In today’s world of personalized content, being forced to watch an ad that has no relevance is a missed opportunity and feels increasingly intrusive on precious screen-time. In fact, simple avoidance of content associated with heavy and repetitive irrelevant advertising will increase as consumer choice and awareness of choice increases.”

The survey found that young consumers are especially aware of ad blockers compared with older age groups. More than two-thirds (69 percent) of those aged 18-to-24, and almost the same number (66 percent) of those between 25 and 34, said they know about ad-interruption technologies.

Awareness of ad-blocking methods is more prevalent among consumers in emerging than in developed markets. For instance, two-thirds (65 percent) of respondents in emerging-market countries said they know about ad-blockers compared with 58 percent in mature-market countries. Awareness of these technologies is especially high in Mexico, at 82 percent, whereas only 55 percent of consumers in the United Kingdom know about ad blockers.

Regionally, ad-blocker awareness is especially pervasive in Latin America (78 percent) and the Middle East (69 percent). In addition, consumers in emerging markets are significantly more likely than those in mature markets – 47 percent versus 34 percent – to say they plan to pay to expunge ad interruptions.

“There’s no point in following the music industry’s failed attempts at thwarting piracy,” Mann added. “It’s futile to focus all efforts on trying to outsmart ever-evolving ad-blocking technologies to force audiences to watch ads. The industry needs to do everything possible to make ads less of an infringement on precious screen time, by building on early successes that deliver targeted, relevant and entertaining ads – in a creative style appreciated by the individual.”

Accenture recommends that digital advertising organizations invest in user experience and user interface transformation, production studios, and post-production support resources and facilities.

Equipped with a wealth of operational and analytical technologies that can be applied to solve these business problems, advertising can deliver value-added creative capabilities and more robust customized services to consumers.

Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. – TradeArabia News Service