What Happened
The ad-blocking wars are exacerbated as ad-blocking startup Shine announced a new partnership with Three Group, a British wireless carrier that also operates a network in Italy, to block in-app and mobile browser ads at the network level. This marks the first entry of the Israeli-based ad-blocking company in European market, after it signed with Caribbean telecom service provider Digicel last year. Currently, Shine does not offer a way for ad platforms or publishers to pay to gain access to a whitelist.
What Brands Need To Do
It goes without saying that, if popularized, ad-blocking at a network level would be quite devastating to the mobile advertising industry, as well as the brands that rely on reaching customers via mobile platforms. For now, it remains to be seen if more carriers would partner with Shine and adopt ad-blocking at the network level to appeal to consumers’ increasing frustration with mobile ads. Nevertheless, brands need to be pre-emptive in the fight against ad avoidance by developing new communications strategies and try to reach customers via sponsorships and branded content instead.
For more information on how brands can fight the increasing usage of ad-blockers, check out the Ad Avoidance section in our Outlook 2016.
Sources: Ad Exchange