What Happened
Shine, an ad blocker that operates on carrier network level, is reportedly looking to charge brands for showing ads on those networks. The company has hired its first Chief Revenue Officer as it seeks to introduce a new feature that charges brands and agencies for letting their ads be seen on sites and apps. Shine has already struck deals with Caribbean carrier Digicel and Europe’s Three Group to wipe out all mobile ads for about 100 million phone subscribers by default unless they opt in to see ads.
What Brands Need To Do
While it remains to be seen if Shine will be picked up by more carriers and how much damage it may cause, it seems likely that this paid-whitelisting approach would make a dent in regional ad buyers’ digital budgets. As we pointed out in our previous write-ups about Shine, when it comes to dealing with the rise of ad blockers, brands need to be pre-emptive by developing new communications strategies and try to reach customers via sponsorships and branded content instead. Also, since Shine’s software won’t affect in-feed ads on social networks, brands may consider increasing their social ad spend.
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: AdWeek