Tag: ad blocking

Meet Scott Schwanbeck, CEO of AAX

Posted on by AAX Team
On June 8th, AAX ushered in a new phase of growth by welcoming Scott Schwanbeck as CEO.

Scott, an industry veteran with over two decades of experience, has a history of building high-performance teams and overseeing significant business growth.

Scott Schwanbeck

Before joining AAX, Scott spent eight years as the EVP of Business Development at Yieldmo, closing commercial agreements with top 500 global publishers and facilitating significant expansion and growth. The previous years saw Schwanbeck in highly successful leadership roles at an array of companies including; Vizu (acquired by Nielsen), drop.io (acquired by Facebook), News Corp, and IGN Entertainment (acquired by News Corp).

And now, from his home base in New York, Scott will be leading the global AAX team, which spans three continents and multiple cities. To mark his sixth week as AAX chief executive officer we chatted with Scott about the past that shaped him, the experience of being a leader in this tumultuous time, and his plans and predictions for the future of AAX.

***

AAX: Welcome! Let’s start out with the basics: what drew you to AAX? 

Scott Schwanbeck: The digital advertising ecosystem has always required a balance between content owners, marketers and users in order to thrive. But currently the ecosystem is in need of some recalibration.

I joined AAX because I see an amazing opportunity to restore fair value between users who dislike intrusive and annoying browsing experiences, publishers that need to generate revenue for the content they create, and advertisers that want to reach a high-value audience.

Because that’s what AAX does: AAX works with ad blockers to gain access to consumers who have chosen to utilize an ad blocker but who have also opted-in to view ads that are not intrusive. Then, AAX offers these users to buyers looking to capitalize on an exclusive, high-value audience. We also provide a substantial revenue share to our publisher partners by monetizing an audience they were previously unable to reach.

 

AAX: You’ve been in the industry for 2+ decades, so it’s pretty hard to isolate one learning experience or lesson. But maybe you can share a few of them?

Scott Schwanbeck: Looking back, I can chart the beginning of my early career into digital media. In the mid-1990’s I moved to San Francisco to work with a major financial services client and I noticed that a few of my fellow employees had left to join these new “internet” companies.

It became an inescapable trend and I quickly decided I wanted to be part of it. I saw an interesting future in digital so I took a risk, leaving the path of more traditional media and becoming a pioneer in the internet space.

As far as lessons I’ve learned along the way? While it’s not possible to highlight one single lesson as the answer, there are a couple of important ones that come to mind.

One of these is growth. You have to always be looking for ways to grow; whether that’s growing revenue, developing your team, or working more closely with customers. Growth should always be top of mind.

And, in a similar vein to growth, you want to embrace evolution. You never want to become stagnant. It’s vital to always look for ways to evolve, solve new problems, make your product or solution easier to use, find new customers who didn’t know your company existed. And–a cool side benefit—evolution leads to growth.

And then, of course, there’s trust—which is invaluable. Employees want to work for companies and leadership teams they trust. Customers are more willing to buy products and services from people and companies they trust. Too often people forget how important trust is in business.

 

AAX: The phrase is now infamous: we’re living in unprecedented times. What is the most significant way that COVID-19 has impacted the industry, and how do you see it shaping its future?

Scott Schwanbeck: It goes without saying that these are challenging times for our entire industry. In Q2 we’ve watched publishers experience record breaking web traffic but at the same time have steep declines in total revenue. We’ve also watched the buy-side reduce and in some cases stop all marketing activities due to C19. And we still haven’t addressed the data challenges that regulation like GDPR and CCPA pose much less the loss of the cookie.

Having said that. I do think our industry will emerge stronger and once again thrive and survive starting in Q4.

The good news for AAX is that C19 didn’t have that big of an impact to our CPMs or revenue. We’re seeing explosive growth in the number of publishers that want to further monetize their audience. And we’re seeing more and more buyers spend to reach our unique audience.

 

AAX: And what about the future of AAX? What can you tell us about your short (and longer!) term plans?

Scott Schwanbeck: A few of my main goals as CEO include positioning AAX for the future, establishing market leadership, and accelerating growth.

Our growth has accelerated in 2020. Despite C19, we’re seeing significant interest from publishers, agencies, brand and programmatic platforms.

We also want to continue to change the discussion of ad blocking towards a meaningful dialogue around providing a better ad experience for users—which will help our entire industry thrive in the future. The users we reach don’t use ad blockers to remove all ads; these are users who are seeking a better and cleaner browsing experience.

We’ve now partnered with leading DSPs and SSPs to expose buyers to the savvy, highly educated digital spenders that are our audience.

And, of course, accelerating growth is part of the process. We’re expecting a good return to normal levels of spend, and a decent recovery in Q4 and 2021. It’s impossible to talk about the future of AAX without considering the industry as a whole—we think in terms of interconnectedness and sustainability—and we’re optimistic.

 

Acceptable Ads Exchange names Scott Schwanbeck CEO

Posted on by AAX Team

Industry Vet to Helm Leading Ad Blocking Recovery Exchange

Scott SchwanbeckNew York, NY, – June 30, 2020— Acceptable Ads Exchange (AAX), a leading ad exchange dedicated to recovering revenue lost to ad blockers, has named industry veteran, Scott Schwanbeck, chief executive officer. A proven leader with over two decades of media, tech and digital experience, Schwanbeck has an expansive history of building high-performance teams, driving forward-thinking strategies and growing revenue for publishers. 

“Media companies continue to be faced with the dual challenge of seeking fair value for their content, while ensuring a positive, less intrusive ad experience for their readers,” Schwanbeck said. “AAX has quickly established itself as a leader in this complex challenge and I’m honored to steer the company through the next phases of its evolution.”

Working directly with publishers of all sizes, AAX generates significant ad revenue from content, while still providing users – who choose to run an ad blocker – a cleaner ad experience.

Schwanbeck joins AAX from Yieldmo where, as executive vice president of business development, he played an integral role in transforming the company from a fledgling start up to a recognized industry leader. During his tenure, the company went from pre-revenue to a large, very profitable organization and counted many of the world’s largest and most prominent media companies as partners. Schwanbeck’s additional experience spans a diverse set of companies from early-stage start-ups to large corporations including Vizu (acquired by Nielsen), drop.io (acquired by Facebook) and IGN Entertainment (acquired by News Corp).

For more information please visit aaxmedia.staging.wpengine.com or email hello@www.aax.media.

About AAX

The Acceptable Ads Exchange (AAX) allows publishers, advertisers and users to benefit from a healthy, respectful and human ad ecosystem. We’re a programmatic ad exchange dedicated to serving a highly coveted audience of more than 200 million consumers that have consented to see the light, respectful ads designated as “acceptable” by the Acceptable Ads Committee’s criteria. The AAX  mission is to foster a new type of marketplace—an exchange capable of reaching ad-blocking users seeking an alternative ad experience— for consumers, while offering direct-to-publisher deals and working with premium demand-side sources.


What Harvard Business School says about Sizmek and the future of ad tech

Posted on by AAX Team

In March 2020, three scholars at Harvard Business School—Professor Ayelet Israeli, case researcher Sarah Gulick (Case Research & Writing Group), and independent researcher Danilo Tauro (industry expert)— prepared “Sizmek Chapter 11: Surviving Walled Gardens in Their Ad Tech Empire.“



The result is a profoundly insightful look into the ad tech industry in general and the Sizmek story in particular. We wanted to tease a few of the main discussion points in the case—while noting, of course, that we’re omitting a number of important, vital ideas and conclusions. Think of this post as a conversation starter, rather than a conversation summary.



The scope of “Sizmek Chapter 11: Surviving Walled Gardens in Their Ad Tech Empire” is vast, covering years of ad tech history, but we’re taking a particular look at what it says about the events of three generalized time frames…and what the Sizmek bankruptcy means for the ad tech industry at large.

The Past: Rise of the Walled Gardens & GDPR

In considering the rise and fall of Sizmek it’s important to go back and look at two issues that the ad tech industry knows well as massive, seismic shifts: the rise of the walled gardens (this case study is looking primarily at Google and Facebook) and GDPR.



This study examines how the two issues go hand in hand, paving the way for the bankruptcy of Sizmek and questions about the future of ad tech.



The term “walled garden” could easily be “fortress,” because of how strong the barriers are. Most media platforms allowed the ad tech ecosystem as a whole to access data concerning advertising, but the walled gardens didn’t. This had the effect of “making it difficult for third-party advertisers to collect their own data or leverage any types of data outside the walled garden.” (“Sizmek Chapter 11: Surviving Walled Gardens in Their Ad Tech Empire.”)



Not only that, but the walled gardens withheld user identification cookies, which adds an additional layer of brick between what was being used inside the walled gardens and what was being used everywhere else.



This already fraught environment was then intensified thanks to the General Data Protection Regulation. As Markus Plattner, Sizmek’s Chief Technology Officer, explains:



GDPR was meant in part to stop big companies from having access to everyone’s data, but it turns out that big companies are usually the only ones who can afford to comply with the regulation […] What happened instead was that data stopped being shared, so the walled garden companies had user data and could sell advertisements based on it, cutting out everyone else.



Sizmek  aimed, according to Sizmek CEO Mark Grether, to compete with the walled gardens by focusing on exemplary customer service and international knowledge. Sizmek’s range of services appealed to clients looking for piecemeal and bespoke projects, adding up to what Paul Wright, Sizmek’s general manager for Europe,  the Middle East, and Africa, called “a more personalized version of ad tech.”

The Present: Spring 2019 to Summer 2020

But by 2019, Sizmek still wasn’t profitable. And due to the fact that a personalized approach to ad tech had become significantly harder to achieve, faith that profitability could be achieved in a timely manner was shaken.



A main reason for this, according to “Sizmek Chapter 11: Surviving Walled Gardens in Their Ad Tech Empire,” is because, while “several years earlier, a DSP could earn a margin of 50% to 60% […] by spring 2019, DSP margins were often between 8% and 15%.”



When reflecting on Sizmek’s bankruptcy and what could have been done differently, a variety of opinions come forth. One probable issue is timing: many believe Sizmek could have become profitable if given a further six months.  Another potential hiccup could have been the slow pace of consolidation; if things had come together more quickly it’s possible that Sizmek could have picked up more smaller clients.



Peter Hunter, general manager of Sizmek in Asia, also suggested the issue was sticker shock, saying that there “was no way we were able to compete with [walled gardens] on that initial price—and there’s a constant pressure on price.”



Other possible reasons include user and viewing data, the DSP question, the focus of the business, and “Sizmek Chapter 11: Surviving Walled Gardens in Their Ad Tech Empire” investigates all these and more in great detail.

The Future: “The Evolution Of Our Industry Will Continue”

Sizmek filing for bankruptcy sent shock waves through the industry. As the case study puts it, “other small ad tech companies were disappointed in Sizmek’s bankruptcy, with the CTO of a rival company pointing out that the fall of Sizmek would further increase the industry share of walled garden companies.”



The general consensus pointed to a large-scale consolidation inside the industry, which creates after-shocks of pessimism. Some industry insiders suggested that independent ad tech would disappear entirely and the “big players” would be confronted, time and again, with privacy issues.



But others have significant optimism. According to Grether and Hunter, it’s still a vastly exciting time to be in ad tech, with the model set to be changed entirely by emerging technologies like the Internet of Things and driverless cars.



Grenther in particular believes we’re just getting started, saying, “In the future, consumers will have more marketable touchpoints. That’s not going to simplify advertising, it’s going to make it more complex […] as a result of that, some ad tech companies and agencies will survive, new ones will be created, and the evolution of our industry will continue.”



***



We wanted to recap some of the points from this important and fascinating case study, but there’s still a lot more to discover in “Sizmek Chapter 11: Surviving Walled Gardens in Their Ad Tech Empire.”



To get a copy, contact customerservice@harvardbusiness.org

What a new study from the New Jersey Institute Of Technology says about the engagement of ad blocking users

Posted on by AAX Team
To Be Or Not To Be…Tough or Soft

Ad blockers: the large, unmissable, revenue-depleting elephant in the room. Already pervasive globally, the use of ad blockers just keeps growing—resulting in the growing concern and financial pinch of ad-supported websites.

And by pinch we mean vice grip: one estimate places the “doomsday scenario” losses at $35 billion USD worldwide.

Right now, there are two main ways to tackle the issue of ad blockers. These popular counter-ad-blocking measures are what a new study, authored by scholars at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, refers to as “tough” and “soft.”

The “tough” strategy to combat ad blockers is also known as the “whitelist-or-leave” or “Wall” strategy. This involves a publisher website notifying ad blocking users that they need to either a) disable their ad blockers and whitelist the page or—and this is where the “whitelist-or-leave” moniker makes sense— b) the ad blocking user is forbidden from accessing the page.

And the “soft” strategy? To quote “To Be Tough Or Soft: Measuring The Impact of Counter-Ad-Blocking Strategies on User Engagement,” this involves:

“[…] show[ing] users acceptable ads, agreed upon with the ad blocking companies, which appear in the page even when an ad blocker is active. Acceptable ads are generally less annoying ads, such as text ads instead of video ads, and also fewer in number.”

But how do the tough and soft counter-ad blocking measures impact user behaviors? This is exactly what the scholars at NJIT, with the cooperation of Forbes Media, set out to observe.

“A Randomized Field Experiment”

This study is a first: although there have been other studies looking at the phenomenon of ad blocking, academic work has looked primarily on how to counter ad blockers, rather than the effect of countering ad blocking on the users themselves. The lone study that peered into the effects on ad blocking users weighed to the benefits of the “whitelist or leave” measures against…going ad free.

And that option is utopian, but hardly realistic.

So the trio of New Jersey Institute of Technology-based scholars (Shuai Zhao, Christian Borcea, and Yi Chen), along with Achir Kalra of Forbes Media set out to answer the following questions:

  • What are the overall effects of the “soft” strategy compared to the “tough” or “Wall” strategy? And what happens if the user decides to comply with the “tough/Wall” strategy and whitelist?
  • What happens when the user groups have different characteristics?
  • What are the long-term and short-term effects of the “tough” or “Wall” strategy?

The results create a composite that’s a useful, illuminating look into both counter- ad blocking strategies and the psychology of ad blocking users.

A Question of Overall Engagement

The study, which contained a dataset with 40,000 ad blocking users, varied across traffic, operating system, geographic area and other factors, led to one significant conclusion:

“Our study shows that the Wall strategy has an overall negative impact on user engagements.”

The “overall negative impact” is qualified, however. It’s true that extraordinarily loyal, highly engaged users aren’t as impacted by the Wall strategy because, in general, these users do whatever it takes to view page content. This is why the study goes on to say “we do not recommend the Wall [white-listing] strategy to publishers unless they have a large portion of loyal users.”

Which leads to another problem: very few publishers that have that “large portion of loyal users.” In fact, it’s a rarity.

Different Characteristics; Different Results

Unless the user base of the publisher is extraordinarily highly-engaged, and the content provided is unique and highly sticky, a publisher generally won’t get the kind of users that the New Jersey institute of Technology and Forbes deem sufficiency loyal.

According to “To Be Tough or Soft,”

“For low-engaged users, the Wall strategy has a large negative effect on pageviews […] since the majority of users are low-engaged users, the revenue of the publisher is expected to suffer a lot when using the Wall strategy.”

And it’s matter of reality that most publishers attract users that fall into the category of low-engagement<: the exact kind of users that the time-consuming process of whitelisting process works to deter.

And what about “middle-engaged users”? It turns out that they’re also deterred by the Wall strategy…not so much by the labor-intensive process of white listing, but by the presence of annoying ads after the white-listing process is complete.

(These annoying ads are notably absence from the “acceptable ads” experience. This is because the criteria that determine whether an ad is “acceptable,” as set forth by the independent Acceptable Ads Committee, are designed to make sure ads are “respectful, nonintrusive, and relevant.”)

Long-Term Vs. Short Term

If the deterrence of low-engagement users is significant in the short term, it becomes even more striking over a period of time. According to the study,

Quantitatively, we find that the Wall strategy causes a 20.5% increase of the visit duration gap. The reason is probably that the ad-blocker users feel disturbed when facing the Wall strategy, and they are less willing to come back.

Although loyal users faced with the Wall strategy are “likelier to whitelist gradually over time,” it becomes apparent that “the ad-blocker users who refuse to whitelist previously would probably not come back.”

In other words, the silence left in the wake of ad blocking user abandonment when faced with a whitelisting solution grows even more deafening over time…unless you’re one of the slim percentage of publishers to attract the kind of loyalty that can withstand an “all or nothing” Wall approach.

The Way Forward

For publishers that make up the percentage of the population that can honestly claim to have the kind of super-loyalty and tremendously sticky content that would motivate users to navigate a Wall strategy; if you’re not a member of this (small) club, a Wall strategy is going to create additional work.

Publishers will be forced to ponder the following question, posed in the final “Discussions” section of “To Be Tough Or Soft: Measuring The Impact of Counter-Ad-Blocking Strategies on User Engagement:”

If a publisher indeed wants to adopt the Wall strategy, the problem is how to convert casual users to high-engaged users, since casual users are more likely to leave forever when facing the Wall strategy.

There were no such questions, and no sort of additional problems, that arose in response “soft” solution created by the acceptable ads strategy. Low-engaged and medium-engaged users alike—the vast majority of ad blocking users across the globe—fare better with acceptable ads. These users are neither deterred by the labor-intensive process of white-listing or the intrusive ads that show up after the white-listing process.

So: to be tough, or to be soft? It turns out that a softer option is broadly effective, and that success via the “tough” white-listing strategy is…significantly tougher.

Webinar recap: revenue struggles (and monetization solutions) in the time of coronavirus

Posted on by AAX Team

On April 30th, we partnered with the folks over at AdMonsters to present a webinar. Our goal? To talk a little bit about the temptation for publishers to fall into old bad habits during the unprecedented time of COVID-19…and, more importantly, to provide a few answers, some optimism for the future, and one sustainable monetization solution.

AAX VP of Sales Tim Cronin helmed the discussion, with AdMonsters dynamo Gavin Dunaway acting as MC. We were lucky enough to be joined by two guest stars, Jayson Dubin, CEO and Founder of Playwire and Jason Tollestrup, VP Programmatic Strategy & Yield at the Washington Post.

The result of this conversation, which interspersed with thought-provoking questions from an audience drawn from all across of the adtech world, was a thorough investigation of what AdMonsters summarized as “re-engaging with the highly active, tech savvy and educated audience using ad blockers, while also examining what we can learn from ad blocking user behavior in building more user-friendly ad products and sustainable monetization strategies for a new digital media age.”

We’re going to recap some key takeaways for those of you who missed it, including some of the questions that came in from our audience.  And, if you’re looking for more than the highlight reel, you can view a video of the entire webinar “The Revenue Boost You Could Use Right Now—Ad Blocker Traffic.” Check it out:

Q: Why do you say that publishers are tempted to fall into bad habits during the era of COVID-19?

A: The real issue here isn’t the temptation—brought about because Q2 revenue is down 30-50% and there’s real need for new streams—but why we classify these habits as “bad.”

Inserting more ad slots into webpages in order to compensate for falling CPMs directly affects your user’s experience. In turn, more intrusive ad formats on webpages have a known effect of lowering fill rates and eCPMs even further. This results in a few dire outcomes, with the end result being publishers losing their audiences. When users feel their experience is being cannibalized, they tend to turn their attention elsewhere.

And, if you needed another reason, the resulting supply/demand imbalance is the driver of ad blocking. Which brings us to…

 

Q: Why are ad blocking users such an interesting demographic for marketers?

A: The ad blocking demographic makes up the most valuable 20% of users. These affluent, well-educated ad blocking users purchase more digital content than their non-ad blocking counterpart.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. AAX compiled a study examining ad blocking users’ behavior—including their habits of brand discovery, workplace roles, ambition, and loyalties— available for free here.

What’s more, research shows they don’t hate all ads, only the intrusive ones. That’s why ad blocking users are the cornerstone of the monetization strategy: the Acceptable Ads solution.

 

Q: What is the Acceptable Ads solution, exactly?

To quote a groundbreaking study from the New Jersey Institute of Technology called “To Be Tough or Soft, Measuring the Impact of Counter- Ad Blocking Strategies on User Engagement,” the Acceptable Ads strategy is one that:

[…] shows users acceptable ads, agreed upon with the ad blocking companies, which appear in the page even when an ad blocker is active. Acceptable ads are generally less annoying ads, such as text ads instead of video ads, and also fewer in number.

The criteria about what makes an ad “less annoying” are set forth by the Acceptable Ads Committee (AAC for short).

 

Q: What is the AAC, and how does it work?

The independent, third party Acceptable Ads Committee is divided into three “coalitions,” which represent diverse voices ranging from digital rights organizations to researchers, pubs and content creators to users. You can learn more about the details of the AAC here.

 

Q: How many Acceptable Ads users are there, and what percentage of ad blocking users are opted into the Acceptable Ads program?

AAX accesses about 200 million global ad blocking users through the Acceptable Ads program. This is partially because of a massive sea change: ad blocking has become ad filtering, keeping Acceptable Ads on.

With 90% of ad blocking users agreeing with the statement “I don’t hate all ads,” it’s important to realize that ad blocking users have the controls. When they’re using an ad blocker they have the capability of blocking all ads, but the vast majority (95% of consumers using Adblock Plus, for example) opt not to.

We believe that AAX represents a way for publishers to be the vanguard of positive user experience while monetizing a vast audience of premium users in a sustainable manner. Because AAX supports a balanced value exchange—prioritizing equally the interests of users, marketers, and content providers—we believe that ours is the most sustainable approach to ad blocking user monetization.

That’s one of the reasons we partnered with AdMonsters to present this webinar, and it’s why we’re offering the following:

Publishers who sign with us by May 31st, 2020, retain full revenue share for the first three months. We’ll waive our share, meaning publishers have 100% revenue share.

Interested? Contact us at sales@www.aax.media

What are some challenges facing the international ad market?

Posted on by 10404pwpadmin

On February 19th, the larger digital advertising world converged in Berlin. The occasion: the Adzine Adtrader Conference, an event that, for the last decade, acts as a platform for discourse on the most pertinent issues of the day, from transparency to privacy and everything in between.

The AAX Team was in attendance, spending the day listening, absorbing and contemplating the insights gleaned from prominent speakers.

The tone of the event was set early on, when Dennis Buchheim, Executive Vice President and General Manager of IAB Tech Lab gave his keynote lecture, titled “Current Challenges of the International Ad Market.”

Since the contents of this lecture informed so much of the discussions that took place during the rest of the Adzine Adtrader Conference, we wanted to encapsulate the main points of Dennis Buchheim’s talk.

“The amount of growth and innovation and growth we’ve seen in the digital media industry is pretty astounding, when you look at how much has changed in the last twenty-six years since the first ad was served, how much innovation has happened,” said Buchheim. But, he added, “with that has come some challenges.”

There are a number of issues to contend with, states Buchheim. He expands, saying that the aim of IAB Tech lab is to bring together participants on a global basis, to tackle a number of issues that, despite being challenging, also create their own opportunity.

The issues to be solved include:

  • Identity, data, and privacy
  • Brand safety and ad fraud
  • Ad experience and measurement
  • Programmatic effectiveness

But the #1 issue, the one weighing heavily on minds around the globe? That, asserts Buchheim, is privacy.

Buchheim suggests that there are three trends coming together in the issue of privacy. It’s not just an issue of consumer trends, although that’s certainly an issue. And it’s not just a matter of the political and legislative environment, although, as Buchheim says, that “really set a tone, we’re not in the good graces.” For Buchheim, the key new privacy challenge comes from browser and device developers. This is the center of much of the privacy-centered change now emerging.

And, according to Buchheim, it had “just a pervasive impact on what we do.”

The IAB Tech Lab, continues Buchheim, partnered with IAB Europe to grapple with one of the most pertinent issues in recent technological history: GDPR compliance. Creating the Transparency and Consent Framework enabled companies to become GDPR compliant—and, what’s more, facilitated dialogue including both political and tech voices.

This mission turned out to be broadly useful, says Buchheim. It was possible to take what was learned by partnering with IAB Europe and work with IAB US to grapple with the newly-created CCPA.

The Technology and Consent Framework issues a roadmap, titled “CCPA and Beyond,” that outlines three generalized steps in the process towards solution-finding: legal interpretation, policy requirements, and technical solutions.

It’s also imperative to grapple with browsers making changes and, more broadly, competing in the name of privacy. The impacts of these privacy-related changes include, according to Buchheim, ad relevance, measurements, attribution, and fraud.
So where do solutions and opportunity lie? For Buchheim, authenticated (or authenticated light) is the name of the game. This tops the continuum of addressability: executing an advertising use case with a consumer login or explicit ID is ideal.

In other words, Buchheim says, “That’s the realm of explicitly saying ‘This is who I am. I expect you to personalize for me. I expect you to do certain things with my data. I have agreed to that.”

“This is how we get from where we are to a better architecture for advertising,” continues Buchheim.

Of course, he says, this should all be extraordinarily privacy-sensitive. There should be clear practices laid out across different processes. Not only that, Buchheim says, “there should be a compliance program and an audit across those practices.”

And, naturally, transparency plays a key role in all of this. The future of digital media is bright, but it relies on an understanding of transparency as, to quote Buchheim, “a tool that enables verification, that leads to trust, that leads to better practices…that ultimately leads to better outcomes.”

AAX early spring forecast: Palm Desert –> Berlin –> Dubrovnik –> Santa Monica –> Vail

Posted on by 10404pwpadmin

The days are dark, the streets are icy, and our feet are cold. Winter still is very much a reality.

But it’s hard not to feel the promise of early spring when you’re planning for events in places as diverse and exciting as Palm Desert, California and Dubrovnik, Croatia.

The next few months see the AAX team crossing oceans and continents to talk about restoring the value exchange between publishers and ad blockers…as well as educating ourselves on trends and innovations and sharing insights.

  • Lastly, we’ll be in Vail, Colorado from March 25-27 to attend another Digiday event: the Publishing Summit.

If you’re planning on attending any of these events, we’d love to chat! Reach out: contact us to set up a meeting. We’re available and happy to discuss sustainable publisher monetization options.

And we’re already busy planning our schedule for April and beyond. Stay tuned for what we have planned—follow us on Twitter @AAXMedia.

Behind the decision-making power of ad blocking users

Posted on by 10404pwpadmin

This demographic has some serious clout when it comes to choosing the rules of the game.

Ad blocking users are independent thinkers. They don’t shy away from making decisions, from the decision to use an ad blocker in the first place, to the decision to enthusiastically purchase digital content, or even to the decision to opt for Red Bull rather than red wine.

Our study “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Ad Blocking Users,” gleaned from consulting the data treasure trove at the GlobalWebIndex (GWI), touches upon all of these and more. ( The study is currently available for free download.)

But there was some data that simply couldn’t fit into the study, including a illuminating glimpse into the roles ad blocking users choose to fill in the workplace.

And—no surprises here—those roles tend to be heavily associated with decision-making.

Ad Blocking Users At Work

When the GWI polled various ad blocking users about their career profile,56% described themselves as “purchasers.”

Although purchasers exist in myriad fields—science, art, education, business—the foundation of purchasing remains similar. This is a demanding, intellectually stimulating job requiring both leadership capability and strong autonomy…as well as the ability to make well-informed, forward-thinking decisions.

Or, as one description puts it, purchasing “is a glamorous, powerful job in many respects. But the glitter and glitz cloud the hard work and keen intellect required to make it in this competitive field.” ( Source)

Professional Decision-Makers

How important is decision-making in the professional life of an ad blocking user?

So important that 53% of ad blocking users use the term “decision-maker” to summarize their job description…and 54.9% use the term “senior decision-maker.”

These positions have a definite and invaluable part in crafting the course of the organization. From strategy to research to review, decision-makers lead through a combination of hard work and rigorous thought.

Studies show that the process that leads to a decision is as valuable and integral to organizational health as the decision itself. As Ann Latham writes inForbes,“Because there are so many decisions and because they are literal forks in the road with dramatic impact on results, costs, time, feelings, and relationships, how you make decisions is extremely important.”

This underlines the fact that decision-making is a process rather than an event, and decision-makers and senior decision-makers alike confront systems and projects rather than single executive acts.

In other words? Decision-making is a marathon, not a 100-yard dash.

Operating Model

The last segment of polled ad blocking users? The54% that define their job as “operations.”

But don’t let the absence of “decision” in the title fool you: people who work in operations are busy making decisions about everything from improving customer relations to resolving inefficiency.

People who work in operations are in charge of making sure the ecosystem of a business place not only runs smoothly, but also…runs. Period. It’s a job that requires taking on an extremely heavy decision-making load, and then proceeding with approximately one million discrete tasks at once without breaking a sweat.

The Upshot

During the project of compiling and analyzing the data from GlobalWebIndex, we’ve stumbled upon some surprising facts about ad blocking users. (Did you know they have a thing for motorsports?)

But we have to say, learning that ad blocking users gravitate towards demanding, decision-intense jobs isn’t so much of a shock. After all, we already knew this demographic is youthful, ambitious, well-educated, tech savvy… and generally fascinating.

That’s why we compiled an entire study on them.

How to capture the interest of ad blocking users

Posted on by 10404pwpadmin

Ad blocking users are considered one of the keys in strengthening and revitalizing the ad ecosystem. After all, this is a group that bends the rules of brand discovery, prioritizes being well-informed, and understands the issues surrounding privacy.

Our study “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Ad Blocking Users,” gleaned from consulting the data treasure trove at the GlobalWebIndex (GWI), touches upon all of these and more—you can check out the study, which is available for free download.

We limited the scope of our study to touch upon some of the most pertinent, surprising, and weird facts about ad blocking users (did you know they have a thing for energy drinks and motorsports?) but there was some fascinating data that simply couldn’t make it’s way into our report.

That’s why we wanted to talk about that extra data now.

An Overwhelmingly Curious Demographic

One of the fascinating extra categories that ad blocking users were queried on has to do with how they relate to the wider world. And, unsurprisingly for an overwhelmingly curious demographic, the respondents were eager to learn and experience.

For example, 76.6% agreed with the statement “It is important to stay in touch with what is going on in the world.”

In other words, more than three out of four ad blocking users keep up with current events. They take the time to find out what’s happening in the world—a habit that can have major benefits.

Jeff Wilser reports that a healthy pattern of checking the news can enhance everything from your social life to your bank balance, writing “Guys who excel at work generally have an excellent grasp of current events,” says executive coach Bruce Tulgan, of RainmakerThinking—i.e., a smart company will promote an informed, intellectually curious employee over a clueless dullard any day.”

Unsurprisingly, the ad blocking demographic also overwhelmingly agrees with the statement “I am interested in other cultures and countries.” This interest also has noted benefits, both personally and economically. The 72.2% that claim interest in other cultures and countries are probably more likely to land a good job, especially if they begin cross-cultural encounters early.

According to the The Guardian:

Global awareness and international collaboration during the formative years results in more rounded individuals, encouraging our pupils to see things from different perspectives and helping them to make informed decisions, acquiring transferable skills that will be useful to them and will remain with them for life. According to the Association of Graduate Recruiters companies cannot find enough applicants with the requisite skills to operate in an international market place, indicating that greater efforts by schools in fostering global awareness and international collaboration are needed to best prepare our students – and ourselves – for life in the 21st century. (Source)

Ad blocking users aren’t just armchair explorers satisfying their curiosity at the click of a cursor, however. They also like to live in highly stimulating environments that push them to learn and grow.

  • 72.1% agree with the statement “I like to be surrounded by different people, cultures, ideas, and lifestyles”
  • 70.6% agree with the statement “I like to explore the world around me”

If the advantages to curiosity about current events and other cultures is notable, then the benefits of existing in a multicultural, exploratory environment are newsworthy—especially when it comes to careers and business.

Forbes reports that multicultural, diverse businesses produce 19% more revenue. The reasons for this revenue boost are myriad.

[…] diversity is not just a metric to be strived for, it is actually an integral part of a successful revenue generating business. Of course, this makes sense because diversity means diversity of minds, ideas, and approaches — which allows teams to find a solution that takes into account multiple angles the problem, thus making the solution stronger, well rounded and optimized. Therefore, diversity is key for company’s bottom line.

Ad blocking users exist within the arena of diversity—their day-to-day embraces the “diversity of minds, ideas, and approaches” that it takes to augment that bottom line.

It seems like this dynamic demographic, with its curiosity, diversity, and approach to staying well-informed, might just have figured out the roadmap to success.

Why is this demographic the key to a healthy ad ecosystem?

Posted on by 10404pwpadmin

When it comes to strengthening the ad ecosystem, there’s one group of individuals that makes all the difference

We’re talking about ad blocking users, defined by the GlobalWebIndex (GWI) as those people who have an ad blocker installed on their device.This is a demographic that leads the pack in terms of early adoption, curiosity, and digital fluency

The AAX team combed through the treasure trove of data that the GWI keeps on internet behavior, looking to discover what makes the ad blocking demographic so special

And we learned a lot.Enough to build into a comprehensive report that covers everything from ad blocking users’ privacy concerns to brand discovery to favorite beverage.

If you’re curious about ad blocking users and how they’re shaping the future of the ad ecosystem, check out our free report, titled “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Ad Blocking Users.”