Search Ad, Feed Ad, Pause Ad, Swipe Ad, Download Screen Ad, ADS!
I’ll say it
Ads Are Everywhere! Every Where!
We are used bus stop ads, ads at the cinema, mutiple ads in podcasts, ads on TV and radio and more recently ads when we search keywords in a search box, but recently it went a few levels deeper…
While watching our favourite YouTube video and having numerous ads inserted inside (without that premium subscription)
When we are scrolling our social media site of choice we see ads about something we have just spoken about (it doesn’t really happen but it seems that way)
You finally receive that order from our favourite shop online and then you open the box and 4 leaflets fall out & go into recycling
You are on the way to an interview and you make that recommended turn and there’s an ad for the local lunch spot and burger place right in the maps app and on the way home on the train there are ads for cottages and getaways
That personal email account that is full of brand emails asking you for more purchases has a featured email at the top and you can’t get rid of it
You are doing your weekly food shop for delivery and you search and the top result for a lemonade is sponsored by the newest entrance in the market
You are instore looking for eggs and where the eggs are there is a big digital display above them promoting happy eggs (more advanced end cap)
You have just left working late and it is raining, you order a taxi home and on the screen you are given a shopping ad
That Thai takeaway you just ordered as a treat for finishing a big project at work, the app then serves you an ad or two while tracking your massaman curry, jasmine rice and spicy mango salad
The push notification hell of the latest news update on your phone and then you are made to watch a video for some random foot cream before giving you that world event
You just completed the last level before the boss level on the bus on the way to work and you are hit with an unskippable ad for Temu
You finally use that Chrome plugin you downloaded a year ago that is helping you do that little job at work and then it serves an ad while taking the screenshot and putting a colourful background on it
You are tracking your order on the shopping app and you are served the stonebaked pizza company you once clicked on by accident in Instagram
You finally select that questionable movie on Amazon Prime Video and you are served an ad at the beginning and then just as you get into it another ad pop-ups (but doesn’t let you buy the glasses in the movie) - but you can remove for £2.99 per month
And let’s not get started on the newspapers that force opt-in or you have to pay for ads…
Free Products Are Not Free!
We have to remember, that if we are not paying for the product or the product was free, the chances are you are paying with your time, attention and behaviours, we are the product being sold to, to the highest or smartest bidder.
Even when we pay an annual subscription we are funding another revenue stream, the subscription + ads bundle. More and more companies are moving to this model and there’s not much we can do about it unless we pay a price of a cheap coffee or a soft drink at a cafe.
Ads > What’s About To Happen* & Become Mainstream
When you pause that binge worthy series you are served an ad on the pause screen (yes, Netflix & Emily in Paris will try and sell that tote bag or alcohol brand in the episode)
Your favourite way of receiving the news will be brought to you by an allergy tablet company or an ad about umbrellas etc
You are asked to complete a 30-second survey and at the end screen before hitting complete you are given an option to receive a free food delivery voucher to complete another ten questions
You have just an external finished a video call at work and an ad will appear for a product or service
You are interacting with that busy WhatsApp group and you are served a chance to click and buy or click and book
You have just written a brilliant prompt for the AI tool and the prompt will recommend a new solution to use within the answer
You just touched up that work deck on Canva and you didn’t want to pay for the premium image, you are served an ad to download for free
You are five minutes into a deep podcast and an ad will appear on screen and interrupt the pod with recommendations based on your browsing history or sell the items discussed in the podcast (already to a point happens on YouTube)
You find that golden piece of content that will answer your current work issue you will start a download and you will be served an ad for another product (think wetransfer but on that work website, this download was brought to you by X brand or Y sponsor)
When you swipe on a match on that dating app and bang an ad based on your preferences appears
Anywhere there is a screen, an interaction or a sustained period of time spent there will be an ad or a series of ads and only way to get past them if to pay a small fee, that search box will have a number of ads blended in, that voice command you ask on Alexa will be sponsored, that new app you paid 99p for will have hundreds of ads to sale and hundreds of micro-moments to sell against.
As a marketer, this is exciting (and as a CMO coach, I wouldn’t be worth my fee if I wasn’t telling my clients to be in the best most relevant places) but as a consumer this is becoming a nightmare and something many are fighting against with adblockers, VPNs and private browsing mode.
The next fight will be how many ads is too many and how do I pay a small amount to save my ad fatigue across my phone, my best is Apple will be working on something and if they aren’t they should or maybe that’s where Brave, Arch and other browsers might just win ;-).
— * this could happen, all very possible and all very real options
