Getting marketing messages through to the consumer is more difficult by the day. I believe subscriptions for subscription-based ad-free social media are just moments away. Clarity of importance is the new key. Reach will replace frequency in the new dawn of marketing. With limited opportunities to persuade the customer, advertising MUST become less about entertainment and more about the importance to the prospect.

In the end, it is a healthy change. Only the fit will survive and many of the so-called creative advertising agencies will go away (thankfully). Advertising has always been about commerce, not entertainment.

Consumers want it all — free content with no ads. They don’t consider that content comes with a cost. It’s up to publishers and aggregators to find ways to make ads more relevant while reducing clutter. Bundling packages of content for subscriptions might be the answer for some consumers, but there is a significant downside for content providers, as they would give up independence and valuable data to bundlers. Denying access to visitors using ad blockers is another. More research and experimentation is needed.

The thing I question is, how do we find out about new products and services without ads? Yes we can discover them if we walk into a store, however many consumers need a reason to walk into that store.

Subscription services will certainly work for some channels but certainly not for all so it goes back to, how do we make ads not ads? Let’s think about the Super Bowl for a minute. I am football-intolerant but I do watch the ads because they are great. They are entertainment. Also, there is great opportunity for on-air placement advertising.

My Millennial nieces and nephews who stream their favorite shows can still tell me the hottest ads. How is that? It’s all about giving the consumer what they want now, isn’t it?

For my 2 cents.

The issue is ad relevance, and proliferation is a symptom of poor data use. These early days of programmatic media planning and placement are giving way to more contextual message placement with the simple and clear objective of higher ROI on communications investment. We all love ads that inform, entertain and hit our brains’ “buy” button because they address our needs and wants. The symbiosis of brands and consumers influencing approaches that enable success through engagement and relationship is the brave new world of this generation. Screen media is here to stay … the task at hand is to use its inherent dynamic messaging capabilities. Function follows form.

There is another high potential solution that is just starting to be recognized. It’s called individualization in marketing and Brendan Witcher at Forrester is one of the leading voices talking about this innovation. Quite simply, it refers to marketers providing easy opt-in tools for individual consumers to choose the specific marketing content of interest to them. While that might sound expensive and not-scalable, actually it is the opposite, especially in the retail category. I’ve written about this before, but this holiday more than 30 top retailers are beginning to let individual shoppers opt in to post-website (or store) visit marketing content alerts on only the products they are considering for future purchases, and only the criteria the set, like price drops or newer model launches. In many cases these consumers then do not have to suffer the unrequested ad retargeting and generic email blasts by the retailer. And with this success in retail now large media companies, who are suffering most from ad-blocking, are beginning to look at offering the same individualization for each reader,… Read more »

There’s no doubt about the effectiveness of digital advertising if done right. In our recent analysis, 93 percent of ads shown were irrelevant. If publishers and advertisers can use next-gen models not just to target by demographics but by also by emotives, ads will be more effective in long run.

Additionally, the publisher has to provide solid content so that visitors see value in a give-and-take relationship. For example, I don’t mind seeing ads on Harvard Business Review online because they have rock-solid content. Visitors always make trade-offs, it is up to publisher and advertiser to prove their side is more valuable.

Up until now, advertising played an important role in making content — particularly news content — available and accessible to the masses. Technology has disrupted the content’s relationship with consumers and there are many implications to consider — new revenue models for publishers are just the tip of the iceberg.

Another month, another chance to shill for my favorite idea. Yes, I think it can work — indeed it already IS working as there are numerous pay sites out there, thank you — but the key phrase is “willing to pay for … high-quality.” Of course many sites are marginal and will have to be supported either as charities, promo, or by advertising, but advertising less obtrusive than it is now … which brings me back to my point: that online will increasingly be seen as a utility, not a goldmine for a few gatekeepers.

As obstacles arise, advertisers invariably come up with solutions. I don’t see that changing in the immediate future. However, subscription models are definitely showing their advantages and I can definitely see innovative retailers making this work long-term with the right systems in place to manage the consumer data effectively.

The future of how advertising will be done is with both sponsored content and native ads inside content. It is already far down the path if you read sites like Business Insider or Huffington Post. And, as a company that uses this type of advertising, it is highly effective and less intrusive on the consumer. This type of advertising will allow the content to continue to be delivered without subscriptions. Although most content providers will have free and upgraded subscriptions where they provide a premium for the subscription package.