Is Apples decision to enable ad blockers a death knell for mobile marketing? No, says AIS London executive creative director Geoff Gower, but mobile marketers will need to create more engaging content and look to other digital channels.

Apple has increasingly become an aggressively commercial brand, intent on generating revenue from its ecosystem of connected products and channels. So it was something of a surprise when it announced that the forthcoming iOS 9 update will include a feature that allows mobile users to block ads on iPhone and iPad.

The move could be a way for the iPhone manufacturer to demonstrate that it holds user privacy in high regard. However, it is more likely an attempt to weaken its major competitor, Google, which relies heavily on advertising to generate revenue.

Apple’s attempt to diminish Google’s strength puts mobile marketers in the crossfire. With its huge in-hand device numbers and new iOS roll-out, it has the potential to cast a trend that others are forced to follow. So, with this announcement, has Apple severely weakened the mobile marketing space? And if so, what does it mean for mobile marketers?

Blocking adverts is not a novel idea
Firstly, let’s put things into perspective. There are already myriad ad blocking programs on the market, many of which are free and effortless to download and install. Additionally, many already feature extensions for the desktop version of Safari and other web browsers.

Even with the proliferation of ad blocking software on devices, the uptake has been minimal. According to a 2014 report from PageFair and Adobe, the number of users installing such software equates to almost five per cent of the internet population.

So while Apple’s approval of ad blockers on its devices will increase these numbers, the damage to the mobile marketing sector will most likely be incremental rather than radical or disruptive.

Another notable trend is that people are not particularly bothered about mobile advertising. Many web users see it as a necessary evil, and understand that in order to have access to free content on websites, publishers need to generate revenue – be it through banner ads or other forms of advertising.

Mobile advertising content must be more engaging
So the threat to mobile advertising may not be quite as catastrophic as first thought. But equally, we shouldn’t really be sitting around waiting for something to come along and kill a business model in order to change it. Although most mobile and online users may tolerate ads, many users are also certainly ignoring them.

According to research from Coull, click-through rates for display ads on mobile was only 0.35 per cent. Mobile banner ads are performing better than their desktop counterparts, but not by much. And who really wants to spend their time doing something that works 0.35 per cent of the time?

Notably the click-through rate for video is actually 11 per cent. Although it is difficult to measure what percentage of mobile users can actually recall the adverts they see without insight from a focus group, this demonstrates that people engage more with richer creative content. People will not completely ignore a mobile advert if it is visually engaging, but they will most likely disregard an ad if it fails to be engaging, useful or entertaining.

The onus, then, is on mobile marketers to up their game. First and foremost it is not enough for mobile content to simply be platform-specific – as with native advertising – it has to be the type of content that people want to actually engage with. This may seem obvious, but mobile marketers can become so embroiled in the technicalities that the creative becomes an afterthought.

It is counterproductive to haggle for the best banner ad position on a publisher’s website if the creative, whether in the form of a banner ad or video, is poorly executed.

The death of mobile marketing has been greatly exaggerated
While Apple’s announcement will not be welcomed by mobile marketers, it will cause very little long-term damage. Apple has created problems for advertisers before, by rendering Adobe Flash incompatible with Safari, and yet the multimedia software is still popular. Moreover, Apple has its own ad platform in iAd, so in-app advertising at least will continue to have a presence on iOS.

The fact is we shouldn’t be sitting waiting for Apple to change the game. Mobile marketers should be excited about the future and exploring what works and what they can do better.
Mobile advertising is not so different to advertising on television – another ‘dying media’ which has been ‘dying’ for years now.

The former may be easier to quantify in terms of interaction, but both can be easily disregarded by consumers. Irrespective of the platform, mobile marketers must always put the creative first. The best television adverts are those that engage people in some way through well-executed creative, and mobile ads must be no different.

Geoff Gower is executive creative director at AIS London