Advertising — in one format or another — is a key to success for many firms. And we know that “Consumer trust is important if companies and industries are to succeed, certainly in the long run.” As a result, ad blocking is an enormous problem for online marketers. In addition, many firms misuse the term “sale” in ads. And marketers are sometimes ethically challenged in their quest to generate more revenues and profits. Thus, we need to address the ad features which annoy consumers most.
For example, as Marketing Land reports: “37% of consumers say ads placed next to offensive content impact brand perception. A CMO Council survey of 2,000 consumers reveals how ads influence how consumers think about brands.”
Ad Features Which Annoy Consumers Most
Nearly half of consumers say they would rethink purchasing from brands, or even boycott products. Why? If ads from these brands appear alongside digital content that offends them. This finding is based on a poll of 2,000 consumers in North America and the U.K. Our report assesses the impact of digital ad experiences on consumer perceptions and purchase intent. It shows that consumers punish even their preferred brands. Why? If they don’t use trusted media or take active steps to control the integrity of the ad environment. We highlight consumer responses to brand misplacement in crowd-sourced content channels, as well as the level of satisfaction with digital ad effectiveness, economics, efficiency, and transparency.”
In its study, the CMO Council asked this overarching question. What would you consider to be a negative advertising experience? And the top two answers were “obnoxious or intrusive ads” and “discriminatory or hateful ads.”
As part of this research project, the CMO Council also produced the following infographic. By understanding the negative ad factors, we can strive to avoid them.
A significant portion of advertisements are forced onto consumers in obnoxious ways, such as being forced into listening or watching an advertisement in order to watch a youtube video or listen to a spotify song. It is very likely that people who have these ads will just ignore the message or become irritated by it and allow that to create a negative stigma towards the product. I think the numbers might be slightly lower than actual, more people will allow these advertisements to skew what they purchase than what is shown in the study.
I agree that advertisements that appear when watching/listening to something online in Hulu, Soundcloud, or any online show is very annoying. Although they are only trying to attract consumers they are actually doing quite the opposite because they are forcing the ad upon them. When someone is forced to watch something it makes you not like it or completely disregard what you are being forced to watch until your show or music comes back on. Hence, like the blog states many people have downloaded adblock on their computer to prevent annoying pop up ads and viruses.
Interestingly enough, I find that the actual “content” of many advertisements on the web today to be generally quite reasonable. One problem which I believe many people fail to address is in the “delivery” of the advertisements and the contexts in which they are delivered. When ads are obnoxiously forced upon users, the brand may suffer a loss in image, even though the content of the advertisement itself is benign. In this case, the brand agents should reassess the channels of delivery and filter out sites which are damaging their image.