Online ad industry admits it ‘messed up’, lines up measures to address ad-blocking

Apple's decision to allow the installation of ad blockers under its iOS9 operating system had users downloading cheap or free apps that allow them avoid pop-up ads and other potentially irritating forms of advertising on mobile browsers. This naturally had hit the online ad industry hard and consequently, and led to introspection.

The Interactive Ad Bureau (IAB), the standard bearers of the online ad industry, said in a statement that it "messed up".

"We messed up. As technologists, tasked with delivering content and services to users, we lost track of the user experience", confessed Scott Cunningham, IAB's VP of technology.

"Looking back now, our scraping of dimes may have cost us dollars in consumer loyalty".

According to commentators, for non-ad-blocking consumers who had been annoyed seeing the same ads over and over again while trying to read, watch or listen on the web, the IAB's change of direction should be appreciated.

Speaking at IAB Engage on Thursday, IAB's UK and US CEOs, Guy Phillipson and Randall Rothenburg, unveiled LEAN (Light, Encrypted, Ad choice supported, Non-invasive ads), which has been created to combat what they both described as the "biggest challenge" for the media industry.

According to some commentators, from one perspective, it could be argued that the online advertising industry was getting what it deserved, which does by no way meant that the ad blockers were right all along. But there was the other perspective that ads, like them or not, pad people to create content, which other people liked on the web.

But the online ad industry would now need to work hard to make significant improvements at all levels - advertiser, agency, ad tech, publisher - begins.

"Through our pursuit of further automation and maximization of margins during the industrial age of media technology, we built advertising technology to optimize the publishers' yield of marketing budgets that had eroded after the last recession", the IAB said in a bold statement about its Lean Ads program.

The IAB said the online advertising had failed the consumer and needed a rethink. The recommendation was that less was more, and that the industry needed to use ads sparingly but precisely.