Better online ads in Singapore? The coalition conversation

Last week on Thursday (15 September 2016), leading trade associations, companies, publishers, and agency groups announced "The Coalition for Better Ads". Some biggies in this coalition include Google, Facebook, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, GroupM, and IAB. We can expect data-driven online advertising standards to come out from this initiative.

The coalition addresses consumers' annoyance from online ads and takes ad-blocking head on. The resulting online advertising standards will rest on the sharpness of consumer insights and will impact a growing internet advertising industry in Singapore with an expected CAGR of 15.5% over the next five years (source: PwC's Global entertainment and media outlook 2016–2020).

Now, we all have been annoyed by online ads at some point or the other. Imagine clicking on a link through your Facebook feed, only to be irked by an ad as it changed the layout forcing you to click on it. Meanwhile some of us have a bad habit of checking our phones during regular team meetings. Picture yourself searching for the latest movie review and accidentally clicking on an R-rated beer ad which starts playing loudly, to your team’s amusement.

MDA estimates nearly 9 out of 10 Singaporean millennials consume video content on an everyday basis and, hence, are exposed to the disruptive nature of online ads. Not surprising that the sharing rate of online video ads in Singapore is lowest in Southeast Asia (according to programmatic video firm Unruly).

We wonder if real consumer experiences will be captured as insights for better ad experience in the future and cover aspects such as –

• Real-time feedback: “Can they really understand my feeling towards the ad the moment I see it? Of what I know, most of these consumer studies are usually controlled recall-based or simulated.”
• Contextual understanding: “My annoyance with those online ads depends on whether I am at home, in a store, or quickly looking up something during a meeting. Can they know where, when, and how I see the ad?”
• Relevance: “Those pop-ups, they may be useful or super irritating based on what I am seeking.”
• Natural response: “Well, I have become numb to those annoying online ads but I do get slightly impatient still. How will consumer research companies measure my emotions in the most natural way?”

We require sharper consumer insights to feed into online ad standards. A simple checklist below –

1. Go mobile BUT don’t intrude; keep it simple and natural. 
Mobile is the way to go for getting feedback from time-crunched and on-the-move consumers. Just because you have access to the consumer, you can't abuse the privilege. Specially when you may be intruding on their personal time.

Imagine responding to a formally written consumer research study and toggling between your Facebook Messenger. Two very different tones, isn't it? But what comes more naturally to us as consumers are those emoticons, acronyms, and gifs we use to express ourselves. Consumer research is simpler when consumers are asked on their natural response.

Even simpler, just record a 20-second video and tell us where you are and what you were doing when the ad appeared on your mobile screen, and did the ad help or disrupt your navigation experience? A simple way to understand what kinds of ads under which context make us smile vs really really angry.

2. Capture the implicit BUT use technology to simplify, not complicate.
One can only say so much about how disruptive online ads are. Capturing the unarticulated gives us the depth emotional (positive or negative) engagement consumers have with the online ad.

One way to test it is through facial coding. With the slightest raise of brow, online advertisers can find more about the reactions their ads evoke. Now, this reaction is a result of what the ad is, where it pops up, and what context the consumer is in. Therefore, triangulating it with in-the-moment response makes sense.

Facial coding is just one element. Most of us are not as expressive to everything that pops up on our mobile screen. But biometric response such as brain activity, eye movement, and muscle activity can be measured by EEG, eye-tracking, and ECG to triangulate the articulated with the unarticulated. Using 'cool' technology is all good but we don’t have to make consumers feel like lab-rats. Therefore, keep such testing friendly, warm, and limit the equipment usage.

3. Co-opt consumers, make them part of the insight journey.
Combining the articulated and the unarticulated can provide us with insights on consumer reactions to online ads. How about using consumer opinions to co-create insights? Think Kickstarter here.

We need to ask consumers to bet their (virtual) money on the kind of online ads which would work with their friends and family under different contexts. This projective technique can demonstrate a solid proof of concept on what may work and what doesn’t. Rewarding the selected consumers with extra incentives will only make it real for them.

Consumer insights will only be effective when they are consumer-close, in-the-moment, emotionally calibrated, and predictive. However, the coalition needs to go beyond reducing the irritation factor of ads online and lift the standards to the mood, context, and technology the consumer is using.