Israeli ad-blocking software company Shine is re-positioning itself as a trusted online ad verification hub for both consumers and advertisers.
Ad Verification & Filtering Service
Shine’s new, free ad filtering and verification service provides a way for consumers to agree to receive adverts that meet quality and relevance criteria, and therefore give advertisers a co-operative way to get around the ‘stone wall’ that consumer ad-blocking software presents.
What’s The Problem For Consumers?
For consumers, online advertising has proven to be a problem and an annoyance where:
- There’s a feeling of being bombarded and interrupted i.e. there are too many online adverts, and consumers lives are interrupted, time is lost, data consumption is eaten up, and extra effort has to be made e.g. having to wait due to advert loading / playing and having to actively close or navigate away from adverts. For example, estimates at the amount of a mobile user’s data consumption used up by adverts range from anywhere between 20% and 50%.
- There’s a lack of relevance in the adverts that are displayed.
- The adverts are too large, unwieldy and awkward to deal with.
- There’s a feeling of being ‘followed around’ by adverts for products that a person may have searched for some time ago.
Turning To Ad Blockers
One option for consumers has been to use ad blocking software. The ease of doing so was aided by companies such as Apple and Samsung allowing the apps on their mobile browsers.
After an announcement in February 2016, the ‘Three’ network also trialled a network-level block on advertising (in partnership with Shine) last summer because it was believed to be more effective than ad blocking apps (many of which were banned from some app stores anyway).
Although advertisers and publishers feared a huge uptake of ad blocking software, Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) figures from last year show only 22% of UK adults were using ad blocking software.
The Problem For Advertising Publishers
The problem for advertising publishers and content providers is that ad blockers essentially cut off the source of revenue that they use to fund much of the content they produce.
The response from advertising publishers over the last year has therefore been to deny access to content to people who use ad blockers.
Value Exchange
This situation of consumers realising that they cannot view free content unless they turn ad blockers off, and of publishers accepting that they should produce adverts that consumers are more happy to receive, has led to the current acceptance of the need for a ‘value exchange’ between all parties.
Shine’s New Role
After working with mobile carrier Three, an advertising agency and a media firm for the past six months, Shine’s new role in the value exchange will therefore be to sit between consumer and publisher to offer a mutually beneficial service. Shine’s ‘Rainbow’ platform will therefore mean that ad agencies will send their adverts to the Rainbow platform to be verified and validated. Consumers who sign up to Shine will then only see adverts that have been verified through Shine’s Rainbow platform. Shine will then provide feed back to advertisers and publishers about their adverts. Shine’s platform will be introduced later this summer.
What’s In It For Shine?
Shine stands to benefit from the branding benefits, from occupying a unique and almost essential positioning and from an insights and analytics product based on the data produced that can be sold on to advertisers.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
For businesses wanting to beat the ad-blockers and get commercial messages through to more receptive consumers, the Rainbow platform is a potential opportunity,and a chance to gain competitive advantage. For those of us in business who have been frustrated by online and mobile advertising (but who don’t want to lose out on accessing favoured content) Shine’s Rainbow platform could offer a more acceptable middle ground.