The Marketleap Report
Vol. 1 - Issue #10 - May 25, 2001

Block it All - How to Get Through an Ever Tighter Web
By Keith Boswell

Cruising through CNet with the advertising turned off feels incredible. Like digital bits flowing through a pasture, speeding me through my daily reading. 

The ad blocking software community and its users are a maturing movement within the web that continues to grow as others discover its value. Much to the chagrin of companies that thrive from selling online advertising, Internet users are becoming sophisticated enough to stop the message.

For individuals, ad blocking through the web browser means less time spent online. It eliminates all the commercial pitching and allows for real information freedom. For companies, it means reduced charges for bandwidth and decreased exposure to commercial distractions for employees, thereby increasing their focus on work.

Ad blocking on the web brings television into the picture. Digital video recorders like TiVo and Microsoft's UltimateTV allow a home user to construct their own world of television. Ads are easily bypassed by fast-forwarding with these digital recorders. As if ready to plug into the web, TiVo even operates in a form of Linux. 

Software and hardware will soon meld the world of computers and entertainment. The computer and home audio/visual companies continue to bundle new offerings, mixing and matching technologies that increase their value and significance.

Whether it's MP3 in the car or PDAs browsing the web, there will be a new device released every few months until they all come together within the next ten years. In time, one small color screen with a stylus will deliver the web, broadband entertainment on demand, all the software you need and other information services. 

Soon we'll have access to software that allows users to block all forms of advertising, in much the same way that anti-virus software blocks viruses. Where will advertising fit into this equation? 

If everyone in the future started blocking all the ads on web pages, broadcast programs and radio stations, the advertisers would leave and the industries that produce content would wither on the vine. 

Advertisers foot the bill to give the public "cheap" entertainment. It's cheap for the consumer because the cost for a free broadcast from NBC or another network involves buying - at the very least - electricity and a television. Sponsors #1 and #2 have arrived. Plus, the American culture loves advertising. The Super Bowl is as much about advertising as it is the championship football game.

The information age should be no different. In order to succeed, advertisers must reassess the possibilities. Technology and demand are pushing for things to come together.

It manifests in the physical world in the super-sized combo Gas Station/Taco Bell/Pizza Hut right around the corner. It fits online, too. Successful advertising and action will occur when sponsors work directly with the medium to complete the circle. The combination of offerings and a further consolidation in messaging will be essential for companies with related products in order to maintain value and viability. 

E-mail advertising continues to evolve, including features like direct purchasing from the e-mail message. Less intrusive than a web page, there is comfort and reduced pressure in placing a repeat order by e-mail. 

Successful search technologies like Google, that don't advertise until they know the context given by the user, deliver traffic in droves because it works. The ads don't get in the way, and they are relevant. 

As the merge occurs, there will be less space for fewer advertisers. Content, e-mail and subtle messaging will carry advertising into the 21st century. Intelligence and knowledge of the audience are critical and should provide more data than the current advertising model. 

Delivering multiple points of relevance in fewer places will be the challenge. Brands must learn not to compete, but to complement. Where they create a natural fit, the marketing opportunities will appear.

Users will opt for freedom from advertising if the value does not exist. Trends like viral marketing, e-mail games, deep product placement and content creation are vital to easing the transition. As constructors of the web, we have a sizable toolkit to start building something that can benefit, entertain and educate us all.

The Marketleap Report would like to thank you for reading our publication. We are just ten issues in, and already we have more than 300 subscribers with almost no marketing. 

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