Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer writes in Campaign U.S. that instead of being angry at the Interactive Advertising Bureau's (IAB) decision to bar Adblock Plus from its annual leadership meeting next week,
just get angry over ad blocking in general. Schafer argues that AdBlock Plus isn't the victim--it takes money from some of the Web's biggest advertisers to get whitelisted on its service. "The real
victim has been the consumer. The ad industry has created its own biggest weakness — a horrible experience for the consumers whose actions pay their bills..." Schafer argues. Traffic, he says is
"harder and harder to come by these days" and it's "bought and sold as well, creating a cesspool of 'visitors' to websites that aren't really visitors at all...:
Read the whole story at CampaignUS »
I sincerely wish the decision makers at IAB would spend a week, even a full day with me. I would show you an internet from both the interest of our members, sponsors and advertisers that you have never seen. I have been in sales, marketing and advertising for 35 years including the marketing of the USF Football League for my city. I have been on the internet for around 15 or 16 years and started Sweepstakes Today 13 years ago. I see the net for the bottom looking up. Not from Madison Avenue skyscrapers looking down at the net. How the real public and advertisers sees the net not just the numbers that show up on a spreadsheet.
The real world of the internet is much different than the mystical version you see. Yes, there are problems with ad blocking. However this problem is much smaller than you understand from the bottom looking up view. Do I have solutions to some of the problems? Yes. Do you care to hear from someone on the bottom? I doubt it. By the way..... If you think I am small think again. I run two Fortune 50 companies sweepstakes based on Facebook. We blew away Facebook with more entries than Facebook got for these well known companies. The clients were very happy. The point? Over 13 years my company has been beat on, dragged through the mud, said we have members who only enter sweeps for the prizes (Not true) and more. Guess what? You could use my help and experience but to do so is beneath your level to ask for help.