IAB Publishes Playbook For Opt-In Value Exchange Ads

• by Alex Weprin , December 5, 2018

The Interactive Advertising Bureau wants to help brands and agencies boost their understanding and use of opt-in value-exchange advertising, publishing a playbook defining the format and highlighting best practices.

Opt-in value-exchange advertising, sometimes called rewarded advertising, offers “something of value in exchange for their time and attention,” per the IAB.

While opt-in advertising has been popular among gaming apps for a long time, it has since found its way into music apps, text content and even over-the-top video.

In OTT, apps and platforms may allow consumers to watch an expanded ad, perhaps with some interactive elements, in exchange for watching the entirety of a TV show or movie commercial-free.

In music, Pandora has experimented with formats that allow users to select the song they want to listen to in exchange for listening to a pre-roll ad.

“These ads put consumers in control as they are always opt-in, meaning that the consumer has the choice to engage with a publisher reward – or not,” writes Susan Borst, IAB vice president-head of the Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, in a blog post. “And, importantly, the value exchange for the consumer is directly related to accessing the media experience the user intended to access at the destination.”

The hope is that the format will be more palatable to consumers already facing an ad overload.

Because the user chooses to engage with opt-in ads, they are perceived as less annoying, with the user spending more time with the ad. For publishers, the format keeps users engaged longer, provides new revenue streams, and can support advertising models even as many publishers turn toward subscriptions to diversify their revenue streams.

The IAB says it will conduct a formal study next year to more fully examine the acceptance and effectiveness of the opt-in ad format.