Content marketing is the answer to ad blocking

Mo Chung, vice president of sales of Apple Daily and Next Mobile, speaks to Marketing how the media group is tackling ad blocking.

With the rapid rise of ad-blocking software, what are the impacts on advertisers?
After Apple introduced ad blocking to its iOS 9 earlier this year, it shook up the advertising industry as the technology perfectly blocks most of the ad banners on Safari.

Some studies show that an increasing rate of mobile ad-blocking software is regularly used in European and North American markets. While ad blockers are not yet very popular in Hong Kong, marketers should not just wait to see what happens with ad blocking.

How do marketers overcome ad blocking?
The old-fashioned advertising tactic such as the pop-up ads is too hard-sell, which no longer works nowadays. Brands have to understand how to entertain and benefit customers with well-tailored information rather than pushing corporate messages. If customers find the ad intrusive or receive information irrelevant to them, they will simply walk away from you.

However, all advertising is not the same. For example, content marketing, especially native ads, can seamlessly blend into the promoted content, aligning the style with the publisher in a well-designed, cleverly worded tone.

While the native ad appears within normal news content, it can also boost engagement with consumers without interfering with their enjoyment of the web. The key to success hinges upon conveying the promotional message in a storytelling way.

At Apple Daily, we have a special editorial team dedicated to creating appealing native ads to meet clients’ campaign objectives while pairing with editorial content.

What are the secrets to keeping your audience reading your content longer?
Unlike reading the physical magazine or newspaper, you can’t just paste the full length article when it comes to digital content, but yet you have to make it snappy and mobile friendly.

There are two suggestions for retaining readers to stay on your site or platform longer. First, consider breaking a long story into multiple smaller posts; keeping them bite-sized is very important because they will find it easier to digest your content. Of course, embedding more visual elements is a good way to retain attention; let the images and videos tell the story and leave the text that enhances the pictures.

What does the future look like for digital advertising?
In the digital marketing world, efficiency is essential. I can see that programmatic buying and real-time bidding will soon be as popular as display ads in Hong Kong in the near future.

Programmatic media buying provides highly targeted ads without the labour-intensive tasks so that brands can more effectively target their ads. As digital ad spending continues to surge, many suggest it’s going to surpass traditional television in no time. In my opinion, it will catch up with television advertising in five years in Hong Kong without a doubt, but not outpacing it.