The White Agency’s Sam Court asks ‘Is the experience web the end of advertising?’

By Sam Court, UX director, The White Agency

“Agencies must better support our clients to transition away from standard advertising and media buying, to create services of genuine human value.” This is something that is often said but not often put into practice! However with the rise of the ‘experience web’, those that fail to evolve will be left behind…

Drowning, not waving

Society today drowns in irrelevant messages delivered across media from TV to the web, from outdoor to an ever growing range of mobile devices. Beyond ‘traditional’ media spaces, screens are everywhere and they all carry marketers’ messages: public transport, elevators, petrol stations… everywhere!

As consumers, we’re bombarded with messages, and advertising strategies based on interruption and repetition are becoming increasingly ineffective at connecting with people. In addition, more and more people are taking control with banner ad blockers, DVRs to skip the commercials, and paid-for apps to avoid advertising. In order to have an impact with digital, modern marketers need to redefine what it means to advertise.

Phase 1: Findable

The first phase of the Internet was focused on making pages that could be found. In this model, more standard display advertising units were the norm, as marketers experimented with tracking everything that could be tracked. More mature marketers realised that CTRs were always irrelevant, and instead favoured metrics that help facilitate relevant branded stories.

Phase 2: Mobility

The second phase, which we’re in the middle of now, has been all about mobility. With attention spans and screen sizes shrinking, media-centric digital advertising has struggled to find a natural place. Even the mighty Apple has flopped with its iAd platform for targeting in-app advertising.

Phase 3: Experiences

The third phase, which is just getting momentum now, is all about brands delivering human-centred experiences – it’s about shifting our Internet interactions from pull to push. Instead of users visiting websites and downloading mobile applications, the web, its content, products and services will find us. The purpose of the web will focus to keeping us updated on what is relevant, rather than us having to find out.

In stark contrast, traditional disruptive advertising is all about getting noticed; for consumers, these interruptions feel like additional friction, and only detract from the brand experience. Marketers have a whole new challenge ahead: how to connect with consumers, in a medium that’s invisible?

Reducing friction

To understand the potential of the ‘experience web’, all we need do is find cumbersome, manual and repetitive online activities, and reimagine them as user-centred services. For example, at the moment I have my Google Calendar set to simply remind me one week before my mother’s birthday. When it does, I wrack my brain for something mum might like, and then desperately start Googling around randomly, before giving up and phoning my sister for inspiration. With a few ideas, I again search the web, as well as established shopping platforms like Amazon, and other brand websites I think she might like. Then I need to whittle down the options and perform some price comparisons. Finally, feeling exhausted some time later, but with a selection made, I then need to make my way through a multi-step e-commerce process, and wait for the gift to be sent.

A more human-centred model for this birthday service would be much simpler. The web can already know what my mother likes, what she’s already got, and what she might enjoy, so when I’m alerted of the immanent birthday, I can be directly presented with a few gift suggestions tailored for her. Assuming I like one of these options, I can simply click a “Buy” button which leverages my stored payment information, and the gift will be shipped to my mother’s stored shipping address. And if I was buying with an advanced retailer like Amazon, the delivery times would be dramatically reduced because they would have already begun shipping the product before I’d even confirmed the purchase.

The end of ‘ads’?

The experience web will have no ads. The right product will be pushed to us just as we realise we need it. But with the rise of ‘human services’, even our concept of products will need updating. It’s easy to see the opportunities for brands to solve real human problems by focusing on adding value. In addition to creating human-centred services, branded content that’s contextually relevant will continue to provide value. However what’s less clear is the role that disruptive advertising will play in consumers’ lives, if any. Hallelujah!