Digital ads must change to keep pace with consumers, exec says

Faculty | May 10, 2016 | Gabelli School of Business

From left, Rob Norman of GroupM and Robert Picard, president of the World Media Economics and Management Conference, talk on Thursday, May 5, 2016.

If given the choice, people will always choose ad-free viewing, a media marketing specialist told a group of academics and media professionals during an international conference last week.

That is why it is important that publishers and advertisers “find new and better ways of integrating brands relevantly, smartly, carefully, with a light touch … so we are not rejected,” he said, according to a report published on the Fordham News website.

Rob Norman, the global chief digital officer for the media investment company GroupM, was speaking at the World Media Economics and Management Conference, held at Fordham University from May 3 to 6. Norman and others addressed the continuing disruption of the digital media landscape.

A significant part of that disruption is the emergence of ad blockers that remove advertisements from the view of consumers who visit web pages. Norman said a rethinking of digital advertising may be in order.

The conference was the largest in WMEMC’s history. It was co-organized and co-hosted by Gabelli School of Business Assistant Professor Bozena Mierzejewska and Axel Roepnack, who also teaches at the Gabelli School.

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