As much as Yahoo has been in the news lately, chief executive officer Marissa Mayer tends to keep her head down and her public statements to a minimum. But during a talk Monday at the Interactive Advertising Bureau conference during Advertising Week in Manhattan, Mayer spoke out against ad-blocking.
Much of her conversation centered on the popularity of mobile content (Yahoo reportedly boasts as many as 600 million active mobile users a month), and with it, the ability for users to install software that blocks ads on mobile browsers. This is something, unsurprisingly, Mayer said that she personally recommends against, saying that it would ultimately hurt the user’s experience.
In her talk with Slate’s Jacob Weisberg, she reiterated her previous stance that ads can and should be enjoyable experiences. She said that ad-blocking would hurt digital publishers, but also that publishers should offer users better ads and more transparency in how their actions are tracked.
This is a similar sentiment to that shared by experts who spoke out with last week’s launch of iOS9, which allowed mobile ad-blockers (called “content blockers”) in the Apple App Store.
Mayer also emphasized the importance of mobile apps and native advertising, which are both immune to ad-blocking software. According to data from Yahoo, Mayer said, native ads generate more engagement than “traditional” display advertising, and given Yahoo’s focus on “mobile, video, native and social,” she looks like she might be one step ahead.
Only time will tell how users respond to native advertising as, if Yahoo is any indication, it looks to become more commonplace.