Apple Challenges online advertising

I’ve been using Google Chrome as my preferred browser, pretty much since it came out, about 6 years ago… Never had any issues with it, but as a Mac user, following the latest Yosemite update for the Mac, I’ve decided to give the Apple browser Safari a try…

So far, I like it! It works well across the iOS devices, without crashing (which sometime happened with Chrome), and a easy-to-navigate dashboard screens. There are other advantages, but I’m not going to go into them here, except one:

By default (as in – I never opted for it, or changed the settings) the Safari browser on the Mac is saving on energy and bandwidth by disabling flash content. “Big deal” you say?? Well, it kinda is! This means that animated ads aren’t displaying, unless you choose  to see them. Please raise your hand: “who would choose to view advertising messages”?

I didn’t think many of you would raise their hands…

So this is what it looks like, on my browser:

Here’s where I see the challenges:

1. Advertising platforms and publishers will find it harder to sell animated flash advertising, which captures the audience attention, and will have to roll back to static advertising, which is less effective. (this screenshot was taken today on LinkedIn, a company whose advertising revenue equates to about 25% of their total revenue)

2. Advertisers and agencies will need to come up with other, alternative ways to cut through the noise. (Keep in mind that this feature also blocks YouTube videos too, but this is easier to manage, as the familiar Play button still appears.)

Since Facebook enabled videos auto-play on mobile devices, many users saw an enormous increase in their data usage and bills. There’s a way to disable that feature, but it shows the difference in approach between the two companies – Facebook opted to add the video autoplay by default, causing their members outrageous costs and anger, yet Apple went the other way,  helping their users avoid unwanted messages, and saving on power and data-bills.

Would love to hear how do you think this will affect advertisers?