Stop Pushing Pop-up Ads In My Face!
Remember those annoying pop-up ads when you visit a website? Most websites got rid of them in the last decade. Well in China it’s still being used on a widespread scale.
In China online marketing is still mostly pushing banners in people’s faces. It’s so annoying that sometimes users cannot even click it away.
The Chinese government knows users are constantly bombarded with these pop-up ads. They are taking some action by issuing new internet regulations, and it’s slightly beneficial for the user experience.
Our friends at Wall Street Journal reported a couple of these new rules:
- No maliciously blocking users from accessing services offered by other Internet companies
- No tricking users into downloading software
- No suspending services to users without a good reason
- Pop-up ads will need to have an obvious way to close them
The government didn’t ban pop-up ads and they have a good reason to do that. According to the Chinese government the internet industry is built on ad revenue, by banning pop-up ads would significantly change the industry’s current business model. Which in the end would hurt the interest of users and affecting the internet industry developments.
It’s easy to point fingers at the government but the fundamental problem doesn’t lie there.
Advertisers
A lot of Chinese advertisers still think 1.0, they are used to pushing ads. Media buying guarantees views, clicks etc. but the audience will probably not share it, and even worse they might dislike your brand for pushing commercials all the time. Even in the western countries this is still where most media is spent, although some brands do know how to earn attention and engage with users.
Pop-up ads aren’t everywhere on the Chinese web of course, but just take a moment and look at video portals such as Tudou or Youku. First they show you a pre-roll before you can actually watch a video, second they throw in an advertisement when you pause a video.
Consumers
Of course the whole problem doesn’t lie with advertisers – Chinese consumers are also to blame. They are spoiled with everything being free, consumers can stream whole tv shows or movies using programs like Funshion.
Music is also easy to come by, music downloads are handled through Tencent’s QQ Music. So a lot of advertisers are taking the easy way out – pushing ads in people’s faces..
With over 500 million Chinese internet users brands can do much better than that. Do you have any good examples of Chinese campaigns? Or do you have some tips to share? Let us know in the comments below.