The Ultimate Ad Blocker
You’ve probably read about Apple enabling ad-blocking apps on its new mobile operating system. I’m surprised with all the hype around this subject for three reasons:
There was a pop-up ad on the story about Apple enabling ad-blocker apps. A bit ironic. Plus it is for Public TV, which doesn’t allow ads. Ironic +.
- Ad-blocking is not new; it has stopped those pesky pop-up ads on most browsers
- Apple released a new “news” app at about the same time as it enabled the ad-blocker apps. Of course Apple will have ads available, but only the ones that meet its requirements and monetizing system (Apple is not a religion, it is a cold, publicly traded business)
- The ultimate ad blocker is not enabled by Apple, it is you
You can block any ad by ignoring it. That’s what people have been doing for years with irrelevant, cluttered, too-much-copy burdened, poor-photography-story-telling, benefit-void advertising. You just didn’t know it, because you don’t get to see people actually disregard your message or story. Now an app shows what nearly everyone does to irrelevant content.
This discussion will give rise to native advertising (advertising that doesn’t look or feel like advertising). Native content that provides the benefits will begin to boom. It’s harder work: Isn’t deeply focusing on your stakeholders hard work? It’s easy to please ourselves as we develop a message; it’s much harder to get past the internal ad blocker that is built inside every customer or stakeholder.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.