As “ad choosers” — people open to online advertising on their terms — become more widespread, Dentsu International is partnering with Brave Software to understand how advertising on its platform impacts key branding metrics for its advertisers compared with other digital campaigns.

The findings in the whitepaper — Engaging with Ad Choosers, released Wednesday — analyze three campaigns, with one each for the following three market segments: technology; media and entertainment; and financial services.

In these campaigns, Brave ads outperformed other similar digital campaigns compared with publishers with more traditional ad models. 

Amy Siegel, vice president and director of innovation and activation at Dentsu international, believes it is not only possible to reach privacy-focused ad choosers, but also to deliver an impactful message in a positive way that allows the consumer to consider purchasing the product from the brand.

The researchers measured each area — pre- versus post-campaign — on key branding metrics such as brand lift, and then compared the results with other pre- and post-brand lift studies that the advertiser and agency conducted across other more traditional online advertising platforms. 

Results from the three campaigns were as follows:

• Brand A: 26% lift in ad recall compared to another digital campaign
• Brand B: 38% lift in likelihood to subscribe vs. other campaign
• Brand C: 16% lift in ad recall among all users, compared to another digital campaign and 67% lift in message association compared to the other digital campaign

Marketers need to find other ways to reach consumers. While many U.S. consumers have found more time to binge-watch their favorite TV programs in the past six months, increasingly they choose to watch through ad-free streaming platforms.

Consumers may spend more time online, but marketers need not look too far to find numbers of those who are opting out of ads. It’s not difficult to opt-out of personalized ads on a mobile device by turning off personalized and location-based ads, especially on an Apple device.

Apple has announced as part of its iOS 14 update that it will give users the choice to block the IDFA identifier at the app level. It will require apps to ask users for permission to collect and share data.

Ad Choosers vs. Ad Avoiders:  It is possible for advertising platforms to develop a strategy that incentivizes consumers to choose rather than opt-out, according to the whitepaper.