Is Disruption the Way To Go?

Once again, there is someone who is predicting the doomsday of traditional media. The inevitable rise of digital media, and so forth. Yet, I find it a bit odd that this "disruptive" media is what is being preached about, because this kind of media is what got advertisers in trouble with consumers in the first place.

I believe this new ideology that digital media is going to fix all of our problems, reach all of our consumers, and create immense profit margins. Unfortunately, I don't believe in this way of thinking, much less when we add "disruptive" to the mix.

Consumers go to a website or mobile site/app in order to consume the content that those publishers have to offer. If we, as advertisers, get in the way of that content in order to capture their attention, then we will quickly motivate users to start using ad blockers (like millions of others have already done). I definitely agree with the article, when it says "One effective type of ad for mobile is native advertising" and that consumers "look at native ads 53% more frequently than banners". The reason for that is that those ads are integrated in their content consumption and are not disruptive, annoying, or invasive. 

One large barrier that mobile has to overcome is trust and conversions. Below is a graph detailing the trust that online/mobile ads receive in comparison to traditional sources of media. 

We see that people are still more trusting of traditional media ads, which hurts conversions and online sales. Another reason for this is because although people enjoy shopping online they do not trust to purchase right from their phone. They might peruse an online catalog, read reviews or  watch product videos but they are less likely to actually input their financial information and make a purchase.

As a "millennial" and as an advertising student I do see the digital progression, yet I do not believe this is the end of traditional media, or even the complete implementation of digital media. We need to continue to provide people the quality they want to see, in a format in which they want to see it instead of disrupting their experience.