CANNES – Even though the Havas trading desk has reduced bot and non-human traffic for its clients’ advertising campaigns to under 5%, it’s “a constant worry” to Dominique Delport. The Global Managing Director of Havas Media Group believes the online advertising paradigm has to be completely re-shifted.
“I think enough is enough for consumers,” Delport says in an interview with Beet.TV. “They say ‘I don’t want your pre-roll. I don’t want your pop-up on my mobile.’ It needs to be fluid. It can’t diminish the experience.”
He cites some ads that load so slowly that they “completely kill” the video experience. “Literally people leave the page, leave the app, leave what they were about to watch because the ad that we pushed in has completely killed the game,” Delport says. “This is really serious.”
Last year at the Cannes advertising festival, Havas urged more publishers to adhere to its five-point quality index, which covers things like load times and viewability, and many did.
According to Delport, bots aren’t “just something coming from exotic countries. We face an increase in robots and non-human traffic that is a constant worry.”
He places creativity at the top of the how-to list for properly engaging people and believes technology should be in the background.
“Creativity should be the first answer,” Delport says. “If your ad is great, if you provide a fantastic experience to people, they’re gonna love it because we just want to be entertained. The tech should be hidden.”
