How many times a day do you get bombarded by advertisements while watching TV, browsing the web, or listening to the radio? As consumers, we are increasingly exposed to ads across all of our media devices. They are not just unwanted, most often they are also irrelevant. The Blockchain Innovation Group (BIG) aims to alleviate this nuisance through digital currency and blockchain technology.
Also Read: ShoCard Embeds Your Identity in the Bitcoin Blockchain
About the Service
Pay To Skip is a decentralized application of the blockchain, or “DAPP,” used by an internet-connected device. The service will allow users to mute, fast-forward, buffer or skip audio or video ads by leveraging pre-paid digital tokens and digital frame filter tags. Digital tokens in the form of bitcoin or other digital currency could be used in this concept.
Bob Bonomo, CEO of Blockchain Innovation Group, is the think-tank behind Pay To Skip. Patent pending, Pay To Skip would allow users to pay a fee to block, skip, or filter ads by interests across all devices. Bonomo says the concept could be applied to any device, including a computer, mobile phone, TV, or radio. All advertisements and popups could be filtered. Bonomo points out that Pay To Skip is likened to other digital currency startups, like ChangeTip, in its attempt to quantify the value of a digital property. The value of Pay To Skip is focus, enjoyment, and un-interruption. Pay To Skip is still a pre-funded concept but it may function as software you download onto your device.
The Impact on the Advertising Industry
Pay To Skip will address the issue of irrelevant ads by allowing users to publish a profile based upon their current interests. Users will have the option to filter ads in specific categories as well. Being able to filter ads could provide useful information to advertisers, who could use the “likes” and “dislikes” users publish on their profiles to better understand their target markets and create ads closer to consumer interests.
The service will be offered as a monthly subscription or pay-as-you-go. To help optimize ad expenditures, a portion of the service fees will be allocated to advertisers and users filtering data.
We can only speculate how Pay To Skip may impact the advertising industry until it becomes a reality. Nonetheless, it would likely have a direct impact. How consumers choose to use the service is the main variable. If more choose to block ads, revenues could take a hit. Alternatively, if a number of people choose to filter ads by their interests, the marketing firms can improve their strategies and run more effective campaigns.
Is Pay To Skip the Future of Advertising?
Bonomo believes a more peer to peer (P2P), user-driven, pull oriented model, like Pay To Skip, is the future of advertising.
“From a long term / vision perspective, I see Pay To Skip concepts & technologies driving a Global Standard Model & Ecosystem for the Publication, Subscription and User-Defined & Controlled Consumption of Multi-Media Content in the Internet-Of-Things era, whereby information transfer & satisfaction are maximized and unwanted interruptions are eliminated.” – Bob Bonomo, CEO Blockchain Innovation Group
YouTube also foresees changes in the advertising world. YouTube’s CEO, Susan Wojcicki, announced last October it is in the early stages of launching its own ad-free subscription service:
“YouTube right now is ad-supported, which is great because it has enabled us to scale to a billion users; but there are going to be cases where people are going to say, I don’t want to see the ads, or I want to have a different experience.”
Since it began in 2005, YouTube has amassed a user base of one billion people worldwide. Advertising revenues built the company and will continue to drive its success. To foresee the future of advertising, look no further than YouTube.
Will People Actually Pay to Skip Ads?
Over 2 billion people use the internet around the world. Close to 150 million of them are using ad-blocking software. Will people be willing to pay for something they can get for free? This is exactly what I asked Bob Bonomo. He believes that looking into the future, advertisement overload will become an even bigger issue than it is today. He says that when we reach that tipping point, advertisers will have to evolve if they wish to continue serving companies and consumers. This is when Pay To Skip will be ready to be put to the test.
I personally believe a model like Pay To Skip could improve the online experience and possibly benefit advertisers as well. As TV and radio become more digital, the need for blocking or filtering ads will open up even more. The problem of ad blindness, overload, and ineffectiveness will have to be addressed at some point. Pay To Skip is just one way we can address these issues.
Visit BlockchainInnovationGroup.com to find out more about Pay To Skip.
Would you be willing to pay to skip ads? What do you think about this concept? Let us know in the comments below!
This author’s views do not necessarily reflect those of Bitcoinist.net.