"The digital advertising market is developing too slowly"

Stephan Obwegeser, Head of Digital Advertising & Services at Tamedia and the new president of IAB Switzerland.MK How is the digital advertising market evolving in Switzerland, and what are the biggest challenges? STEPHAN OBWEGESER I would say it’s evolving steadily, but slowly. Too slowly, in my opinion. The reasons for this are multifaceted; for example, a lack of knowledge and trust, complicated processes and procedures, the high complexity and fragmentation of offerings, and uncertainties in dealing with ever-changing developments.Our challenges certainly lie in continuing to strengthen the credibility and acceptance of digital advertising, for example through a relevant study on advertising effectiveness. We must continue to work on basic training and provide appropriate resources. We should also ensure that planning processes are simplified and that uniform, clear metrics for relevant KPIs are available or established. And last but not least, we must ensure that we design digital advertising offerings in such a way that production costs for clients remain within reasonable limits. It makes no sense for every site to develop its own format, forcing a client to produce countless formats just to run a digital campaign with sufficient reach.MK NNew forms of advertising, such as «native ads» and video ads, are all the rage. Has traditional banner advertising had its day?OBWEGESER The 468×60-pixel banner is certainly a rarity these days. But display advertising in general is not. Attractive large-format ads have emerged in this space, which can have an outstanding branding impact. And in the mobile sector, too, several display innovations have already hit the market this year. Native ads are old wine in new bottles—though the old wine certainly tastes good! Video and moving images are a clear trend that’s growing rapidly.MK You are the Head of Digital Advertising at Tamedia. What is particularly important to your advertising clients when they want to place online ads?OBWEGESER At Tamedia, we meet a wide range of needs. Clients looking for specific audiences and wanting to be present on strong media brands book ad space directly in individual publications. Clients who want to specifically target certain audiences or run performance-based advertising use PPN, Tamedia’s Premium Performance Network. What all clients have in common is that they want excellent service, expert consulting, professional reporting, and, of course, an attractive price-performance ratio.MK More and more traffic is shifting to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. However, online advertising is not very well received on these devices. What does successful mobile advertising look like?OBWEGESER It should definitely get the message across concisely, using few words and clear images. Less is more here! It also shouldn’t be too aggressive. Mobile users are more sensitive to intrusive ads because they appear more dominant on mobile devices than on a regular computer screen. And finally, a consistent mobile experience should be guaranteed. It’s very disappointing when a user clicks on a mobile ad and lands on a page that isn’t optimized for mobile devices.MK We have access to more and more data. Nevertheless, there are many users who are critical of «retargeting,» for example, and find it «alarming» what we do with their data. Where are the limits of data analysis for online advertising?OBWEGESER I believe that it’s less about the issue of boundaries and more about transparency regarding what’s being done and the ability to make those decisions for oneself. But of course, there are also boundaries—for me, these lie where advertising becomes a persistent nuisance or where personal data is shared with third parties without my knowledge or consent.MK Which forms of digital advertising will become more important in the future, and why?OBWEGESER On the one hand, video advertising for two reasons: 1. Video ads can often be adapted from traditional TV commercials, making them attractive from the perspective of both clients and agencies since they require only minimal additional production effort; 2. The consumption and production of video content in digital media are growing rapidly. As a result, the supply of video advertising is also increasing. On the other hand, mobile advertising is also on the rise, as the use of digital media is rapidly shifting toward mobile devices, and new, large-format mobile ad formats placed within content are making mobile advertising attractive.Interview: Simon Wolanin