DENVER: Consumers appear to be shunning some of the trends predicated for digital advertising in 2018, according to a new survey which explored attitudes towards video ads, social media, ad blocking and other current issues.

For example, contrary to industry estimates, more than half (54%) of US consumers have not used an ad blocker over the past six months, while almost three-quarters (72%) do not prefer video ads over other types of online advertising despite the rise of video as a channel.

These are some of the key findings revealed by Choozle, a Colorado-based programmatic platform, which polled 502 US consumers for its 2018 Digital Advertising Trends Survey.

Mobile has often been identified as the leading digital advertising channel in 2018, yet the Choozle survey found that only 45% of respondents said they were more likely to click on mobile ads.

And with Instagram frequently cited as rapidly growing in popularity, the video and image-sharing platform still lags behind Facebook and Google in terms of influence.

According to the survey results, Facebook (54%) and Google (44%) remain the most influential platforms for advertising, followed by Spotify (28%), Instagram (23%) and Pandora (24%).

Perhaps of particular concern for advertisers, the survey also revealed that 43% of consumers reported having negative feelings about digital ads, compared to just 34% in a similar survey Choozle conducted in April 2017.

The reasons for this negative sentiment included being shown the same ad multiple times (25%) and ads slowing down the webpage (19%).

Turning to the ongoing issue of personal data, the survey found that a full 88% of consumers do not think companies do enough to protect them, while 78% think the US government should adopt stricter privacy and security standards.

Meanwhile, 44% of respondents said they were not very knowledgeable (26%) or not at all knowledgeable (18%) about the personal data internet companies have obtained about them.

“The results revealed that consumer sentiment opposes many of the trends predicted for 2018, including the rise of video, voice and ad blockers, and that recent digital advertising might actually be aggravating consumer distaste in online advertisements,” the report said.

“It also brought to light that many consumers are unaware of how these developments affect them.”

Sourced from Choozle; additional content by WARC staff