Everyone is familiar with those speculative ads that appear on the screen based on recent browsing history, but consumers in the UK and US could soon find it possible to receive ads based on intention rather than algorithmic guesswork.

That is the ambitious plan of a London-based start-up platform called Into-It, which is scheduled to launch in both countries in the first quarter of 2021 and reportedly has already signed up several advertisers and publishers to the service.

The concept involves consumers willingly opting-in to the Into-It app – assuming a publisher carries it – to be asked what advertising categories they would be interested in.

According to tech entrepreneur Lee Henshaw, the founder of Into-It and also of digital advertising consultancy Silence Media, the app responds to consumer intention, rather than relying on guesswork through artificial intelligence and other technologies.

“We can have a future where we choose the ads we see, rather than let technology choose them for us,” he told Marketing Daily. “We don’t need any more data than someone telling us these are the products they intend to buy.”

Henshaw also believes that giving consumers more control over their personalised experience would lead to a reduction of ad blockers used on publishers’ sites as well as lowering ad load and the number of ads that would have to be served for publishers to make a profit.

“If working in display advertising for the last decade has taught me anything, it’s that the whole ecosystem could be hugely improved by asking people what they want to buy rather than guessing,” he told Campaign.

“I am excited to be working with some of the most respected names in the advertising industry to launch Into-it and pioneer a new era of humane advertising which benefits all parties.”

The new service is likely to be viewed as a challenge to the hold that Google and Facebook have over the digital advertising markets in both the UK and US, but one question is whether consumers really will have the time or inclination to curate their own ad experiences.

Sourced from Marketing Daily, Campaign