A Microsoft exec thinks banner ads won't exist on mobile in 3 years
"Millennials ... are likely to sacrifice their privacy. However, they're not going to do that for banners. Why would you? There has to be a value exchange there: good contextually relevant content," Patel explained at Advertising Week Europe in London on Monday.
"I think this whole word 'banner' shouldn't exist, and probably won't exist in three or four years, maybe less than that," she added.
The head of international for AOL, Graham Moysey, who was hosting the session, agreed.
After asking members of the audience to put their hands up if they agreed that banner ads would not be around in a few years, Moysey said: "Me too, by the way."
Instead, Patel predicted that increasingly there will be a reliance on native advertising and ads that exist directly within social media feeds.
In-app advertising looks like it is 'from the beginning of the digital era.'
Patel also discussed the (lack of) effectiveness of ads within apps.
She said: "Thinking about it from a consumer point of view, I'm really unimpressed with in-app ads. I can't believe it. It feels like it is from the beginning of the digital era still. Someone please show me something really creative in in-app. I haven't seen it yet."
"What's the stat? People might download 100 apps a year, but they're only using four or five. So let's not get too distracted with in-app (advertising,)" Patel added.
Patel was pretty accurate, the latest comScore report says that, in the US, most people only use three apps frequently.
Location-based advertising has not yet proved itself yet
Patel explained that Microsoft had tested location-based ads in some markets, including the US.
However, she said the link between purchases and these ads was "very tenuous." A combination of the weak link and the high cost of this type of advertising means that location-based ads are not worthwhile for Microsoft.
"The ROI [return on investment] isn't really there for us at the moment," Patel said.
"That doesn't mean it won't work," she added. "Maybe for certain things like events" location-based ads could work.
Microsoft exited the display advertising business last year, shifting more than 1,000 Microsoft Advertising employees to AOL, which absorbed the direct sales of Microsoft's content sites, including MSN. Ad tech company AppNexus expanded its role in selling ads programmatically for Microsoft across the majority of its international markets.