The Czech technology innovator R2B2 is evaluating the first six months of its fight against ad blockers. The results to date indicate that R2B2’s approach could become the answer to this hot and complex issue.
“We’ve developed our own method and unique technology for displaying ads on impressions where ads are blocked. We work with special advertising channels which allow us to monetize these impressions,” says Kamil Foltin, CTO of R2B2. “We’ve named the project AAGun – an abbreviation of Anti-Adblock Gun,” he adds.
When asked why R2B2 chose this name, Foltin responded: “We chose the name AAGun with its strong connotation because the main idea of the project is far beyond the borders of advertising. The project addresses, above all, questions of the fundamental principles of the Internet. And since we aren’t fans of regulation, tech war was the only good answer for us. And in war, names play an important role – they heighten the battle.
The legal aspect is more complicated in this case. The law doesn’t take the new digital world into consideration. From patents and copyrights to net neutrality, we then move on to ad blocking. The company is searching at breakneck speed for new rules and for institutions already familiar with the problem. But for us, regulation isn’t the answer. It wouldn’t be fair; it would be slow and particularly difficult to enforce.
Although there are many who call for a legal solution to the situation, we don’t consider such a solution to be auspicious or sensible. It would set a dangerous precedent leading to a violation of the fundamental principles of how the Internet works. That could ultimately backfire on publishers. We believe that legislation cannot be conditional upon the acceptance of one piece of information simultaneously causing the acceptance of a second.
“For us it’s personal – someone tries to take away (not only) our work and hides behind pious arguments,” comments CEO Martin Čelikovský and adds: “After months of development and testing we can say that we are prepared to stand alongside publishers and conduct an effective battle using the same weapons as ad-blocking software, thus helping to remonetize the blocked ad space.”
R2B2 offers AAGun as part of their programmatic advertising solutions. Besides AAGun, the company is involved in advertising standardization and optimization. They run the largest Czech programmatic video inventory and are pioneers in programmatic native advertising. Since the beginning of the year they have been operating one of the world’s first programmatic platforms for buying and selling television ads, together with their innovative partners Adform and Hybrid.