Howdoo feature focus: the road to consensual advertising

One of the founding design principles behind Howdoo was to re-engineer the user’s experience when it came to social media and advertising. From the very beginning we all agreed (as does a growing percentage of the global online community) that people shouldn’t have to be bombarded with advertising every time they sign in to their account.

Instead we want our users to have a far greater say in how their environment develops. How it looks and feels, and who gets to enter it. But more than this, we want to respect people’s time, their attention, and the conscious effort it takes to engage with any material that interrupts the time they have to ‘share and care’ on social media.

To do this, Howdoo allows users to choose the amount and frequency of the advertising they receive. Simple. Each person can enter full ‘stealth mode’ and switch off advertising all together if they want. That means an environment where they’re untouchable. No advertising, no messages. Nothing. What’s more, they can do this in a quick and nimble fashion — and change the rules depending on the different groups and communities they belong to.

So for example, a person (let’s call her Jane) may decide that in general she doesn’t want the noise of adverts upsetting her calm when sharing with the world news of her day’s adventures. However, Jane also belongs to a Howdoo community connected to her local fitness club, and is prepared (when visiting this group) to receive ads offering her relevant offers and discounts on gym equipment, energy drinks, and various lycra-based clothing.

Changing the game

But it’s here we hit a problem. Because in traditional models of social media, Jane’s personal data (her membership to the gym and gender being two data points alone) has been ‘sold’ behind her back. As a result, she receives no incentive for interacting with any of the ads — and if she does, some far-off corporate body benefits from the activity.

Not on Howdoo — and this is one of the many game changers we’re bringing to market. With our platform, users receive a share of any advertising revenue paid by companies to reach them. That’s right: people are actually rewarded for their attention. Think about that for a moment. Think about how that changes everything in terms of a person’s willingness to engage, and the engagement itself.

No longer will people be reactive, passive consumers of content they may or may not be interested in. Instead, they get to set how many ads they’re ready to click on, and feel encouraged to actually view the content — knowing they’ll be rewarded for their time. And for the advertisers, they’ll have access to target audiences that are actually prepared to listen (rather than ignore) — and be incentivized themselves to deliver relevant and interesting campaigns (users providing feedback will be entitled to an additional share of the total advertising rebate).

In other words it’s win win: individuals and groups set up tag words that detail their interests and preferences, and companies bid (through our AdAuction function) to target them. With a smart contract in place, the advertiser pays for the right to engage (the payments being made in µDoo, the Howdoo network’s cryptotoken), with a percentage of this pot shared out to all recipients. Plus, with our Proof of Contribution method (see our previous article) those users making the biggest contribution on Howdoo receive the bigger share.

This is Howdoo, where individuals can take back control of their digital footprints, and where they share in any value it generates. How’s that for thinking big? Subscribe to our newsletter and Telgramchannel today.