Consumers’ tastes are changing, so the industry is following suit.
Folks today want both convenience and gourmet.
Food and beverage are the fastest growing online retail category with folks craving DTC options.
DTC is a great option for brands looking to cut out retailers, increase margins, and innovate.
Individual ingredients are now becoming trendy as folks seek to recreate global flavors and chef-inspired food.
Social media has a huge source of food inspiration for consumers and a huge assets for brand’s looking to learn about customers’ interests.
People food isn’t the only hot topic right now.
Pet food sales are soaring—up 39% from 2019—and overtaking human food products in growth.
Other food companies are taking note. General Mills has made a string of acquisitions of pet food and treat businesses in the last couple years, including Blue Buffalo and Tyson Foods’ pet treat company.
Predictions for a cookie-less future are getting clearer.
In January, Google Chrome is shutting off 1% of their cookies as they move to their post-cookie system, Privacy Sandbox.
Privacy Sandbox uses a series of APIs to conceal consumers’ personal data.
Developers have been testing and adding more advanced advertising features, like new methods of retargeting.
To maintain users’ anonymity, retargeted ads will only be served if there are at least 50 consumers eligible to view it.
Google is doing a slow rollout, with 1% of cookies being shut off for the first 6 months of 2024 to give advertisers the ability to test Privacy Sandbox in real-world experiments.
By the end of 2024, Google will get rid of cookies completely.
Adtech partners that have already started testing have reported that everything’s functioning well so far—they can bid and buy, get clicks and conversions.
IP Addresses are off-limits. With cookies now going out the door, using IP addresses as an identifier seemed like the next best strategy to some advertisers. Now it’s back to the drawing board.
Google is testing a new feature in Chrome that would hide users’ IP addresses from third-party trackers.
Apple began cloaking IP Addresses in Safari and Mail in 2021.
Chrome and Safari are the two leading web browsers in the U.S. Chrome has 46% of the market and Safari has 43%.
Google’s IP Protection will be available as an opt-in at the beginning and will role out in phases.
With this data out of reach, advertisers will have one less tool in their belts to target consumers, control ad frequency, and detect ad fraud.
Without cookies and IP address data, many companies will have to rebuild their programmatic advertising strategies.
Meta and TikTok are shifting gears. They're both considering introducing ad-free subscription tiers, which could further disrupt the digital ad market.
The main driver for Meta looking into an ad-free subscription is the new EU data privacy regulations.
TikTok is currently testing a similar model outside of the U.S.
The potential impact of these decisions is unknown and depends on how willing consumers are to pay for data privacy.
Meta’s subscription is reportedly going to cost European users €10 per month (which is around $10.50), and TikTok will charge $4.99 per month.
51% of marketing decision-makers for brands and agencies intend to increase their social media advertising investments.
Neither platform intends to bring this option to the U.S. for now, but they might in a few months if data from Europe is positive.
Streaming services are strengthening their ad tiers. Disney+ is in the process of adding new features, from advanced audience targeting to expanded measurement capabilities.
Disney+’s ad-supported tier is a draw for new customers—last March, they found that 19% of their subscribers use it.
The growing audience mixed with bringing in Hulu’s ad-targeting and segmentation capabilities has put them higher on advertisers’ radar.
Disney+ is one fish in a highly competitive stream.
Netflix’s ad supported tier has 15 million subscribers, and the company has announced partnerships with Nielsen and EDO to enhance ad measurement.
Amazon is also evolving their offerings—they’re improving ad measurement by partnering with VideoAmp and iSpot.
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