Marketing Trends & Insights: May 2024

Let's break down a few trends we've been seeing lately in the industry:

1. Branding Trends in Grocery
2. Growth in Podcasting and Streaming
3. AI Use Cases

Branding Trends in Grocery

Cool New Produce Branding

Farmers and produce companies have been making the move toward differentiating through fresh branding and fun packaging. 

• With a consumer brand, produce companies can participate in shopper marketing, press opportunities, and partnerships.
• What's driving this?
  • More shoppers are buying online, where they can’t examine produce—so brand names can give them an indication of quality. 
  • Private-equity and venture-capital firms are investing more in food brands and agrifood tech startups. 
• The category isn’t going to be explosive, but it is growing.
  • Examples: Yes! Apples, Ark Foods, Pinkglow Pineapples

Private Grocery Labels in the Spotlight

Private grocery store labels have grown in the last couple years, especially as people have felt the effects of inflation on their budgets. According to the Private Label Manufacturers Association, over 20% of grocery industry unit sales were private label products last year. 

• Sprouts is making a comeback and their private label portfolio is contributing significantly to that plan. 
  • The percentage of their revenue that comes from private labels went from 12% in 2017 to 20% in 2023. 
  • They’ve added 300 - 400 new products to these lines annually the past couple years. 

• Walmart just launched a new premium private label called Bettergoods, with colorful, bold branding that aims to look as high-quality as well-known national brands. 
  • Even with the premium look, the brand still focuses on affordability, with most of the products priced at less than $5.

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Growth in Podcasting and Streaming

Podcasts are Still on the Rise

Although growth in podcast ad revenue slowed in 2023 compared to the past few years, the IAB expects it to bounce back to double digits this year. The industry is forecasted to reach $2.6 billion by 2026. 

• What’s fueling the growth?
  • More brands—like CeraVe, Jif, Pepsi—are investing in podcast advertising, as a way to strengthen connections with consumers.
  • Podcast platforms are evolving to include new offerings around things like programmatic purchasing, more advanced measurement capabilities, scalable ad formats, and the addition of video elements. 
  • The content and their audiences are becoming more diverse, allowing for greater reach. 

• Where are the opportunities?
  • More than a quarter of the ad revenue for the last two years came from niche categories, like government, tech, law, sports, and energy. 
  • Comedy and sports are the top two podcasts genres bringing in the largest share of ad revenue.

Streaming Companies are Competing for Ad Business

As streaming platforms aim to build their ad business, they’re expanding their strategies. 

• Amazon is rolling out shoppable pause ads, where viewers will be shown a product from their show when they pause th program, and they can instantly add it to cart. 
  • Other streamers, like Hulu, Peacock, and Max, already have pause ads, but they’re not shoppable. 
  • Netflix is slated to add standard pause ads to their options by the end of this year. 
• Netflix is launching an in-house ad platform and bringing in new measurement partners as their ad-supported tier comes to 40 million monthly active users. 
• Warner Bros. Discovery is aiming to help advertisers create and launch campaigns more efficiently with Olli—their first-party data platform that will power their Data-Driven Video offering. They’ll be testing Olli in Q3 this year.
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AI Use Cases

A Few Examples of How AI is Being Used:
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• Gut is building an AI tool off of ChatGPT that’s designed to create new data by combining sources. They trained ChatGPT to cross-reference data with other AI tools, and they’re investing in AI personas to act as a standby focus group. 

• Mischief has been collaborating with other companies like Shutterstock to set ethical boundaries around AI and help define AI artist compensation. They’re also using Waldo for research and Jasper for content creation and reformatting.

• Omnicom developed an AI-enabled virtual assistant and is working to build more inclusive audience data sets at the base of their AI tech, so any apps built from them are also inclusive.

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Sources

• Cool Comes to the Humble Produce Aisle
• Why Walmart launched a premium grocery label, with fancy branding to match
• Behind the scenes of Sprouts’ private label growth
• Agencies break down how they’ve made ChatGPT and generative AI their own
• How Omnicom is working to make its AI tools more inclusive
• Podcast ad revenue growth slowed for second year in a row: report
• IAB: Podcast ad revenue to grow double digits following last year’s slump
• Podcasts Have Entered a New Era and So Will Your Advertising Results
• Pause ads look like the new table stakes in streaming
• Netflix plans to in-house ad tech, adds measurement partners as ad tier surges
• Warner Bros. Discovery unveils first-party data platform to unify video

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