Featuring PYMNTS, Media Play News, Marketing Profs, LinkedIn and IAB
Source: Bigstock Photo
In this week’s Five on Friday, PYMNTS explores how the mission of meal kits – and their business model – is changing, Media Play News think an SVOD shakeout is in the works, Marketing Profs offers advice on marketing a subscription business, LinkedIn shares top subscription jobs, and IAB reports the latest podcast advertising revenue numbers.
Meal Kits Are Changing
When meal kits first came out, the convenience, variety and freshness appealed to subscribers. They could choose the frequency, number of meals and sometimes the meals they preferred. Many companies flooded the market, including Hello Fresh, Blue Apron, and Purple Carrot. New players are joining the market, but perhaps at a slower pace. What is really changing is the business model. Companies are moving away from the subscription-only concept and going straight to store shelves.
Source: Bigstock Photo
Companies are now merging (e.g., Kroger bought Home Chef and Albertsons bought Plated) and others are trying the retail route. For example, Hello Fresh, Chef’d and Blue Apron now offer their meal kits in supermarkets. Purple Carrot was among the first to try this out.
In October 2016, Purple Carrot announced a partnership with Whole Foods, testing out the concept in Massachusetts. Kroger will do something similar with Home Chef. It sounds like Home Chef will continue its successful subscription model, but it will take over Kroger’s Prep+Pared meal kits and likely offer its own meal kits in Kroger stores.
In a recent article, Media Play News speculated that the streaming video on demand market might be ripe for a shake-up. In 2015, 34 notable streaming companies launched compared to only 10 or so services in 2017. Also, in a study by L.E.K. Consulting, four out of five consumers reported they have the right amount of video subscriptions (I personally have three: Hulu, Amazon Prime and Netflix but have seriously considered CBS All Access).
So why a shake-up? We’ve been saying this for years. We had so many entrants in the SVOD market that something had to change. The strong would survive while the weak die off. This has turned out to be true. In January, Fullscreen shut down, and last summer comedy streaming service Seeso shut down. Some niche services like WWE Network and CBS All Access have done great, but smaller services didn’t have the resources or audiences to keep going.
‘While the big players, like Netflix, are already winning, we expect genre-based services that successfully cater to niche tastes will also have a role to play,’ said Alex Evans, managing director of L.E.K.’s media and entertainment practice, in a statement. ‘Niche services will need to continuously update high-quality content, while ensuring their programming will resonate with their fickle audience. And larger video streaming platforms must keep an eye on what both traditional TV and emerging players are doing so they themselves don’t get disrupted by innovative content and pricing options.’
A few other highlights from the study include:
OTT customers want more for less.
Neither targeted content nor budget pricing are sure-fire paths to success.
Platforms that aggregate multiple SVOD services – like Amazon Channels – hold a lot of appeal for consumers who want one dashboard.
This is an incredible opportunity to ensure Sky Sports digital products remains the number 1 destination of choice for sports fans, creates revenue opportunities and continues to add value to the Sky Sports subscription. Your key responsibilities include: lead a team focused on producing dynamic, innovative and engaging digital content in highly-specialized digital areas. You will be the day-to-day point of contact for all Sky Sports and Sky Sports News production teams where appropriate. Read more.
SourceMedia’s subscription division has an exciting career opportunity for an innovative Marketing Manager to grow subscriptions through high impact, strategic renewal and engagement program. This position will develop and manage subscription renewal marketing initiatives and will track the effectiveness and ROI of these programs against KPI’s through proper reporting. Read more.
The Customer Success Group (CSG) Sales and Go-To-Market team has the overall responsibility for positioning and selling Success Cloud offerings. Account Partner Director – A proven, passionate, strategic sales leaderresponsible for selling the full portfolio of Success Cloud offerings. The AP is responsible for earning the right to be a trusted advisor to the customer, with the primary goal of helping customers generate significant business value from their Salesforce investment. Read more.
Adobe is seeking a Sr. Manager to join the Creative Cloud Business Strategy team within Adobe’s Digital Media business Unit. In this role, you will be a part of the team that has driven business decisions that have helped in Adobe’s business model transformation (from selling perpetual software to a subscription business). The Business Strategy team is responsible to define future growth strategy for Creative Cloud and owns identification, sizing and prioritization of growth opportunities, and builds business cases and provides strategic insights and recommendations to drive future growth based on research, analysis, and financial modeling. Read more.
As Director Partner Engagement, Member Acquisition, you’ll lead a strategically critical team enabling partners globally to help make subscribing and paying for Netflix easy and convenient. That includes being a thought leader on continuing innovation to improve the customer journey while efficiently scaling programs such as payment integration, bundles, and promotions. Read more.
IAB Says U.S. Podcast Ads Generated $314 M Last Year
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U.S podcasts are more popular than ever, and advertisers are loving it. According to a study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PwC, advertisers spent $314 million in ads on podcasts. This is $94 million higher than the estimate of $220 million for 2017. This means that podcast advertising grew 86 percent year-over-year. By 2020, IAB estimates the podcast ad market will be worth approximately $659 million.
Here are a few more interesting tidbits from the study:
Host-read ads are the preferred ad type, representing more than two-thirds of ads last year.
Ads integrated or edited into programming made up 58 percent of podcast ads in 2017.
Financial services made the greatest investment in podcast ads, comprising 18 percent of total ad spend.
‘These strong numbers speak to advertisers’ increasing recognition that podcasts provide a powerful platform for reaching and engaging audiences,’ said Anna Bager, Executive Vice President, Industry Initiatives, IAB in a news release. ‘Advertisers that range from traditional financial services to direct brand retailers are tapping into the medium’s highly engaged audience. IAB has long been at the forefront of promoting the podcast marketplace and we look forward to another action-packed IAB Podcast Upfront in the autumn, continuing to fuel the growth of this dynamic channel.’
Dana Neuts is Subscription Insider's Editorial Director, covering our daily subscription news as well as member features, case studies, premium content, and reports. Dana is also a writer, editor, marketer and communications professional. Her work has appeared in AARP Bulletin, The Seattle Times, Seattle Business, 425 Business, 425 Magazine, South Sound Magazine, Northwest Travel and more. Her specialties include business writing, community news, senior issues, travel and, of course, subscriptions!
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