illustration of the number five, representing the five subscription business topics for this column, Five-on-Friday

Five on Friday: Ad Blocking, Digital Ads and Subscription Jobs

Featuring eMarketer, Marin Software, BMW and LinkedIn

Five on Friday: Ad Blocking

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For the last several years, ad blocking has been a hot topic and a growing problem. In this week’s Five on Friday, eMarketer explains that ad blocking isn’t going away, but its growth is slowing down. Also this week, data privacy is having a big impact on digital advertisers, BMW will charge an annual fee for drivers to use Apple CarPlay, and Home Chef is seeing success with its in-store meal kits versus its subscription service. Last but not least is everyone’s favorite Five on Friday feature – top subscription jobs!

 

 

Growth of Ad Blocking is Slowing Down, Says eMarketer

 Digital Ads and Subscription Jobs

Source: Bigstock Photos

For the last several years, ad blocking has been a hot topic of conversation. As browsers and ad blocking software have grown more popular among consumers, advertisers and publishers have been concerned about lost revenue. eMarketer reports that ad blocking still continues but its growth is slowing. In fact, for the second year, eMarketer has downgraded its estimates for ad blocking in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Here are highlights from a July 26 article for eMarketer by Amy He:

  • In the U.S., one in four internet users will block ads in 2019 on at least one device.
  • Germany has the highest concentration with 32.8% of internet users using some type of ad blocking this year.
  • eMarketer originally estimated that 75.4 million U.S. internet users would block ads in 2019, but they have reduced that estimate to 73.2 million. That estimate is lower, but still represents an increase of 3 million new ad blocking users.

“Ad blocking may not be increasing at double-digit rates anymore, but it’s also not going away,” said Nicole Perrin, principal analyst at eMarketer. “There’s a substantial number of internet users rejecting the current tradeoff of ads for content as unfair, though they may be whitelisting sites that have proved their value. And past research suggests those users are valuable to marketers: younger and more affluent than average.”

Why do internet users block ads? I don’t use an ad blocker, but I tend not to use websites that have annoying pop-up ads or ads that detract from my user experience. Here’s what U.K. ad blocking users give for their top five reasons in three age groups:

 

Ages 25-34

Ages 35-44

Ages 45-54

Too many ads are annoying or irrelevant

47%

55%

66%

Too many ads

42%

50%

58%

Ads are too intrusive

40%

47%

56%

Ads sometimes contain viruses or bugs

36%

37%

44%

Ads take up too much screen space

29%

32%

35%

Read more in He’s article, “Ad Blocking Grwoth Is Slowing Down, But Not Going Away,” on eMarketer.  

Marin Software: Top 2019 Digital Advertising Trends

Five on Friday: Ad Blocking

Source: Bigstock Photos

A new study by Marin Software highlights the state of digital advertising for 2019, including marketing priorities and the factors having the largest impact on digital advertisers this year. Digital Commerce 360 reported some of those highlights in a recent article.

Priorities by digital advertisers for 2019 are pretty evenly split across categories. They include:

Brand awareness

22%

Enhancing the customer experience

22%

Embracing omnichannels

20%

Delivering personalization

20%

Embracing social media

19%

Optimizing paid search

19%

Campaign management

19%

In terms of top challenges, digital advertisers say that data privacy, video advertising and visual search were the factors that most impacted their companies this year. Twenty-two percent of digital advertisers said video advertising and information security, tracking restrictions and ad blocking will also have a significant impact.

“It’s clear that privacy is top-of-mind among advertisers due to a combination of industry factors-general data protection regulation rollout and some high-profile fines for violations, the arrival of the California Consumer Privacy Act is pending, and the constant drumbeat of privacy concerns around the big publishers in 2019,” says Wes MacLaggan, senior vice president of marketing at Marin Software.

“Advertisers are very sensitive to these privacy and tracking issues and need to strike a balance between brand safety/sound privacy policies and ad performance tied to audience targeting,” MacLaggan adds.

For more digital advertising trends, read “Digital Advertisers Say Data Privacy Has the Largest Impact on Business This Year,” by Tabitha Cassidy on DigitalCommerce360.com.  

BMW to Charge Car Owners $80 Annual Subscription Fee to Use Apple CarPlay

 Digital Ads and Subscription Jobs

Source: BMW

BMW is continuing forward with their decision to charge an annual fee to use Apple CarPlay. They first announced this a year and a half ago. If you are faithful to Apple Music and have used CarPlay, you know there is not a fee for this feature.

However, if you are a BMW owner, or anticipate becoming one, TheDrive says the automaker is planning to charge an annual subscription fee of $80 to to use the service. The automaker is also offering a 240-month option, paying $300 for a 20-year plan. The math doesn’t quite add up there, but we’ll take it. Engadget notes that the first year of Apple CarPlay will be free, but after that initial year, the consumer will need to pay $80 per year to continue using the service.

This change will take effect starting with 2019 vehicles, and the company’s justification is to keep the costs of making their cars low. It doesn’t make sense that a subscription fee of $80 a year will make a dent in the price of a luxury car, but whatever helps them sleep at night.

Car and Driver notes that BMW vehicles currently work with Apple devices, but BMW did announce that they will be working on Android and Alexa compatibility soon. We wonder if those will also come with a fee to integrate those services as well.

Home Chef Meal Kits Available in 1,000 Kroger Stores

If you have been shopping at your neighborhood branch of Kroger lately, you may have seen Home Chef’s in-store meal kits. Like similar products, the meal kits come with recipes, pre-portioned ingredients and they are ready to cook as soon as you get home. Some of the options include steak with garlic chive butter, smoked almond crusted chicken and sweet chili shrimp rice bowl. Anyone hungry yet?

FoodNavigator says that Home Chef’s refrigerated section of meals is available in about 1,000 Kroger stores across the country. The company did this to be able to tap into the market of those that are interested in meal kits, but don’t want to commit to a subscription. These meal kits are slightly different to their home-delivered counterparts. They are more like an oven-ready meal, where there is less active cooking time.

Home Chef got its start as a meal kit subscription box service and that service is still available with 38 weekly meals to choose from at a price averaging $7.99 per portion per meal.The Spoon reports that Kroger bought Home Chef for $200 million in 2018, in a move to put meal kits in their stores. By doing so, Kroger’s Home Chef added a new revenue stream while exposing them to an entirely new audience. If Home Chef is successful, they could get up to $500 million as a bonus if they meet certain targets.

Home Chef is not alone in trying to broach the in-store meal kit market. Blue Apron and Chef’d have had meal kits in Costco, and Plated was acquired by Albertsons. Forbes says that meal kits being in stores can actually allow meal-kit providers to balance out and be profitable. Kroger alone has a network of 60 million members in their various stores’ loyalty programs, so Home Chef’s in-store meal kit strategy could be a huge boon for the meal kit company.

Five on Friday: Ad Blocking

Source: Home Chef In-Store Meal Kits

 

Top Subscription Jobs

 Digital Ads and Subscription Jobs

Source: Bigstock Photos

Growth Marketing Manager
YouTube
San Bruno, CA

Whether you’re on a consumer product (like Gmail, Search, Maps, Chrome, Android) or a business product (Google Ads, AdSense, Google Marketing Platform, Analytics), you take part in a complete marketing experience as you lead every facet of the product’s journey. From determining positioning, naming, competitive analysis, feature prioritization and external communications, you help shape the voice of the product and help it grow a consumer base. This means you work with a cross-functional team across Sales, corporate communications, legal, webmasters, product development, engineering and more. In this role, you’ll be involved with product marketing strategy from beginning to end. Read more.

Retention Marketing Manager
BritBox – ITV
London, United Kingdom

As part of ITV’s ‘more than TV’ strategy, BritBox is one of the organization’s most exciting initiatives to launch a new British direct-to-consumer SVoD service. Joining the BritBox team will present a unique opportunity to help create an incredible service from the ground up. Maximize subscriber retention for BritBox by leading the design, delivery and optimisation of a retention strategy with supporting campaigns and programs. Key responsibilities include supporting the head of marketing and head of performance, taking ownership of key retention KPIs, working with data teams… Read more.  

Senior Commercial Counsel
Slack
Denver, Colorado

Slack is looking for an exceptionally talented and pleasant attorney to join our legal team. This position will be responsible for various legal-related matters involved in selling our products, partnering with others to make Slack better and used by more teams, and ensuring our own people have the best information and tools when doing their jobs. You’ll work closely with our Accounts, Marketing, Business Operations, and Go-To-Market teams, leading legal negotiations and giving advice at all levels of the organization. This is a special opportunity for the right candidate. We’re just getting started! And we’re nice. Read more.

Business Intelligence Engineer II – Twitch Prime
Amazon Web Services
Seattle, Washington

The Twitch Prime team is seeking a Business Intelligence Engineer with a strong track record of taking on end-to-end ownership and delivering on large scale solutions in a fast-paced and dynamic business environment. This person will be a creative problem solver who is obsessed with delivering the best customer experience, as well as, a highly analytical, resourceful, customer focused, team-oriented individual who also has the ability to work independently under time constraints to meet deadlines. This person will also have excellent communication skill and work well with world class teams (internal or external). If you have these traits and are excited about making a big impact in the game industry, we’re looking for you! Read more.

Lead/Principal Billing Solution Engineer
Salesforce
Dallas, Texas

The commercial billing specialists sell into a diverse set of industries from Small Business to General Commercial. As a Billing Solution Specialist on the Configure, Price, Quote, and Billing solutions team, you would be responsible for supporting the sales efforts of the Salesforce CPQ and Salesforce Billing products which extend the Salesforce Sales Cloud with fully integrated Quote-to-Cash capabilities. The Billing Solution Specialist will build rapport and confidence with finance stakeholders by understanding each organizations unique challenges and presenting compelling solutions that will unlock value. Salesforce CPQ and Billing has a talented team with a unique culture, totally focused on taking good care of our customers, partners, and employees. Read more.

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