From loading giants consolidating their positions to the influence of gaming and the expansion of contextual advertising, Marketing Week picks the marketing trends that will shape the year.
1. Loading services are consolidating their durability – and marketers need strategies
An inescapable outcome of 2020’s pandemic has been consumers spending far more time at home – and buying their house entertainment technology accordingly. In 2021 the key TV streaming services look place to consolidate their positions of strength still further, with investment and extension after a year of accelerated expansion.
Last month, Disney announced that it had signed up 86.8 million subscribers, exceeding its “wildest expectations” according to CEO Bob Chapek. As well as subscribers to its Hulu and ESPN brands, Disney is predicting that its subscriber volumes could be over 300 million by 2024. The entertainment gigantic will now be introducing new films immediately onto Disney+, skipping a normal cinema release.
Netflix, the world’s biggest loading brand with 195 million users, also benefitted from lockdown subscriber progress, although forecasts claim that Disney could get it by 2022.
The changing TV market could prove difficult to advertisers. Global leader of business intellect at GroupM, Brian Wieser, says the huge bulk of investment by streaming services is on content that is not supported by advertisements.
“There’s no meaningful amount of [ad] spending getting into these services. There is a immediate relation between shelling out for content and viewing share. And every one of the spending weight is on non ad-supported content,” he records.
