Lab Weekly - 08/12/2022
Decoding value-driven food and drink consumption; Plus, the latest news and must-know stats roundup
Editor’s note: Hello, and welcome back to Lab Weekly! Last week, I took time off for my birthday, but this week we are back with a follow-up piece on food and beverage trends. In the news section, we will analyze Disney’s new streaming price plans, Amazon buying the company behind Roomba, and the brands that are jumping on BeReal. Let’s dig in!
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Disney Announced New Disney+ Pricing Plans [Variety]
Today, Disney announced new pricing tiers for Disney+ and Hulu. Starting December 8, the price of the ad-free tier of Disney+ will go up from $7.99 to $10.99 per month. Meanwhile, the new ad-supported tier it is set to introduce for Disney} will start at $7.99 per month in the U.S., the same price point the ad-free version currently sits at. Besides, the company is also going to raise rates for Hulu — both ad-supported and ad-free versions — and introduce new Disney Bundle options.
Disney’s streaming services are still going strong. According to its latest quarterly earnings report, its suite of OTT services, including Dinsey+, Hulu, and ESPN+, hit a combined 221.1 million global streaming subscribers in Q3, surpassing Netflix's 220.7 million; in particular, Disney+ had 152.1M subscribers, Hulu had 46.2M, and ESPN+ had 22.8M. So it certainly has the confidence to raise prices at the moment. For many, $20 for an ad-free Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ bundle would still seem like a good deal, considering the price point of Netflix at this point.
For advertisers, this pricing plan would likely ensure a significant portion of current Disney+ subscribers would opt to stay at the $7.99 per month price point, therefore making them reachable by ad spots on the most family-friendly and brand-safe streaming platforms with a global scale. Pricing hikes for Hulu will have a similar effect, creating more addressable audiences for brands wishing to explore streaming ads.
Related: HBO Max, Discovery+ to Merge Into Single Streaming Platform Starting in Summer 2023 [Variety]; Apple invests in original podcasts to turn into Apple TV+ shows [TechCrunch]; Walmart is trying to build a streaming service, again [The Verge]
Amazon Acquired Robot Vacuum Maker iRobot [The Verge]
Last Friday, news broke that Amazon plans to acquire iRobot for an all-cash deal valued at $1.7 billion. The home robotics firm, best known for its Roomba brand of robotic vacuum, has sold more than 30 million units of Roombas as of 2020. This acquisition, if approved, would instantly grant Amazon access to the indoor layout of millions of households, gathering not only practical information as to the square footage and household information, but also lifestyle indicators: If the Roomba detects you started to have toys on your living room floor, you may have recently had a kid; If you constantly ask it to clean the kitchen floor, you probably cook at home a lot; and so on.
But then again, Amazon probably already knows all that about you — if you’re an Amazon household, then your purchase history would reveal far more personal information than what the Roomba is going to find out. If this acquisition is not just about data to feed back into Amazon’s product recommendation engine, then perhaps it is about buying another building block to help it create the type of ambient computing home system that automatically runs in the background. Roomba can already be programmed to automatically start sweeping when no one is at home, and fits well into that vision Amazon is building for the home.
Related: Amazon's Prime Air service will begin making drone deliveries in California this year [Engadget]; Amazon launches AR-powered virtual shoe try-on in its iOS app [The Verge]
Chipotle Gets Candid With The Anti-Filter Social Media App BeReal [The Drum]
Where Gen Z goes, brands are never too far behind. That is certainly the case with Gen Z’s new favorite social app BeReal. Chipotle is the latest brand to jump on the anti-Instagram to share a limited-offer reusable promo code on its BeReal posts earlier this month. For four days, the first 100 followers to use the code online or on the restaurant’s app scored a free entrée.
Though the app doesn’t offer pay-to-play advertising options, Chipotle and others are finding unique ways to promote their brand and capture user attention, often by leaning into the platform’s ethos of transparency. The cast of the upcoming Scream movie is also using BeReal to show off exclusive behind-the-scenes sneak peeks to promote the movie. As Instagram's struggles with becoming more like TikTok is driving a Gen Z exodus to rival apps, expect more brands to get real on BeReal soon.
Related: E.l.f. and Inn Beauty Project are paving the way for brands on BeReal [Glossy]; BeReal and brands—how marketers are using the anti-Instagram [AdAge]
As Netflix continues to build out its portfolio of games, the streamer’s seeing less than 1 percent of its subscribers interact with them on a daily basis. According to data obtained by CNBC from app tracking group Apptopia, Netflix’s games average 1.7 million users per day, a sliver of Netflix’s 221 million subscribers globally.
A new Pew Research Center report reveals TikTok has established itself as one of the top online platforms for U.S. teens, while the share of teens who use Facebook has fallen sharply: the survey found that 95% of U.S. teens say they use YouTube, 67% use TikTok, 62% use Instagram, 59% use Snapchat, and 32% use Facebook.
Consumers worldwide are rethinking their subscriptions for streaming and other services as they feel the squeeze from inflation and rising interest rates. 31% of 2,612 Americans surveyed in March planned to cancel some subscription services this year, per a Recurly study.
If you find our insights valuable and would like to have a deeper conversation on technology and media innovations, or need to sound smarter in a client meeting or a pitch, please feel free to reach out to our Group Director Josh Mallalieu!
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