Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Top Tier
Broadcasters must convince investors that streaming media is a sound bet.
Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, for one, just spiked its stake in Paramount.
A big factor will be whether relatively high AVOD prices are maintainable over time.
Netflix, for example, has been floating $65 CPMs for its brand-new ad tier. A high price tag like that might fly during the first year, but advertisers will begin to want more bang for their buck – and better ad targeting – as time wears on.
Disney is also doing everything it can to keep its CPMs and subscription prices up despite (or rather as a result) of reporting “peak operating losses” during its most recent quarter.
Programmers are banking on (well, hoping that) audiences stick with them, whether viewers opt for ad-free or AVOD.
“Membership plans are a pretty sticky choice,” said Netflix COO Greg Peters during the company’s Q3 earnings call last month. (Warner Bros. Discovery was actually surprised that more HBO Max subscribers haven’t switched over to the cheaper ad plan yet.)
Ironically, if Netflix and/or Disney are able to keep their CPMs high, their respective ad-supported tiers might even have better ARPU than their ad-free versions.
Hypothetically, of course.
“The only reason [some AVOD platforms] can control premium CPMs today is that they’re just starting out,” Needham investment bank analyst Laura Martin tells Insider.
GetReal
BeReal, the buzzy French photo-sharing app, is an interesting case study in social media growth and monetization.
Major apps like Facebook and Twitter have plateaued or, frankly, driven straight off a cliff, creating what could be a real opportunity for a new social media player.
But BeReal is practically allergic to monetization. It has no ads and wants no ads. Instagram claimed the same before it was acquired, and that’s what it might take for BeReal to open up to advertisers: a wholesale ownership change.
Also, BeReal is about engaging with a real group of friends, so the app enforces a maximum number of people an account can list as a friend and share with directly. Influencers who are used to constantly broadcasting their messages to large followings don’t have much to work with.
“In the long run, we view BeReal as a feature and not a standalone product,” Jess Phillips, founder and CEO of influencer marketing agency The Social Standard, tells Digiday. “Without an ad business, this is even more true.”
The Tube For You
Speaking of pent-up social media energy and engagement with nowhere to go, YouTube is still cranking up monetization on Shorts, its TikTok clone.
While BeReal brags about its ad-free status, YouTube positions itself as a place where creators can earn reliable revenue and advertisers can spend with ease and get good ROI.
And now YouTube is adding shopping features to Shorts and an affiliate program in the US, TechCrunch reports.
“We firmly believe YouTube is the best place for creators to build a business and shopping is a piece of that,” a spokesperson tells TechCrunch.
It’s not like YouTube invented in-video shopping or affiliate marketing. But the point is well-made. YouTube is doing everything it can to cement itself as the only social media platform where popular content creators can earn a sustainable income.
But Wait, There’s More!
Protocol, the tech-focused website from Politico, will shutter. [Axios]
How national TV ad spend is holding up. [Marketing Brew]
So you want to make money selling things on TikTok? Do this, internal memos say. [MarketWatch]
An Apple search engine is four years away, at least. [Search Engine Roundtable]
… and, until then, Apple is busy slapping more ad units into its App Store. [9to5Mac]
Lumen Research and Avocet announce merger and $3.5 million investment. [Digiday]
You’re Hired!
TripAdvisor names John Boris as its new CMO. [release]
GumGum-owned attention platform Playground xyz hires Shannon Bosshard as lead scientist. [release]
The American Marketing Association names Bennie F. Johnson as its CEO. [release]
