Rethinking Digital Ads for the Holidays

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/11/how-retailers-are-rethinking-their-approach-to-marketing-this-holiday.html

DTC companies (and companies heavily dependent on digital advertising) have certainly been on a roller coaster ride since the pandemic. We all saw firsthand how DTC companies blew up overnight as everyone sheltered at home and constantly scrolled through Facebook and Google. Major companies (airlines, hotels, etc.) also pulled back ad spend in particular on Facebook in a play to conserve cash which caused companies to score top advertising real estate online for a lot less money. Then came 2021 and post-vaccine as life slowly came back to a sense of "normalcy," rates started to creep back up and as noted in the article, CPMs continue to skyrocket tracking 50% increases to CPMs on Facebook with an additional 50% anticipated. Coupled with people spending less time on screen as the world continues to slowly open up - "An analysis by the market research company eMarketer found that users in the U.S. are expected to spend less time scrolling through Facebook this year and in the coming years. Time spent on the platform for adults over the age of 18 is expected to be down 3.3% in 2021 compared with 2020 levels, eMarketer said. It forecasts it will drop another 1.8% from 2021 to 2022, and fall another 0.7% in 2023." - means a double hit as cost increases and eyeballs decrease. Then, finally comes around Apple's privacy changes in April impacting how app track users and Meta facing scrutiny after a whistleblower, Frances Haugen, released a trove of damning documents, has caused many companies to pull out of digital altogether such as Patagonia. Other companies who continue to have a prevalent Facebook presence have seen their performance dovetail dramatically and coupled with Apple's privacy initiatives to the point that companies are beginning to think about their digital strategy which may be a complete opposite of the strategy one-year ago. Will be very interesting how this all shapes up as we head into the holidays!