The world of online food bloggers is vast... and mostly unprofitable. It ranges from very small publishers, often just through existing platforms like Instagram or Facebook, all the way to huge independent publishers like Food52, and individual home cooks like Deb Perelman (Smitten Kitchen), Dana Schultz (Minimalist Baker), and Tieghan Gerard (Half-Baked Harvest). Unlike celebrity chefs who got their start via cooking competition shows like Bake Off, or who rose through the ranks of professional cooking organizations like Bon Appetit or Cooks Illustrated, these publishers are independent. They have built their following online organically, by publishing content frequently that is relevant for the growing segment of home cooks. Buoyed by the pandemic and the need for home cooking, one might guess that this career path is an easy way to make a living. The basic math is that if customers want to consume this content, advertisers will pay for display ads on their websites. If bloggers keep churning out attractive content for consumers, they will be able to rake in the proceeds as they scale their audiences.
However, even as display advertising spend increases, it's not going to these relatively static, small, desktop-based publishers, according to e-Marketer. Instead, dollars are moving to the big players, in more programmatic spending. Further, consumers are moving away from desktop towards mobile and other connected devices like TV and voice channels (despite a short-term increase in desktop usage during the stay-at-home orders this year). This requires a more sophisticated digital marketing strategy from these smaller bloggers, who do not (necessarily) have the scale and expertise to position themselves dynamically in mobile-optimized or TV experiences. Finally, many advertisers are moving to programmatic marketing buys, which prioritizes buys at major publishers, and leaves lower quality advertisers to buy inventory from these smaller scale publishers. This is putting downward pressure on advertising revenue from the previously attractive display ad stream.
In response to this pressure, we are now seeing independent food bloggers seeking other revenue streams, since they can no longer rely on digital marketing to pay the bills. The obvious choice for recipe publishers is to move into cookbook publishing, which is a challenging path for those not already succeeding in terms of awareness and popularity. In the age of traceable purchasing, many independent publishers have sought sponsorships to promote products in exchange for a cut. This serves to increase sales for the sponsor partner, but it does not appear to be a major revenue driver. A newer avenue has been a push into e-commerce. Food52 continues to experiment with in-house designed physical goods for the kitchen, and has seen great success with these initiatives. Just last week, Tieghan Gerard of Half Baked Harvest has launched a partnership with Etsy to offer holiday gifts hand-made by Etsy producers. Unlike Food52, these products are not designed and manufactured by the publisher, but they are more integrated than a simple sponsorship model.
As pressure on digital advertising continues, we can expect to see more independent publishers expand outside of content creation and into other revenue streams like e-commerce.
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