www.cablespots.net Published Daily For Subscriptions, call 1-888-884-2630 [email protected] $300 Per Year Copyright 2019 Thursday, January 21, 2021 STUDY: BRAND LOYALTY FALLS AS ECONOMY STRUGGLES LOST JOBS FORCED CONSUMERS TO SHIFT GEARS ADVERTISER NEWS Brand loyalty took a hit in 2020 as consumers, struggling Procter & Gamble sales surged in the most recent with job losses and a disrupted supply chain, went with alter- quarter, fueled in part by demand for high-end household native options. products from pricey dish soap to a $300 electric toothbrush. Among U.S. consumers, brand loyalty dropped from 65% in Despite a tough economic picture and high unemployment, March to 49% in November, according to a study from Omni- the maker of Gillette razors and Pampers diapers said com Media Group. The study, conducted across 13 waves consumers are increasingly willing to pay more for products. of online research from March to December, surveyed up to Consumer spending on food and household products 1,100 people ages 18-72. Ethnicity, regional and household considered either premium or super premium rose more income breakdowns of the group reflected theU.S. Census. than spending on mainstream, value-oriented and private- Brand loyalty eroded mostly in response to devastating job label products, according to data from market-research losses in the U.S., as people struggling with income loss de- firm IRI, which looked at online and grocery purchases for fected to cheaper products, said Shreya Kushari, chief client the 12-week period ended Oct. 4, compared with a year officer at OMD. Others switched brands when the products earlier. Premium soap, household cleaners and paper they wanted weren’t immediately available towels saw the most growth, according to due to logistical challenges. the study... General Motors shares surged But consumers are more optimistic about yesterday after Microsoft partnered with 2021. Just 42% feel that the economy is the automaker to lead a $2 billion fund- weak, down from 64% in March. Half of raising round in a self-driving venture those surveyed plan to pull the trigger on called Cruise. The software giant also will big-ticket purchases they put off in 2020, lend its prowess in cloud-computing, an such as a car, a home or a vacation, likely essential tool for managing the GM-owned this spring or summer. startup’s planned fleet of robotaxis... Fresh off a one-week “It’s tied to the optimism that people are feeling in general shutdown, one of Ford Motor’s plants in Louisville, Ky., about the economy,” Kushari said. “Whether it is the vaccine may be halting production for an additional two weeks as news, whether it is just a sense that this too shall end.” the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt the supply Despite the devastating economic context, consumers ad- chain. Ford says there is a tentative shutdown planned for opted new brands that align with their values, and dropped the Louisville Assembly Plant for the weeks of Jan. 25 those that don’t. and Feb. 1... Meanwhile, Ford must recall 3 million vehicles Almost half (49%) of people in the study said they switched with potentially defective driver-side Takata air bags with brands to “take a stand” in response to a brand’s behavior dangerous inflators. U.S. regulators are also requiring amid the social justice crisis this past year. Meanwhile, 17% Mazda to recall and repair driver air bags in approximately stopped supporting a brand based on their response to so- 5,800 vehicles. The recalls will cover various vehicles cial issues, while 25% started supporting a brand because of from the 2006 through 2012 model years... Jewel-Osco is the way they broached the topic. reported to be the first grocer in the U.S. to use automated “There was an increased expectation that brands need to pickup technology for online orders. The automated kiosk have a lot more empathy for their consumers beyond just is located in the store’s parking lot. Customers go to the selling products,” Kushari said. “They pushed on the con- unit, scan a code and have their items delivered to them sciousness of the people and said, ‘I would like to take a robotically. Customer orders are placed in the kiosk by stand for equality, justice, freedom.’” the store’s associates… Costco has rolled out a new Consumer media habits also shifted considerably through- curbside pickup program at three of the warehouse club’s out 2020, as people spent more time at home. locations in New Mexico. The retailer is offering the service In the spring, 61% of respondents reported spending more in partnership with Instacart, which offers delivery for the time with streaming video. The number hit a peak in the sum- chain... Tuesday Morning is searching for a successor mer with 66% of people spending more time with streaming to Steven Becker, the chain’s CEO since 2015, after the video, before falling back to 61% in the fall. retailer completed its reorganization under Chapter 11 The percentage of people who reported their social me- bankruptcy protection last month and added a new board. dia usage and online browsing peaked in the summer be- Becker, who currently serves on the board, will depart after fore dropping off again in the fall. Podcast consumption also that position after his successor is found... Domino’s had spiked during the pandemic. Twenty-six percent of respon- 22% of the quickservice pizza market in the fiscal year dents reported spending more time listening to podcasts in ended in November, according to The NPD Group. In the the spring, increasing to 33% in the summer. U.S. delivery space, Domino’s maintained 36%, with other “Streaming is not going anywhere,” Kushari said. “Digital major chains grabbing 27% and regional/independents platforms are not going anywhere. People still seek out news totaling 37%. For carryout, Domino’s had 15%. Other major while they disengage.” brands had 32%, with regional/independents getting 52%. CABLENET CHATTER DECEMBER MALL TRAFFIC SURPRISINGLY HIGH TruTV has opted against a fourth season of At Home Traffic statistics at American malls in the early days of this with Amy Sedaris, which featured Sedaris playing year’s expanded holiday shopping season fell in step with various characters focused on the comedian’s love of the volume of COVID-19 cases being reported — except entertaining, crafts and cooking. Each episode touched on during gift-buying crunch time in December. a specific theme, featuring imaginative characters, how-to According to Placer.ai, the number of mall visitors decreased demonstrations, special guests and more. The news comes just 29% in October, a month during which weekly averages as the third season of the show, which concluded in July, of new COVID cases ranged from 50,000 to 70,000. Year- is set to launch on the HBO Max streaming service... The over-year traffic then plummeted by 42% in November when NAACP has moved the airdate for The 52nd NAACP Image cooler temperatures lifted weekly case averages into the Awards on BET to Saturday, March 27 at 8 PM (ET)... TNT 160,000 to 170,000 range. is developing a pair of one-hour drama projects. The first New case outbreaks continued into December, but is based on the John Grisham novel mall traffic rebounded. Compared to The Whistler. It follows government November, traffic rose by 10 percentage investigator Lacy Stoltz, who is thrust into points to just a 32% falloff while COVID the case of her career when she’s tipped cases shot sky-high. On Dec. 19, Super off to a decades-old corruption in the Saturday, 250,191 new cases were Disney+ had 18.3% of new South Florida judicial system. The other reported. The weekly average on that streaming subs in 2020, date was 218,633. TNT project, Deathbed, is based on DC leading all SVOD services. Comics characters created by Joshua “December once again showed the Williamson and Riley Rossmo. When a resilience of consumer demand and millennial freelancer is hired to ghost write the desire of shoppers to return to top malls,” said , VP of the memoir of a dying “Adventurer,” she Kantar Ethan Chernofsky assumes his fantastical stories are the marketing at Placer.ai. “Visits were down product of dementia, until ghosts from his just slightly behind the COVID high-traffic past drag her into a psychedelic, globe- mark set in October. And importantly, this hopping battle over who gets to write history. is putting mall visits up against December 2019, which was an exceptionally strong month for the segment.” RETAIL HIRING SURGED 189% YOY IN DECEMBER Seasonal retail employment gains hit their highest total on KANTAR: HBO MAX HAD 20% OF NEW Q4 SUBS record in December, as retailers added 229,700 jobs during Broader app placement and a hit movie certainly have the month, Chain Store Age reports. helped WarnerMedia’s HBO Max subscription streaming The total is 189% higher than the 79,500 jobs retailers added service, with new data from Kantar Worldpanel showing the in December 2019, according to an analysis of preliminary service took 20% of all new SVOD subscribers in the fourth non-seasonally adjusted data from the Bureau of Labor quarter of 2020. Statistics (BLS) by global outplacement and business and That’s up from 13.4% in Q3. The research firm said last year executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. ended with 233 million SVOD subs in the U.S. “The late-season hiring surge came primarily from club stores For the full year, Disney+ led all services with 18.3% of and supercenters, retailers that also typically sell groceries new subs, followed by Amazon Prime Video (17%), Hulu and other household items,” said Andrew Challenger, senior (13.2%), Netflix (12.5%), Max (12%) and Apple TV+ (6.2%). VP of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “These are the retail In the crowded SVOD market, HBO Max launched jobs that have been in demand throughout the pandemic.” last May and struggled out of the gate due to a variety of For the total 2020 holiday season, retailers added 788,600 issues, including disputes with Roku and Amazon over app jobs, a 17% increase from the adjusted 672,300 jobs added placement and a confusing debut while HBO Go and HBO in October through December 2019 (adjusted down from the Now were still operational. 702,000 jobs added during that season). Since then, the two other HBO streaming services have been shuttered and Max has become available on Roku and THIS AND THAT Amazon Fire TV. With an average viewer age approximately 20 years younger than that of linear TV, nearly half of Tubi’s 33 million monthly NETFLIX TOPS 200M STREAMING CUSTOMERS active users are under the age of 35, according to new data Netflix powered past the 200 million subscriber mark in 2020 to cap its biggest-ever year of growth, driven by viewership released by the Fox Entertainment-owned AVOD platform. Additionally, Tubi’s 2.5 billion hours streamed in 2020 mark gains during COVID-19. In Q4, Netflix added 8.51 million paid streaming subscribers a 58% increase in streaming viewership over the past 12 to stand at 203.7 million worldwide at the end of the year. months... ESPN’s College Football Playoff National Netflix previously forecast 6 million global paid net adds telecast carried the network to a primetime Championship for Q4 (down from 8.8 million in the year-prior quarter), after win last week, according to . ESPN averaged 3.3 Nielsen the streamer saw a pandemic-driven boom in the first half of million viewers during the week of Jan. 11-17 to top all cable 2020. For the full year, Netflix gained 36.6 million streaming networks, said Nielsen. The Jan. 11 Alabama-Ohio State customers — its highest annual gain, beating its previous telecast was the week’s most watched sports/entertainment record of 28.6 million in 2018. show, averaging more than 18 million viewers. For 2021, Netflix has announced a massive slate of 71 film titles — with plans to debut new movies every week of the year PAGE 2 — as the No. 1 SVOD player faces stepped-up competition from a slew of rivals including Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, www.CableSpots.net Thursday, January 21, 2021 Peacock, Paramount+ and Amazon Prime Video.