The Q1 outlook

The key hits:

• BDG is starting to see the acquisitions of 2021 pay off in its advertising business.
• Leaf Group is battening down the remaining hatches for the cookie apocalypse by prioritizing collaboration within the industry.
• Experiential is coming back into full swing, thanks to relaxed COVID restrictions.

As we near the end of the first quarter of 2022, publishers are already seeing some trends bubble up that are likely to impact the rest of the year.

After the supply-chain strangulation in the fourth quarter of 2021 caused brands to once again cut back on their advertising, publishers are starting to see that money come back, sometimes in unexpected categories. Meanwhile, with the decline of COVID cases, execs are expecting their events businesses to surge back to life fully for the first time since early 2020. And of course, as the countdown winds down to the removal of third-party cookies in Google’s Chrome browser, publishers are seeing this as an opportunity to take back more of the advertising market, and are identifying the need to work together.

In an effort to better understand those emerging trends, I spoke with a few publishers to get a better idea of what this transitional year has in store for the digital media industry.

Last year’s acquisitions are already starting to pay off

In September, BDG’s $150 million acquisition of Some Spider Studios, which publishes three parenting brands including Scary Mommy and Fatherly, was finalized, quadrupling the digital media company’s parenting vertical to four titles, including its own title Romper.

In growing the vertical, BDG expected the number of endemic parenting brands that were interested in advertising with the company to grow, and in just about half a year, that has already started to pan out. According to chief revenue officer and president Jason Wagenheim, the parenting vertical accounted for 8% of the company’s total revenue in 2020, and this year, the expectation is that it will account for 25% of total revenue. This is particularly due to the addition of new endemic CPG, toys and food clients that have begun advertising with BDG as well as those who have increased their deals given the addition of the new parenting sites, he said.

Wellness is the new ‘it’ category

For one publisher, who asked to remain anonymous for this story, the wellness category has taken off in early 2022 for its advertising business, as it has for wellness publishers.

“Wellness is the flavor du jour that everybody’s really into coming out of the pandemic, and advertisers know that people want to focus on it,” said the publisher. “People want to …read more

Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron