Welcome back to Subscriptions Weekly! In this edition, we review how subscription brands can avoid becoming non-essential–and share 35 tips from marketing experts. We dive deeper into the U.S. consumer habits for video streaming, share news from Netflix and Snapchat’s quarterly earnings, and check on Apple’s new feature for in-app payment updates.

How do brands avoid becoming non-essential? 35 performance marketers on the IPA Bellwether results

As the IPA report paints a picture of unsteady ad spend growth, Performance Marketing World asked its panel of marketing experts to navigate the rocky year ahead, likely to be dominated by inflation, geopolitical crisis, and generative AI. 

Recurly EMEA General Manager Oscar Wall states, “It’s important for marketers to consider 2023 as the year of retention–focus on delighting and retaining consumers.” Check out what other actions marketers need to take to avoid becoming non-essential.

Americans spend $48 per month on video streaming services

As streaming video competition intensifies, subscription growth rates across the industry have slowed—and churn rates have increased. According to Deloitte’s Digital Media Trends survey, U.S. consumers pay $48/monthly for subscription-video services, and about half of those agree they “pay too much.”

Around half of the consumers said they had made at least one change to their entertainment subscriptions because of their current financial situation, such as canceling a service, switching to a free ad-supported version, or bundling services. Learn more on Variety.

While economic pressures largely dictate consumer purchase decisions and subscription business strategies, subscription businesses should not be intimidated by the uncertainty. Instead, they should seize the opportunity to create a subscription that can’t be denied. 

Download The State of Subscriptions report to get more insights into the subscription economy and learn how to recession-proof your business with the right strategy across the lifecycle.

Netflix adds 1.75million subscribers in Q1, its first quarter without sub guidance

Netflix added 1.75M net new subscribers in Q1, compared with gaining a whopping 7.66M for the final quarter of 2022–after launching its lower-cost, ad-supported tier. The streamer halted its pattern of providing subscriber guidance for the next quarter with its 2022 Q4 earnings in January, citing a shift in focus away from subscriber growth and toward revenue. Learn more on Variety.

Snapchat+ subscription now has more than 3 million users

Snapchat+ has over 3 million users, representing less than 1% of the platform's 375 million daily active users. The company launched its paid tier last June and expanded to multiple regions with steady growth, reaching the 1 million subscriber mark last August and 2 million subscribers in February. Read more on TechCrunch.

Apple will soon let you update payment methods in-app when a subscription renewal fails

Apple is making a change to in-app subscriptions on iPhone and iPad. Now, users can solve billing issues directly in-app if a subscription renewal fails instead of managing them through the Apple ID settings. Learn more on 9to5 Mac.

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