Is Advertising a “Tax on the Poor”?
Lucky for us, Antenna crunched the numbers for several streaming services that offer both ad-supported and premium ad-free options, including Discovery+, HBO Max, Hulu, Paramount+ and Peacock. The data isn’t exhaustive, and it’s US-only. But their findings were compelling.
From how they see it, there are no significant demographic differences between premium ad-free subscribers and ad-supported ones. Not age, not ethnicity, and not income.
Are Premium Brands Only Bought By Affluent People?
Are these differences statistically significant? I dunno, but most likely, yes.
Do these patterns vary by category (cars & stereos & vacations vs shampoo & coffee)? No doubt.
Are there caveats galore? Of course! Sheesh!
But the main findings run against the grain of a lot of “common sense” in marketing, and have real implications for how you market or advertise your products.