9 in 10 Americans (93%) plan to cook at home as much or more in the next 12 months compared with the previous year, according to HelloFresh’s State of Home Cooking report. That shift is as much due to financial considerations as it is to a general desire among consumers to eat healthier. The shift to eating at home creates a prime opportunity for meal kit providers like Hello Fresh, provided they can make the case to consumers that their menus offer value for money—while also satisfying their seemingly-unquenchable desire for protein.To that end, these companies could highlight their budget-friendly options, as well as put the nutritional value of their meals front-and-center, while emphasizing the convenience that such kits provide.

Value is top of mind for grocery-shopping consumers: Aldi, Dollar General, Grocery Outlet, and Walmart will open more stores to attract cost-conscious shoppers.

Finding the time to develop ad campaigns specific to a particular social platform is challenging. At HelloFresh, the meal kit brand has embraced a “don’t create ads, create TikToks” mantra to inspire creativity and give teams their valuable time back.

In 2022, US meal-kit subscription services will deliver $7.63 billion in digital sales to make up 22.8% of the country’s subscription ecommerce sales. The meal-kit subscription market has seen slowing growth since mushrooming by 85.0% in 2020, though its 17.0% increase this year is healthy nonetheless.

Apple joins other retailers looking for ways to maximize recurring revenue: A hardware subscription program could help the tech giant make up for softening consumer demand and build deeper relationships with consumers.

BetterHelp bested other US podcast advertisers in 2021 and spent $76.9 million on podcast placements that year. This was nearly triple the outlays of NBCUniversal, the second-biggest spender, at $27.7 million. All told, the top 10 podcast advertisers invested close to $300 million.

Although eMarketer forecasts that direct-to-consumer (D2C) purchases will only account for 2.5% of total retail sales in 2022, these brands have challenged and successfully disrupted the retail industry by curating every interaction with customers.

BetterHelp is by far the biggest US podcast ad spender, laying out $35.7 million in the first seven months of 2021—more than twice as much as the next-largest advertiser, ZipRecruiter, which allocated $13.6 million.

For digitally native brands, 2020 was a hard year, especially as the pandemic shifted shopping priorities to essential goods. Even so, collectively, these brands saw increased growth—and more than we expected.

Many mobile app categories saw a boost last year as more consumers spent time with their devices during quarantines. According to our estimates for smartphone app user growth, grocery apps, food delivery apps, and health/fitness apps were the three fastest-growing categories in 2020.

Meal kits are experiencing an uptick in popularity as more people practice social distancing and turn to alternatives to limit their grocery store shopping.