Moderna, Paramount+, TikTok Among Fastest Growing Brands

In 2021, there were tiny shreds of hope wrapped in yet another year of Covid-19 pandemic hunkering. People became familiar with vaccine producers Moderna and Pfizer, and “back to normal” only meant more streaming, mobile banking and brands built around social distance. The “new normal” became just normal so quickly that 2020’s ascendant brands, including videoconferencing platform Zoom and delivery service DoorDash, became well-worn facets of everyday life in 2021. In 2021, the U.S. consumer withdrew even further from public life as the pandemic made shared spaces a hazard and digital conveniences far more vital. While streaming and fin tech were growing incrementally before Covid-19, they've become pillars of pandemic life. Streaming service Paramount+ was this year’s fastest-growing brand almost by default, according to a new report from market research firm Morning Consult. Paramount+ surged by 8.5 points through the first 10 months of the year, which is a little over half of Zoom’s 15-point leap during the same span last year. Morning Consult tracks brand growth by calculating the difference in consumers who considered purchasing from each brand at the beginning of the year (Jan. 1-31) and the end (Oct. 1-26). The company follows more than 4,000 companies and surveys tens of thousands of consumers around the world. The Fastest Growing Brands of 2020 Are Streamers, Ecommerce and Videoconferencing Here are some other takeaways from the report: Fin tech and cryptocurrency creep in Coinbase took fourth place with a 4.7-point increase in 2021, but it had some company in the digital financial services sector. The five such companies on the fastest-growing list included delayed-payment service Afterpay at No. 8, digital wallet Cash App at No. 9, neobank Chime at 15 and cryptocurrency Bitcoin in the No. 16 spot. “Being remote, being separate from people and not wanting any sort of physical touch really escalated the use and the purchasing consideration of a lot of these fin techs and digital currencies,” said Joanna Piacenza, head of industry intelligence for Morning Consult. “We're using digital wallets so much more, we're using fin tech so much more, and we're going to be using and owning a lot of crypto into 2022.” We’re still streaming Paramount+ took the top spot, but streaming and video creation platforms including HBO Max (No. 3), TikTok (No. 5), YouTube Shorts (No. 6), PlutoTV (No. 7) and YouTube Premium (No. 20) all made their way onto the list. Considering that Paramount+ and YouTube Shorts didn’t debut until February and YouTube Premium didn’t surface until July, their growth indicates more potential for competing services as legacy brands like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu relinquish some of their dominance. Streaming Services Crash Linear’s Holiday TV Programming Party “I hate to say it, but I think there is room for more, and I say that because we're in the hundreds of streaming services now available,” Piacenza said. “The original streamers are really flatlining in purchasing consideration, and in some cases are going down as these newer platforms are starting to emerge.” Vax to normal Moderna ranked No. 2 among this year’s fastest-growing brands with a 7.3-point growth as more than 70% of U.S. citizens received at least one dose of the vaccine this year. Pfizer came in at No. 17 as more than 12% of the U.S. population received booster doses before the holiday season. We aren’t going to say Mannie Fresh, Mia X, Juvenile and BLK are partially responsible for that growth, but nobody’s proven otherwise. Tempted to travel With those vaccines came the first signs of life for the pandemic-era travel market. Airlines, cruises and vacation rentals all rebounded in 2021, but only Universal Studios Orlando (No. 10) and Marriott Bonvoy (No. 11) made the cut among fastest-growing brands. Even in those cases, Universal was popular largely with Gen X parents, while Marriott most appealed to boomers. International Travel Comeback Grounded by Pandemic Realities “For the most part, 2021 was not the year of travel, unfortunately for a lot of travel and hospitality brands,” Piacenza said. According to her, Marriott Bonvoy is targeting its audience well and is “a brand that really kind of knows who its audience is and its older consumers that want to lean on a hotel that has a legacy brand.” Gen Z gets comfortable Last year, Gen Z rode out the pandemic with help from the Food Network, Nascar, Cetaphil and Pepsi. In 2021, it sought refuge with Wendy’s, Google Maps, Zillow, Quality Inn, the UPS Store, Midol, Olay, Snickers and Ruffles. While these are brands beloved by Gen Z’s parents—and, in some cases, great-grandparents—they’ve also created a presence in social media and video games where they deliver well-honed messages that are difficult for other generations to co-opt. “Oftentimes, as it becomes more popular among older consumers, it becomes less popular among Gen Z because it's not cool anymore,” Piacenza said. “You have your parents on TikTok, and all of a sudden it's not a platform that you want to be on. We've seen that with Facebook, we've seen that with Snapchat, and my prediction is that we're going to see that with TikTok in the next few years.”

Year in Review

Fastest Growing Brands of 2021 Include Streamers (Again), Vaccine Producers and Fin Tech

Paramount+ takes the top spot, with HBO Max, Moderna and TikTok close behind

Jason Notte

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Jason Notte