Author Archives: Scalper1

Good News For Alphabet, Facebook In Ad Spending Budgets, Benefits

Alphabet ( GOOGL ) and Facebook ( FB ) scored big in a survey of advertisers, receiving the highest budget allocations and the best return on investment of digital media properties. The survey of almost 2,000 advertising professionals by RBC Capital Markets had somewhat good news for Twitter ( TWTR ) and LinkedIn ( LNKD ), but not for Yahoo ( YHOO ) or AOL, which was acquired last year by Verizon Communications ( VZ ). Alphabet, via its Google properties, led the pack in the survey that asked advertisers to rank the order of major online-ad platforms based on the return on investment. Facebook and Alphabet’s YouTube followed. Twitter and LinkedIn were next, with Yahoo and AOL last. Twitter was the only platform to see a clear falloff in its relative ROI vs. the prior survey by RBC. When marketers were asked about current spending plans, Google was strongest, followed by Facebook and YouTube, then Twitter and LinkedIn. In terms of ad spend over the next year, 62% of advertisers expect to increase their ad spend on Facebook, while 54% expect to do so with Google, then 32% for Twitter. The trend is quite apparent that ad dollars are moving from TV to online channels, according to the survey. “The trend of pulling ad dollars from television seems to have meaningfully increased,” the RBC report said. The second biggest transfer of ad dollars came from print media. A record 57% of marketers, up from 49% in its previous two surveys, allocate more than 20% of their budgets to online, including a record 23% who allocate over 50% of their budgets to online spending. “We expect online ad spend to continue growing robustly, with a record high 82% of our survey respondents expecting their online marketing budgets to increase over the next year, vs. 16% who expect them to stay the same,” it said. “Clearly, online has become a crucial marketing channel and is continuing to gain importance — a strong secular investment trend, in our view.” Mobile has also become an increasingly important channel, with 73% of marketers allocating some of their online marketing budget to smartphones, vs. 71% in RBC’s previous survey. “We believe mobile will only continue to grow in importance to marketers,” RBC said.

Mobile Accessories Maker Zagg Disappoints With Q4 Earnings

Mobile device accessories maker Zagg ( ZAGG ) tumbled Wednesday after missing fourth-quarter sales and earnings targets. Zagg stock was down about 14%, near 9, in midday trading on the stock market today . The Salt Lake City-based company late Tuesday said it earned 18 cents a share on sales of $78.6 million in Q4. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were looking for 24 cents a share on sales of $82.94 million. On a year-over-year basis, EPS tumbled 58%, and sales fell 23%. Best known for making InvisibleShield screen protectors, Zagg also makes tablet keyboards, smartphone cases, portable power devices and audio products. On March 3, Zagg completed its $100 million purchase of Mophie, a maker of battery cases and external power products for mobile devices. Zagg executives, in their earnings conference call late Tuesday, focused on full-year results. In 2015, Zagg’s sales rose 3% to $269.3 million, and EPS rose 59% to 54 cents. For 2016, Zagg expects sales of $460 million to $500 million. It sees $285 million to $305 million in sales from the legacy Zagg business and $210 million to $230 million coming from Mophie. On the call, Zagg CEO Randy Hales said the company’s new-product pipeline is the best in the company’s history. Upcoming offerings include new screen protectors, keyboards and audio products, he said. Zagg, however, was dealt a setback in screen protectors when Apple ( AAPL ) forged a partnership with rival Belkin in the category. Starting Feb. 9, Apple Store employees began offering to apply Belkin screen protectors on iPhone 6 and 6S series phones, MacRumors reported . “Real kudos to Belkin for having put something in there that captured the attention of Apple, and doing a good job rolling that out,” Hales said on the call. “We actually like it, because it increases awareness to the category, that people really need to protect these devices they are purchasing.” RELATED: Zagg Zigs To Find New Mobile Accessories Business .