07/28/17: Amazon impresses with sales but underwhelms with profits

Good morning. It’s Friday July 28, 2017 and this is your your first early morning Digital briefing!

TODAY’S CODEBREAKER

Deal ID: In digital advertising, a deal ID is a piece of code containing the agreed-upon terms (for instance, the negotiated pricing) between a publisher and advertiser. The deal ID enables the advertiser to access the publisher’s inventory.

JUST IN…

For a few hours yesterday, Jeff Bezos officially became the richest man in the world…But then Amazon dropped its Q2 progress report. The company fell far short of Wall Street’s income projections; Amazon’s second quarter net income came in at 40 cents per share, or a total of $197 million. That’s a drop of 77% year-over-year. Analysts had predicted adjusted earnings per share of $1.42. In large part, the underwhelming profits were due to heavy spending. On the plus side, this does mark Amazon’s ninth straight profitable quarter. And the company’s overall sales numbers were stellar, clocking in at $38 billion in Q2. That’s a 25% year-over-year increase. Nonetheless, Amazon’s shares fell by 1.2 percent in after-hours trading. And Bill Gates can take heart: He’s back on top.

So much for that. Twitter’s first-quarter growth spurt appears to have been temporary. The company’s monthly active user base stayed put at 328 million, unchanged from Q1. In the U.S., monthly users dropped from 70 million to 68 million. Twitter had increased its monthly user base by about 9 million during Q1; it’s likely that November’s presidential election, and its aftermath, helped deliver a temporary boost. Revenue came in at $574 million, a 5% decline from Q1. Global ad revenue – which accounts for roughly 85% of overall revenue – fell by 8%. Twitter has said that the decline can be explained, in part, by the fact that’s been winding down some of the less profitable areas of its ad business, including Tell-Apart, an ad-targeting firm it acquired two years ago. On the plus side, Twitter’s live video efforts saw a promising engagement boost; the company streamed over 1,200 hours of live video, and garnered 55 million unique viewers – a year-over-year increase of 10 million. The company’s shares took a hit, declining by 11% following the report.

Discovery Communications is in advanced discussions to buy Scripps Networks Interactive, according to multiple reports. Scripps, which owns properties such as Food Network and HGTV, reportedly rejected an all-cash acquisition offer from Viacom. As for Discovery, Scripps is reportedly aiming to sell for a per-share acquisition price of over $90. All told, the deal would be valued at more than $12 billion. The deal could reportedly be finalized by as early as next week. In addition to its linear TV channels (and their numerous associated digital platforms), Scripps owns digital properties including Newsy, Cracked, and Simplemost.

APPS + PLATFORMS

And just like that, an era comes to an end. Apple has yanked its iPod Shuffle and iPod Nano devices off of store shelves. The now-discontinued music players were the last iPod models not capable of running iOS (the same operating system that powers the iPhone). Two models of the iPod Touch – basically an iPhone minus cell phone capabilities – will remain on the market. In a price reduction, the 32GB version will cost $199. The 128 GB version will sell for $299.

Millennial-oriented financial news service Cheddar is coming to a new platform. Cheddar has now launched on Haystack TV, a digital news app that aggregates content based on users’ preferences. Viewers will be able to access Cheddar content on the Haystack app via Apple TV and Google Chromecast devices, as well as Amazon Fire TV and Android TV.

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PROGRAMMING

Amazon is going to take its firs stab at theatrical self-distribution, according to a report from Variety. The film in question – Woody Allen’s Wonder Wheel – will debut in theaters December 1. Unlike with Amazon’s previous theatrical releases, such as Manchester By the Sea and The Salesman, Amazon will release Wonder Wheel without a theatrical distribution partner. The decision puts Amazon on a path to becoming a fully-formed studio/distributor. Variety reports that Bob Berney, Amazon’s Head of Marketing and Distribution, will oversee Amazon’s theatrical rollouts from here on out.

OTT + SVOD

Comcast looks set to throw its hat into the OTT TV ring. During a call with investors, the cable giant said that an upcoming service – dubbed Xfinity Instant TV – could launch during the second half of 2017. Comcast has discussed the service before; it’s likely to include local broadcast channels, DVR capabilities, and premium channel options. During the call, executives aid that they’ve been testing various pricing options; according to previous reports, the price might be as low as $15 per month.

CYNOPSIS MODEL D AWARDS

The deadline for the Cynopsis Digital Model D Awards is 4 days away! Submit your entry or nominate a digital innovator for the “It List” by Tuesday at 11:59pm. Finalists will be celebrated at an awards event on November 10 at Three Sixty in NYC. Give yourself the credit your hard work deserves and enter now.

MEASURING UP

Marketers that advertise on national TV have been falling out of love with social media hashtags, according to new research about “call to action” (CTA) advertising from iSpot.tv, the real-time TV ad measurement company with attention and conversion analytics from 10 million smart TVs. iSpot analyzed more than half a million TV ads that aired from June 1, 2012 to May 30 of this year, and found that:

– Facebook had a greater share of CTAs than Twitter in TV ads in 2012, but Twitter has had the edge ever since.

– The use of Twitter hashtags peaked in the last quarter of 2014 and first quarter of 2015. From there, ads containing a hashtag went on a downward trend and appear to have found a natural floor at less than 2% of all national TV ads.

– In 2017 so far, a Twitter CTA is six times more likely to be used by TV advertisers than a Facebook CTA. 1.6% of TV ads contained a Twitter CTA and just 0.25% encouraged a visit to a Facebook page.

– Currently, 57% of all TV ads contain a website call to action, meaning that most marketers prefer driving viewers to their owned-and-operated digital properties.

– iSpot.TV

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Google has hired Liron Damir as Head of User Experience for the Google Home group. The division oversees products such as the Google Home smart speaker, Google Wifi, and the Chromecast streaming device. Damir has previously served as a lead web designer for Pebble and webOS. In the new role, Damir says he’ll lead the design of Google Home’s products.

Group Nine Media, the digital media holding company backed by Discovery Communications, has named April Mellody as its new Head of Corporate Communications. It’s a bit of a career shift for Mellody; she’s previously served as Chief Communications Officer for the 2016 Democratic National Convention Committee, and as an Assistant Press Secretary in the Bill Clinton White House. She joined Group Nine last week, and will report to CEO Ben Lerer, according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter. Group Nine’s brands include Thrillist, The Dodo, NowThis, and Seeker.

TRIVIA

Our Last Trivia Question: Claire Foy is making a habit of playing British royals. The English actress, who currently plays a young Queen Elizabeth II in Netflix’s The Crown, played a 16th figure in the 2015 miniseries Wolf Hall. Which one? Answer: Anne Boleyn. Kudos to Andy Pittman-TAMU/TX, Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg/M and S Entertainment/NY, Andrew Bellamy-Producers Guild of America/NY, Louis Lewow-Lewow Media Group/GA, Peter Steckelman-Tennis Channel/CA, Joel Dearing-Virtual News Center/IN, Gabrielle Pedro Fredrick/National Geographic/Washington, D.C., Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/CA, David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/CA, and Lorrie Shilling/CA

Which American actor plays Winston Churchill on The Crown? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and state.)

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DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

If you’re familiar with “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” you probably remember the fictitious “Babel fish.” Well, it may not be fiction much longer: The WT2, a new gadget from Chinese tech startup TimeKettle, is essentially a Babel fish minus the scales, enabling instant language translation. From TechCrunch, learn more here.

David Teich
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