COVID-19 and Martech's Law

Companies Close Gap, Digital Advertisers Thrive - Seite 2

Brands must transition to digital outreach or face the reality of business stagnating and dying. In a Bazaarvoice survey of more than 5,000 consumers across different countries, 49% said that they shop more online now than pre-COVID, including 62% of Americans, 59% in Canada and 70% in Mexico. To that point, a Criteo study showed that 70% of businesses surveyed agreed that their company's marketing function became more important during the pandemic for reasons spanning the full customer journey spectrum.

Quick to respond to the burgeoning opportunity, DGTL Holdings Inc. (TSX.V: DGTL) (OTCQB: DGTHF) is building a portfolio of B2B enterprise Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in the digital media, martech, ecommere and adtech sectors. The company's first acquisition, Hashoff, put the company squarely in the forefront of influencer marketing, a practice where people with large social media followings or "experts" in certain niches are hired to endorse products to their audience. As noted in an Influencer Marketing Hub presentation, 75% of companies are dedicated a budget to influencer marketing in 2021.

Hashoff uses proprietary technology to give clients unparalleled access to content creators in the emerging influencer markets that still only comprised about $9.7 billion of the overall $572 billion spent on advertising in 2020. The Hashoff platform is turnkey, using machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to allow client companies to comprehensively search and identify freelance content creators that best align to reach the target demographic, albeit at global scale or a highly refined group, a service dubbed CaaS (content-as-a-service). In addition to its self-serve SaaS platform, DGTL also offers managed services for its customers.

Revenue Growth, Breakeven in Sight

The Hashoff acquisition speaks volumes about the management team at DGTL and its ability to execute acquisitions and accelerate growth by nailing KPIs (key performance indicators). Pre-acquisition by DGTL, Hashoff was generating approximately $500,000 in quarterly revenue. In the quarter ended August 31, 2020 – the first quarter with Hashoff under the DGTL umbrella – revenue increased 83% from the year prior quarter to $1.16 million. During the subsequent quarter, revenue rose to $1.25 million. DGTL's Q3 financial numbers show a similar growth curve, with quarterly revenue growth reaching 68% and FYTD revenue growth reaching 71%.