Boomer, Gen-X Opps: Eargo loses CMO, plans to increase spend (Score 55)

Eargo reported that its net revenue increased by about 74% in Q1 during its recent earnings report. One of the reasons behind this increase is the company did more national advertising. It is still working on finding the best balance between digital and traditional offline channels like TV, but the company does plans on investing more in digital ads in the future. 

In other news, Eargo's CMO Shiv Singh departed earlier this year for Expedia, where he now serves as SVP and GM. It may have replaced Singh with Brad Wolf, Eargo's new head of brand that it hired in March from Katalyst Inc, where he served as marketing VP. Eargo also hired Ethan Bruno as growth marketing manager from AudiologyDesign, where he served as digital marketing manager. These new hires likely have authority of the marketing strategy and possibly the agency roster. 

According to Pathmatics, Eargo earned 12.8m impressions through desktop display ads (67%), Instagram ads (18%), mobile display ads (12%) and Facebook ads (4%). It placed the majority (51%) of these ads through a variety of indirect channels onto sites such as fandom.com, yahoo.com, thechive.com, foxbusiness.com and kohls.com. It placed the remainder (49%) site direct onto sites such as instagram.com, webmd.com, wisegeek.com, facebook.com and emedicinehealth.com. It spent about $60k on digital display ads YTD, just 11% of the $551.2k spent in this channel during the same time period of 2020. Full-year spend dropped 46% from $1.7m in 2019 to $921.9k in 2020. 

Per iSpot, Eargo spent around $1.8m on national TV ads YTD, a slight 6% decrease from $1.9m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2020. Full-year spend skyrocketed from $922.2k in 2019 to $4.3m in 2020. This year, it placed ads during programming such as "The Steve Wilkos Show," "Maury," "Jerry Springer," "FOX and Friends" and "The Inauguration of Joe Biden." 

Sellers-- Eargo's products likely appeal primarily to Gen-X and boomers, considering older consumers are more likely to have hearing problems. It allocates the majority of its ad dollars towards digital display and national TV ads. Although YTD spend is down in both channels, the company does plan to increase spend as it focuses on building brand awareness. Sellers should contact this company offering relevant ad space. 

Agency & martech readers-- Eargo picked up creative AOR Huge and PR AOR Edelman in 2020, so both accounts are well under the three-year average agency tenure. However, these accounts may become vulnerable once this company finds a new CMO. Keep Eargo on your radar for future opportunities.