Hasta La Creative!

Last month, Perform Group, a U.K.-based sports media company, warned investors and analysts that its year-end revenues were expected to fall 6% short of expectations. The miss, they said, was partly because digital display advertising in the U.S., where Perform is majority owner of The Sporting News, would not grow as quickly in the fourth quarter as it had forecasted earlier in the year.

Investors didn’t take the news well, quickly halving Perform’s stock price on the London Stock Exchange. On Jan. 10, the company said Chief Financial Officer David Surtees had resigned after six years at his post. Oliver Slipper, joint-CEO at Perform, told Ad Age the revenue miss was related to overly optimistic forecasting, not poor performance. The company still expects revenue growth of 35% for 2013, with ad revenue growing at more than 50%. Most analysts remain bullish about the company, and its stock price has recovered somewhat.

Still, it was a surprising misstep for the high-flying Perform, which aims to be a serious player in the U.S. ad market. The company, which draws the bulk of its revenue from distributing content and data to sports online betting sites, has looked to digital and video advertising for growth. In doing so, Perform is following the money, Mr. Slipper said.

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