REG - Mirriad Advertising - Full year trading update

Mirriad AdvertisingAnnouncement

07/01/2025 07:00

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RNS Number : 3070S  Mirriad Advertising PLC  07 January 2025

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of
the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law
by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR"), and is
disclosed in accordance with the company's obligations under Article 17 of
MAR.

 

7 January 2025

 

Mirriad Advertising plc

("Mirriad" or the "Company")

 

Full year trading update

 

Mirriad (AIM: MIRI), a leading in-content advertising company, announces the
following trading update for the twelve months ended 31 December 2024
("FY2024" or "the year").

 

Revenue for the year was slightly over £1.0m (FY2023: £1.8m), a c.45%
reduction on FY2023. Of this, around two thirds came from the US market, which
has been the driver of the overall fall in revenue. This reflects a number of
factors, primarily the further decline of linear TV in the US, which remains
the bedrock of our model until we have our programmatic solution in the
market. Job cuts across the US media industry, with nearly 15,000 positions
eliminated across broadcast, television, film, news, and streaming during
2024, have directly impacted our ability to progress with partner companies
and caused significant delays in our integration progress. On the buy-side,
the allocation of budgets towards commerce- and retail-media continued,
further constraining opportunities in our sector and negatively impacting our
conversion ratios. Additionally, the US election created unexpected
uncertainty, leading to budget reductions, particularly in diverse media
investments, a focus area we had prioritised to offset the slow build of
general market inventory with our major partners.

 

In contrast, our operations in key European (excluding Middle East) markets
have been growing steadily, achieving approximately 40% growth compared to
FY2023. These markets highlight the potential for Mirriad to drive success
when the business is not impacted by structural challenges like those in the
US. The progress in these territories with highly engaged partners underscores
the value of our solution and provides a blueprint for the success of our
business.

 

Despite these challenges, Mirriad has continued to strengthen its position
with advertisers, agencies, and other partners, laying a solid foundation for
growth. By further integrating into the advertising ecosystem, we have proven
demand for Mirriad's format as the key to unlocking scalable revenue and
securing the engagement of content and adtech partners through technical
integrations and content clearance. As a result, we are entering the new year
with a strong pipeline of opportunities with advertisers and agencies,
including the active discussions for larger agency agreements with two major
groups, positioning us for significant gains in the coming year, though we
recognise the need to drive these opportunities to conclusion as soon as
possible.

 

During the year we introduced our new pixel-based measurement solution, which
significantly enhances our ability to unlock advertiser investment by
providing measurable ROI on a transactional basis. We are also on the cusp of
launching our programmatic solution with world leading adtech partners,
currently in testing. This solution will align multiple stakeholders to
deliver an innovative and streamlined approach to in-content advertising,
setting a new industry standard.

 

Progress with content-supply partners is picking up again with growing
evidence of market demand, with the company being in partnership discussions
with two additional Majors and beginning to unlock more content from existing
partners across multiple distribution platforms, resulting in greater
in-content opportunities for brands to launch scalable VPP campaigns in 2025,
the key to successful deal conversions.

 

Last but not least, we are confident that our exciting new partnership with
leading branded entertainment company BENlabs will unlock new opportunities on
both the content-supply side and with agencies and advertisers through a joint
go-to-market and product proposition, including influencer content.

 

As previously noted, substantial progress has been made on cost-saving
initiatives. The cash cost base for the last quarter of FY2024 was
approximately £750k per month, and the expected cost base for FY2025 is
approximately £8m for the year. Cash at the year-end stood at just under
£4.8m, reflecting disciplined financial management.

 

Stephan Beringer, CEO of Mirriad, said: "2024 presented significant challenges
for the broader media industry and for Mirriad. Mid-year, we took decisive
action to address challenges in the US that we couldn't directly control,
including the management change at our SSP partner, delays in inventory
buildup due to prolonged content clearance, and shifting advertiser budgets
toward performance media.

We sought to mitigate these challenges by adapting our strategies and made
strong progress in most areas we addressed, particularly in rapidly
establishing a partner network to reboot the integration of our programmatic
solution, positioning us to deliver a scalable approach to in-content
advertising.

 At the same time, we have been building a substantial proposition around
diverse media to establish an inventory pool highly relevant to all
advertisers, reflecting the importance and scale of diverse media and
audiences in marketing. Despite the impact of the elections in the US, this
initiative was critical as we were experiencing the soft build of inventory
from our major content partners.

The progress we are making with advertisers and agencies with a focus on more
strategic partnerships and budget allocations is encouraging and also a sign
that the format is still in growing demand. Because we have not been able to
activate agency deals as we expected, we are addressing the learnings together
with our agency partners with the objective of successfully monetising in Q1
2025.

In this context, the gradual opening of more content from our existing
partners in the US, as well as interest from new partners, is a clear
indication that the industry is demanding our solution to open new revenue
streams with incremental inventory and accommodate market demand, even in the
face of massive structural constraints.

Finally, we are absolutely thrilled to be partnering with industry leaders
BENlabs and look forward to jointly monetising both existing and new
solutions.

As we move into 2025, I am confident in Mirriad's ability to capitalise on the
significant foundations we have built as a platform across content and adtech
partners, advertisers, and agencies. Coupled with evolving market dynamics,
these strengths position us well to drive long-term growth, though the company
is fully focused on the urgent need to achieve revenue early in the year. We
look forward to updating shareholders on our continued progress in due
course."

 

For further information please visit www.mirriad.com (http://www.mirriad.com)
or contact:

 

 Mirriad Advertising plc

 Stephan Beringer, Chief Executive Officer                 c/o Allenby

 Nic Hellyer, Chief Financial Officer

 Nominated Adviser and Broker

 Allenby Capital Limited

                                                           Tel: +44 (0)20 3328 5656

 James Reeve/Lauren Wright (Corporate Finance)

 Guy McDougall/Matt Butlin (Sales and Corporate Broking)

 

The person responsible for the release of this announcement on behalf of the
Company is Nic Hellyer, Chief Financial Officer.

 

 

 

Notes to Editors

 

About Mirriad

 

The leader in virtual product placement and in-content advertising, Mirriad's
multi-patented and award-winning platform dynamically inserts products and
brands into Television, SVOD/AVOD, Music, and Influencer content. Mirriad
creates net-new revenue opportunities for content owners with an ad format
that virtually integrates brands in entertainment content, drives exceptional
performance for advertisers and dramatically improves the viewing experience.

 

Mirriad currently operates in the US, Europe, and India.

 

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