28 June 2024
Mirriad Advertising
plc
("Mirriad" or the
"Company")
AGM
statement
Mirriad, a leading virtual product
placement and in-content advertising company, announces that at the
Company's Annual General Meeting ("AGM") being held later today,
Chairman, John Pearson, will give the following update on
trading:
"Revenue for the first half of the
year is expected to be in the order of £400k (H1 2023: £592k). This
is disappointing but we anticipate significant contributions from
partners' sales in H2 and, in particular, contributions from our
inclusion for the first time in the US Network Upfronts*, which are
heavily weighted to Q3 and Q4 as per industry norms. There are
multiple Upfront discussions between partners and agencies that
involve Mirriad-created inventory as part of yearly packages, and
we are optimistic that these discussions will lead to substantial
budget allocations. We remain confident in our overall revenue
expectations for the year though this does now depend increasingly
on these partner-led initiatives, over which we have only limited
visibility.
In addition to the above, we have
initiated co-marketing activities with multiple partners that will
launch in July 2024 and are expected to push sales for the
remainder of the year. In the US we have launched EMPOWER, a
strategic alliance with diverse-owned media supply partners
designed to build a more equitable media ecosystem and drive the
Inclusive Media movement forward. This market represents a
significant standalone revenue opportunity and Mirriad is
well-positioned to capitalise on the need for inventory in this
space.
Our push towards programmatic sales,
sustained by growing advertiser and media partner demand, has
progressed in terms of the alignment with leading adtech and CTV
(connected TV) companies in the industry; however, in a complex
ecosystem of interlinked players, we have been constrained by the
readiness of some third parties. We therefore acknowledge a delay
to the programmatic roll-out in CTV that had been expected in H1,
but stress that the overall size of the opportunity to integrate
the Mirriad ad format as a new standard in the ecosystem remains
the same.
With regard to cost savings, we have
already initiated the majority of the £250k of annualised
administrative cost reductions set out in the fundraising
announcement of 2 May 2024. In addition, we have implemented
approximately £200k out of the £750k of potential annualised
operating cost savings that had been identified and which were also
referenced in the fundraising announcement. We continue to monitor
costs carefully and expect to be able to implement further cost
savings in H2, with some offset by selected recruitment, in
particular to maintain Trusted Partner Network (TPN) Gold status
and scale programmatic activation and sales."
*In TV advertising, the "Upfront" is the long-established
practice of buying and selling TV advertising time months in
advance, typically in the Spring of each year, for advertising
space scheduled to air in the coming television broadcast year. The
most significant of these events is the US Network Upfronts, an
annual, weeklong event in New York.
For further
information please visit www.mirriad.com
or contact:
Mirriad Advertising plc
Stephan Beringer, Chief Executive
Officer
Nic Hellyer, Chief Financial
Officer
|
c/o Charlotte
Street Partners
|
Nominated Adviser and Broker:
Allenby Capital Limited
James Reeve/Lauren Wright (Corporate
Finance)
Guy McDougall/Matt Butlin (Sales and
Corporate Broking)
|
Tel: +44 (0)20 3328 5656
|
Financial Communications:
Charlotte Street Partners
Tom Gillingham
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Tel: +44 (0) 7741 659021
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