Mirriad Advertising upbeat on progress with turnaround

Computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI) platform company Mirriad Advertising updated the market on its current trading on Wednesday, reporting that its new management team and business were successfully executing the new plan and strategy set down last year.

The AIM-traded firm said trading was in line with the guidance given to the market in July.

It said 2019 revenues remained subject to audit, but that the company expected them to be 2.74 times 2018 figures, with 2019 full year revenues of £1.14m compared to 2018 full year revenues of £0.42m.

Mirriad said it had continued to sign framework agreements with “leading” broadcasters and distributors.

After the conclusion of successful tests with Channel 4 in the fourth quarter, it had now signed its first broadcaster agreement in the UK and was expecting to run its first live campaigns on Channel 4 programmes in the first quarter.

In the United States, the firm said it was in multiple discussions with tier one networks and streaming platforms, and signed deals with two global media companies in December.

Those companies were Condé Nast, which produces digital, video and social brands, and Tastemade, which makes food, home, and travel content that reaches 250 million monthly active viewers.

In France, the company said it now has contracts with the top three television channels, following a deal with M6 shortly before year-end.

Those agreements contributed to “improved foundations” for future revenues, the board said, with its management confident they underlined the group's continued progress.

It said the contract with Tencent was signed in July, and covered the two years from April 2019 to March 2021, with a guaranteed level of revenues for each year.

The relationship with Tencent was said to be developing successfully, with an increasing number of Chinese advertisers placing recurring campaigns on the platform, alongside growing interest from global advertisers, as well as close collaboration between Tencent and Mirriad technology teams who were said to be “actively working” on the next levels of the proposition for China.

Mirriad said it was expecting to end 2019 with cash resources of £19.1m, with monthly cash consumption over the course of that year averaging slightly below £1m per month.

“We continue to make strong progress, following the large-scale strategic reset in 2019,” said chief executive officer Stephan Beringer.

“The steady flow of new agreements with top-tier content producers and distributors as well as the growing enthusiasm from major advertisers and agencies are evidence of the accelerating traction in the market and the increasing adoption of Mirriad's proposition.”

At 0935 GMT, shares in Mirriad Advertising were up 1.06% at 14.35p.