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.

UNAUDITED INTERIM RESULTS

Mirriad Advertising plc

("Mirriad" or the "Group")

New deals, significant inventory and record US commercial activity drive adoption

Mirriad, the leading in-content advertising company, today announces unaudited half-year results for the six months ended 30 June 2021.

Highlights:

Strategic developments

Financial highlights

Our key performance indicators

Stephan Beringer, CEO of Mirriad, said:

"As we scale Mirriad into a cookie-less, fully programmatic ad-world with high volumes of in-content advertising opportunities for high spending brands; our mission is to secure the most progressive partners and advertisers first. Therefore, bolstering our market position by future proofing the business, including adoption, IP protection and technology development - is our priority as we enter our growth phase. It's here we're on target and today are building a significant market position and valuable IP for the business and it's shareholders.

"Since April 2020, Advertisers have generally retrenched towards more traditional formats as they were mitigating the uncertainties of the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic period. While these market conditions have been delaying our revenue trajectory, it is clear to see that the fundamental challenges faced by the industry - including ad fatigue, falling effectiveness and reach - are starting to bite brands even harder. In the face of these threats and recovering budgets, Mirriad is perfectly placed to counter these issues with a compelling solution that drives measurable purchasing decisions with a format that consumers actually prefer.

"Against the challenging macroeconomic backdrop we have continued to execute  our strategy to scale, and as a result, revenues in the key US market are increasing significantly,  fueled by incremental sales power, a strong roster of new content partners, and an increasing number of relationships with major advertisers and their agencies. Meanwhile, in China, we have taken big strides towards our programmatic future via a new audience-based buying model with Tencent. This is a first for the Company and it's the blueprint for how we see our proposition globally evolving  into the future of the $649 billion media advertising world. Having a leading global tech innovator like Tencent chose to collaborate and prove out our technology and solution is a positive statement. In this new CPM model, advertisers can buy in-content advertising like any other digital inventory by demographics, geographics and context across a vast pool of Tencent's video content and we are now working to build even more market demand and further develop our technology to drive the company towards true scale.

"Mirriad is in the adoption phase of building a marketplace with advertisers, brands and content first in mind. Our investment in global sales infrastructure is now generating a visibly strong pipeline of clients and agency partnerships.

"The advertising market is returning from the pandemic slowdown but we are seeing the first budgets return to traditional ad routes before utlising more innovative media.  We have seen several big campaigns delayed until Q1 2022 giving us volatility in revenue forecasting.  Tencent have also delayed the launch of the new audience buying solution until the Autumn. The year end result is linked to the Tencent launch and the closing of a small number of large deals the timing of which is difficult to predict. This level of volatility has led us to be increasingly cautious in our current revenue forecasts.  In late July the Company provided revised guidance for revenues this year and an expectation on annualised run rate around the end of the year. The Board now expects its revenues to be below this guidance and will provide a further update around the time of the year end.

Going forward the Board remains confident that revenues for 2022 will be materially larger than 2021 as a result of the strong development of the Company's business fundamentals, the opportunities in the pipeline and overall market position. The Company retains a strong balance sheet and healthy cash runway. This gives us the strength to develop our platform and business and build on the market leading position that Mirriad has in the in-content advertising market."

For further information please visit www.mirriad.com, or contact:

Chairman's Statement

These interim results show that we are making positive strides in establishing Mirriad at the forefront of in-content advertising

Mirriad's unwavering strategic focus on the US is driving scalable new revenue streams, and shows a clear route towards future growth. In China, the shape of the new Tencent agreement represents a key step into the programmatic era of the company's business model, while in the US the quality and diversity of new partners reflects the company's own market leadership.

Building on the new partners announced, the company's leadership is now working hard to increase available inventory to cater to the multi-faceted demand that is being built for Mirriad's patented solution.

Advertising spending is now coming back having favoured more 'traditional' media as brands shored up market positions and regain volume. With sector budgets and spend still being in a prolonged period of recovery, our conversion cycles have been longer than we previously anticipated. As we seek to strike agreements with increasing numbers of top-tier partners, this is particularly apparent, but we are also confident that the long-term reward will reflect the effort being undertaken at this moment.

It is also appropriate to recognise the tireless efforts of the wider Mirriad team, who have continued to further develop the platform's capabilities in terms of automation, integration and data intelligence despite periods of enforced remote working. Evolving technologic capabilities have allowed us to make significant strides in live content, for example, with testing taking place over the summer.

While the pandemic has thrown up very real hurdles, it has also focused minds on the fundamental challenges faced by current-generation advertising. The ongoing consumer move towards subscription-driven streaming and sustained aversion to interruptive advertising underlines the continuing importance of Mirriad's core proposition for brands and content creators seeking to reach the audiences that matter to them.

Our position as a market leader, uniquely able to address many of the fundamental challenges faced by an under-pressure advertsing industry, should not be underestimated.

We are grateful for the support of our investors and I am confident in the overall strategic approach, the  company's proposition and the team working hard to deliver against our objectives.

John Pearson

Non-executive Chairman

22 September 2021

Chief Executive's Statement 

Our strategic emphasis on key markets and especially the US, and a renewed focus on technological development is starting to show positive outcomes, despite unprecedented macro conditions arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. Mirriad's in-content advertising approach is primed for the next generation and, as the in-content advertising market leader, we are working to capitalise on a wealth of emerging opportunities.

The two elements at the heart of our strategy are to boost our available inventory, whilst diversifying and expanding our demand pipeline. Progress in these two key areas is accelerated by the continuing development of our patented technology, with exciting developments in live, server-side advertising integration and a cost per-thousand (CPM)-pricing model.

On the supply side, the breadth of deals signed show how Mirriad can leverage multiple routes to market, as we build towards true scale. Whether it's a new, more flexible non-exclusive agreement with Tencent in China, new partnerships in the US with the likes of Crown Media (Hallmark), Up Entertainment, the deal with a UK-based tier-one television production companyor entering the important influencer sector via a partnership with US industry leader Influential, we are finding additional routes to effectively integrate our technology with content sources.

Our recent agreements incentivise agencies to work with Mirriad and to introduce our capabilities to their customers. We believe having agencies as strategic and commercial partners on these terms provides another important pathway to scale.

We have also seen first positive progress in new verticals, including music videos, through the Mirriad Music Alliance with a campaign for Tecate in a Giovanny Ayala music video and for Lays and Lexus in the Concacaf anthem video, both targeted at the Hispanic market.

Last year I spoke about expanding our global revenue footprint, this has been achieved through new deals in the US and China, meaning Mirriad is now contracted with 22 broadcast/digital content partners in total. Revenue in the US is up 333% year on year, and we believe there is more to come in this key market with 7 new sales currently in negotiation with leading advertisers and responses pending to a further 74 proposals or RFPs.

The breadth of the innovative work we are delivering also underlines how Mirriad has extended and established itself, despite the longer-than-expected industry impact from Covid-19. We continue to adapt well to changed working conditions, and are closely monitoring developments in the markets we operate in and serve.

Despite the challenges associated with the pandemic resulting in significant delays of decision making and a reduced appetite for innovation, the fundamentals remain unchanged: our solution is game-changing and much needed as advertisers grapple with the triple challenge of engaging consumers, effective targeting and cutting through the noise that has become so prevalent in the sector.

Collated Kantar, Toluna and Tencent research studies shows our in-content format is actively preferred by consumers, and has proven ability to drive purchasing decisions. Most recently it has been found that Mirriad exposure drives +42% increase to advertising awareness, +20% increase in affinity and +35% increase in spend.

It is clear there is further work to do, but I am confident that with everything achieved to-date means Mirriad is in pole position to  capitalise on returning advertising spend in key markets.

We have carefully controlled our operating costs, whilst adding notable new talent to the team in the form of a new chief technology officer and a chief revenue officer, among others. Both roles are central to our long-term growth strategy and will ensure we continue to innovate.

I look forward to providing further progress updates to the market as we deliver against our clear strategy and demonstrate progress in building additional demand, whilst continuing to refine the protected technology that will define the in-content advertising space.  

Stephan Beringer

Chief Executive

22 September 2021

During the period 188,917 Ordinary Shares were issued (30 June 2020: none).

On 31 December 2020, IFRS as adopted by the European Union at that date was brought into UK law and became UK-adopted international accounting standards, with future changes being subject to endorsement by the UK Endorsement Board. Mirriad Advertising Plc transitioned to UK-adopted international accounting standards in its consolidated financial statements on 1 January 2021. There was no impact and no changes in accounting policies resulting from the transition. These condensed consolidated interim financial statements for the half-year reporting period ended 30 June 2021 have been prepared in accordance with the UK-adopted International Accounting Standard (IAS) 34, 'Interim Financial Reporting'.

David Dorans

Chief Financial Officer

22 September 2021

Company Information

Condensed consolidated statement of profit or loss and condensed statement of comprehensive income for the six months ended 30 June 2021

All activities are classified as continuing.

Condensed consolidated balance sheet

At 30 June 2021

Condensed consolidated statement of changes in equity

For the six months ended 30 June 2021