System1 Group (LSE:SYS1) — AGM

0:00 Good morning, and welcome to the SYSTEM1 GROUP PLC Annual General Meeting. Throughout this recorded meeting, attendees will be in listen only mode. Questions can be submitted at any time by the Q and A tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Just simply type in your question and press send. Company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. Have the company can review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. I'd now like to hand you over to Rupert Howe, chair. Good morning, sir. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, it is now 10:30. I'm pleased to welcome you all, including

0:30 those joining remotely to the twenty twenty five annual general meeting of SYSTEM1 GROUP PLC. As there is a quorum present, we can start the meeting. You may wish to follow the proceedings by referring to the notice of this meeting. First of all, I'd like to introduce myself, Roop Houle, chairman, and my fellow board members. To my right, James Gregory, chief executive officer. To his right, Chris Wilford, chief financial officer. To his right, Sophie Tomkins, senior independent director, as well as other nonexecutive directors. Next to me, Phil McCray. Next to him, John Kieran, and at the end, Conrad Boner, who are all sitting here with me today. The notice of the meeting was sent to you in accordance with the articles of association with the company. And unless there are any objections, I will take the notice as read.

1:19 Thank you. Before we start the formal business of the meeting, I'll explain briefly the procedures we will follow. You've been requested to submit questions electronically, and those that have already been addressed or will be addressed I'm sorry. Those have already been addressed or will be addressed in due course. Today at the end of the meeting, there will be an additional opportunity to ask questions or make a statement. For those in the room, when posing a question, please introduce yourself and mention if you're a member or a representative. For those joining remotely, please route your questions via the investor meet company platform. We appreciate brevity to give everyone a voice. Remember, only questions from members, representatives, or proxies will be permitted. You have also been asked to submit your votes before today. Those who did not do so but are eligible to vote will be invited to vote by way of a poll once each resolution is read out. Please be reminded that those joining remotely are not able to vote.

2:13 To ensure we capture all shareholders' perspectives, we will conduct a poll on each resolution today. I'm appointing MUFG corporate markets, the company's registrars, to act as scrutineers. When you registered your attendance here today, you would have been given a poll card, which the shareholders and proxies present at the meeting should complete and sign as indicated. In the case of corporate shareholders, the poll card should be completed by their authorized representatives present at the meeting or by their proxy. If a voter is both a shareholder and a proxy for another shareholder or if you're attending as a proxy or representative of more than one shareholding, please use separate poll cards. On your poll cards, there are three options for each resolution. You can vote for the proposed resolution against the proposed resolution, or you may withhold your vote. A vote withheld is not a vote in law and will not be counted in calculation of the proportion of the votes for or against a resolution.

3:07 Please complete your poll card by ticking the appropriate box next to the relevant resolution depending on how you wish to cast your vote. Once all votes have been taken on the resolutions, please would you sign the poll card and hand it to the representative of MUFG corporate markets who will be coming around to collect the poll cards. Should you require any further assistance, our registrars will be happy to help you. I can confirm I've been appointed proxy in respect of 8,250,595 shares. Resolution one is the resolution to receive the report of the directors and the accounts of the company for the financial year twenty twenty four twenty five. I formally propose resolution one as an ordinary resolution. In accordance with good practice, I will let you know how shareholders who've submitted proxies have voted.

3:56 Shareholders who've submitted proxies in relation to resolution one as follows. Shares in favor, 8,249,959. Shares against 13. Shares withheld, 623. This resolution is now put to the meeting to vote. Please, would you tick the appropriate box on the poll card?

4:17 I will now close the vote. The poll is now closed. Resolution two is the resolution to approve the director's remuneration report as sent to members with the notice of this meeting. I formally propose resolution two as an ordinary resolution. Shareholders have submitted proxies in relation to resolution two as follows. Shares in favor, 8,159,023. Shares against, 11,767. Shares withheld, 79,805. This resolution is now put to the meeting to vote. Please, would you tick the appropriate box on the poll card? I will now close the vote. The poll is now closed. In accordance with the articles of association, all directors are retiring and are offering themselves for reelection.

5:06 Resolution three is the resolution to reelect John Kieran as a director of the company. As announced on 07/09/2025, John Kieran has, from 09/01/2025, become a nonexecutive director of the company. He's therefore standing for reelection as a nonexecutive director of the company. I formally proposed resolution three as an ordinary resolution. Shareholders have submitted proxies in relation to resolution three as follows. Shares in favor, 8,163,149. Shares against, 86,195. Shares withheld, 1,251. This resolution is now put to the meeting to vote. Would you please tick the appropriate box on the poll card? I will now close the vote. The poll is now closed. Resolution four is the resolution to reelect Sophie Tompkins, who is a nonexecutive director.

5:59 I formally pro propose resolution four as an ordinary resolution. Shareholders have submitted proxies in relation to resolution four as follows. Shares in favor, 8,242,331. Shares against, 7,013. Shares withheld, 1,251. This resolution is now put to the meeting to vote. Please, would you tick the appropriate box on the poll card? I will now close the vote. The poll is now closed. Resolution five is the resolution to reelect Chris Wilford as the director of the company. I formally proposed resolution five as an ordinary resolution. Shareholders have submitted proxies in relation to resolution five as follows. Shares in favor, 8,240,326.

6:46 Shares against, 7,013. Shares withheld, 3,256. This resolution is now put to the meeting to vote. Please, would you tick the appropriate box on the poll card? I will now close the vote. The poll is now closed. Resolution six is the resolution to reelect Rupert Howell, is a nonexecutive director. Formally proposed resolution six as an ordinary resolution. Shareholders have submitted proxies in relation to resolution six as follows. Shares in favor, 8,240,326. Shares against, 7,013. Shares withheld, 3,256. This resolution is now put to the meeting to vote. Please, would you tick the appropriate box on the poll card?

7:33 I will now close the vote. The poll is now closed. Resolution seven is the resolution to reelect Philip McCray, who is a nonexecutive director. I formally propose resolution seven as an ordinary resolution. Shareholders have submitted proxies in relation to resolution seven as follows. Shares in favor, 8,240,326. Shares against, 7,013. Shares withheld, 3,256. This resolution is now put to the meeting to vote. Please, would you tick the appropriate box on the poll card? I will now close the vote. The poll is now closed. Resolution eight is a resolution to reelect Conrad Boner, who is a nonexecutive director. I formally propose resolution eight as an ordinary resolution. Shareholders have submitted proxies in relation to resolution eight as follows. Shares in favor, 8,240,326.

8:24 Shares against, 7,013. Shares withheld, 3,256. This resolution is now put to the meeting to vote. Please, would you tick the appropriate box on the poll card? I will now close the vote. The poll is now closed. Resolution nine is the resolution to reelect James Gregory as the director of the company. I formally proposed resolution nine as an ordinary resolution. Shareholders have submitted proxies in relation to resolution nine as follows. Shares in favor, 8,240,326. Shares against, 9,018. Shares withheld, 1,251. This resolution is now put to the meeting to vote. Please, would you tick the appropriate box on the poll card? I will now close the vote. The poll is now closed. Resolution 10 is the resolution to reappoint Hayes McIntyre LLP as auditors of the company and to authorize the directors to determine the auditors' remuneration.

9:19 I formally propose resolution 10 as an ordinary resolution. Shareholders have submitted proxies in relation to resolution 10 as follows. Shares in favor, 8,238,947. Shares against 10,397. Shares withheld, 1,251. This resolution is now put to the meeting to vote. Would you please tick the appropriate box on the poll card? I will now close the vote. The poll is now closed. Resolution 11 is the resolution to to declare an ordinary dividend of 5.5p per share and a special dividend of 5.5p per share on each of the company's ordinary shares for the financial year twenty twenty four twenty twenty five. As explained in the notice, if approved, this will be paid on 10/17/2025 to shareholders who are on the register of members at the close of business on the 09/26/2025.

10:15 I formally propose resolution 11 as an ordinary resolution. Shareholders have submitted proxies in relation to resolution 11 as follows. Shares in favor, 8,250,582. Shares against, 13. Shares withheld, zero. This resolution is now put to the meeting to vote. Please, would you tick the poll card? I will now close the vote. The poll is now closed. Resolution 12 is the resolution to authorize the directors to allot relevant securities subject to the provisions as set out in the notice. I formally proposed resolution 12 as an ordinary resolution. Shareholders have submitted proxies in relation to resolution 12 as follows. Shares in favor, 8,161,172.

11:02 Shares against 88,800. Shares withheld, 623. This resolution is now put to the meeting to vote. Please, would you tick the appropriate box on the poll card? I will now close the vote. The poll is now closed. We now come to the special business of the meeting. Resolution 13 is the special resolution to allow the company to disupply shareholders' preemptive rights on the issue of new shares subject to the provisions set out in the notice. I formally proposed resolution 13 as a special resolution. Shareholders have submitted proxies in relation to resolution 13 as follows. Shares in favor, 7,578,395. Shares against, 671,549.

11:48 Shares withheld, 651. This resolution is now put to the meeting to vote. Please, would you tick the appropriate box on the poll card? I will now close the vote. The poll is now closed. Resolution 14 is the special resolution to allow the company to disapply shareholders' preemptive rights on the issue of new shares in connection with an acquisition or specified capital investment subject to the provisions as set out in the notice. I formally propose resolution 14 as a special resolution. Shareholders have submitted proxies in relation to resolution 14 as follows. Shares in favor, 6,613,028. Shares against, 1,636,916. Shares withheld, 651.

12:35 This resolution is now put to the meeting to vote. Please, would you tick the appropriate box on the poll card? I will now close the vote. The poll is now closed. Resolution 15 is the special resolution to allow the company to purchase its own shares subject to the provisions as set out in the notice. I formally propose resolution 15 as a special resolution. Shareholders have submitted proxies in relation to resolution 15 as follows. Shares in favor, 7,479,508. Shares against, 1,963. Shares withheld, 769,124. This resolution is now put to the meeting to vote. Please, would you tick the appropriate box on the poll card? I will now close the vote. The poll is now closed.

13:24 You'll be pleased to hear that resolution 15 was the final resolution of the AGM and the formal business of the meeting. Thank you for joining us here in the room and remotely. The directors do appreciate your continued support and look forward to seeing you all in 2025. Please, would you now sign the poll card and hand it to the representative of MUFG Corporate Markets who will be coming around to collect the poll poll cards. The final results of the voting will be published via RNS later today. We'll also publish the results on our website as soon as practical. We will now open the floor to questions or statements from those who've joined us. Please can I remind you that we should, you should say who you are and, if relevant, where you're from? And please can we keep it brief so that we can allow lots of questions to be answered?

14:12 Maynard, I'm happy to come to you first because I know you wish to make a statement. My statement's not brief. Well, can you make it as brief as it's possible to be?

14:22 Maynard Page and shareholder. Reserve the right to cut you off if you go on for too long because I wish to have other people. We're not paid to shareholder. Thank you, mister chairman, for allowing me to make this statement. I'm a retail shareholder. We've owned SYSTEM1 shares for nine years. Witnessed the company's many ups and downs during that time. I have become much more positive about the business from the early success of the platform strategy during the last two years. But following yesterday's update, I no long no longer have confidence in the executive team to man to maximize the value of this business for shareholders. And I believe the best course of action to create shareholder value is for the board to sell sell the business, but at the very least, under undertake radical executive changes. Yesterday's trading update was quite a bombshell.

15:09 The update revealed a forecast of unchanged revenue for FY '26 versus guidance issued less than three months earlier of 15% revenue growth. I recognize business never runs smoothly and growth never happens in a straight line. But the scale of the revised guidance and the short time scale in which it occurred is truly shocking. Yesterday's revised guidance committed one of the stock market's cardinal sins overpromising and then quickly underdelivering. I simply don't believe industry conditions have changed so much since July to warrant such a significant reduction to expected revenue. Now I'm not being clever with hindsight here. On July 11, I participated in an investor call with the executives to discuss the full year results.

15:56 I asked about what underpins the then 15% revenue growth guidance given the subdued q one. I was not convinced by the response, and on July 16, I emailed Canaccord with feedback from the investor call. I wrote, f y twenty six guidance of 15% total revenue growth is welcome. The management were not entirely convincing about what supported that 15%. For example, references to seasonality. The 15% projection requires platform revenue to advance 26% during quarters two, three, and '4, which would result in some very exceptional quarters in h two. And at present, look ambitious following that q one update. As such, I would have expected more commentary on what exactly is going to support what for now seems an optimistic 15% projection.

16:47 So shareholders have to trust management to issue credible guidance, and the two preceding strong years did give management the benefit of the doubt of that 15%. But now looking back, it seems ridiculous. The executives were happy to publicly forecast 15% full year revenue growth, where an outside retail shareholder such as me can easily doubt that projection. This sudden gap the guidance downgrade really begs the question whether the executives have completely lost touch with what is actually happening

17:17 within the business. The other year, shareholders are told of a new performance culture within the business, which would deliver top class outcomes to clients and in turn create value to shareholders. The early signs are very promising. But James ominously mentioned having to further professionalize the workforce and in a in a recent webinar, and I fear SYSTEM1's lifestyle culture remains firmly embedded with business.

17:46 For example, I still note chief innovation officer Orlando Wood continues to plug his own marketing course and make indulgent indulgent films. Chief customer officer John Evans is often too busy talking about himself, as he mentioned SYSTEM1 during his global trotting podcasts. The new innovation MD, Tristan Findley, also admits to doing guided meditation in the middle of a wood during a works off-site day. I fear these examples are just the visible tip of the iceberg of keeping employees happy rather than shareholders happy. Following yesterday's update, James' LinkedIn feed provides a further kick in the teeth for shareholders. Just a few days ago, employees past and present celebrated twenty five years of SYSTEM1 at shareholders' expense with, and I quote, live music, pink cake, and fizz.

18:39 And as employees dance the night away, shareholders have since lost 35% of their money as management seemingly prioritized parties before profit. SYSTEM1 may be deemed a great place to work, but ultimately, great great places to work have to deliver for the owners. Less than three years after the general meeting that asked for new leadership, SYSTEM1 shareholders are once again left to wonder whether this business is being run for the benefit of the shareholders or for the employees. The share price is now back to a level first achieved fourteen years ago. And I'm convinced the independent nonexecs, rupee brewer sorry, Rupert Nice of you too. She's not like that. Rupert, Sophie, Phil, and Conrad must immediately rebuild shareholder trust by seeking fresh executive talent that can issue credible guidance and actually run the business for shareholders. They can finally exploit SYSTEM1's IP to the full.

19:37 The obvious solution is a full scale full sale of the business, whereby a larger trade player could integrate SYSTEM1

19:44 into its own sales network and give Hapless shareholders a clean exit from a business that has offered so much promise but delivered so little since its flotation nineteen years ago. Finally, I call on the major institutional shareholders, BGF, Herald, Kestrel, Crucible, Enniscore, and Octopus to engage with the four independent non execs and instigate the necessary changes. Thank you for listening, and I will publish a copy of this statement on my website, raynardphaton.com in June. Thank you, Well, that wasn't too long. That was alright.

20:18 And you've made your point of view very clear. I'm gonna just answer some of your macro points. You make it sound like forecasts are plucked out of thin air by management. They're not. Forecasts are done by canvassing every single major client on what they're planning to spend in the forthcoming quarter, half, and year. The forecast that we talked about in July were based on client confidence. And in fact, at the time, we even debated whether those forecasts were too conservative. Thankfully, we we didn't, but we did debate that point. And what happened is this market changed fundamentally in August.

21:07 And you only need to read the releases from MNC SACHI last week and this week from both MISSION GROUP and from iBIQUITY, making sim very similar points to the ones I'm about to make. I'm I'm old enough to have seen, I think, two proper, if not three proper downturns in the advertising market, and I've seen nothing like this. And it is caused by the carnage of the Trump Trump tariff regime, particularly in The US, but it's affecting things globally. So what happened is we had a terrible August completely unexpectedly where the clients told us that that not to worry that that would all reappear, that money would reappear in September.

22:00 That's what all the major clients told us.

22:03 Basically, none of that money reappeared. And I've called around all weekend, all the people I know in my industry, and there is a there's a very odd state of panic going on the business community, particularly in The US, about the impacts and cost effects of the tariff regime, which are material. And as ever in those situations, what people do is that they stop doing anything they can stop that's discretionary. And, unfortunately, throughout history, that has always included advertising, which always comes back. And if this was a normal recession,

22:45 I could predict you quite confidently when that might come back. Right now, we can't. We really can't. So our clients are still saying everything's gonna come back in September and October, but we now no longer can trust that because that's not what happened in August and September.

23:03 So that's why we we put out the statement yesterday. I think to state that you've lost confidence in the executive team after their performance over the last two years is frankly ridiculous. I have a 100% confidence in this brilliant executive team who are managing a very difficult process extremely well. I hear what you say about selling the business. As you know, as a board, we always consider all the options open to this business to the to the benefit of shareholders, and we'll continue to do so. What we have to do short term is

23:41 manage our cost base as best we can, but we actually have more clients now than we had a year ago and the best new business pipeline we've had in our history. So what you have to decide as a executive team and as a board is do you cut costs to an extent that you put yourself into a doom loop?

24:05 Or do you actually manage your costs as best you can but recognize that you have to service those clients? And at some point, very little visibility right now, but at some point, that spend will come back. We have, in just the last six weeks, won globally one of the biggest streaming services in the world. We have won a huge soft drink business in The US, the first of the top three

24:32 credit card business in The US, and also globally expanded our business with the world's largest retailer, I suppose, massively, all in the last six weeks. But that money does not flow through till the second half or perhaps even into next year. So the decision we have to make as as an executive supported by the board is do you maintain the workforce to manage that business and grow it and get back to growth, or do you slash and burn and risk going into a doomspour? We're not going to do the latter. We're just not gonna do it because it would be stupid. And we're not gonna change the executive because they're a first class executive who have delivered for shareholders, get in terms of beating the market the last two years.

25:20 We are now suffering alongside the market. This is not unique to SYSTEM1, and we're gonna do everything we can to

25:28 get this business back into growth so that shareholders benefit. But we're certainly not closing down any kind of any kind of future possibilities for the business. That's not our our business to do that. Our business is always to look for the best solution for shareholders. But that does not include panicking short term. I will not panic. May not. Questions? Any other questions?

25:55 With regard to the the investment in the innovation team, how is how is the you've had six months of interest in your team. Well, we're how is that how is that progressing?

26:04 I'll let James know, but we're 30% up already year on year. But So Yeah. So results are looking good in the short term as well as in the long term. We brought in Tristan, mentioned by to the team in March. We brought in a head of sales in May in April, May time, and then a head of sales in The US in June, July. So the team, if you imagine, are on a relatively short basis despite you tend to have a relatively long cycle if you're winning big accounts. But it's fair to say yes. So short term numbers. So at at TYI, our innovation product sales were up significantly year on year for first half.

26:39 We've had some excellent wins. So with, for example, the first bit of work with the the world's largest confectioner, for example, with which ones like that. So we always have the difficulty not being able to name customers. So without having my cheat sheet written in front of me, I'm trying to work out how many you know about that. But three to four. When we come when we come through to sort of future statements, we'll be able to identify some of those. But we are winning in spaces where we haven't been able to win before. And that's because we have more credibility in that space. We have focus in that space, and it's it's starting to work. Having said that, it's growing off a small base. So it's gonna take some time till it actually becomes to the level of where our advertising business is at, but we've made the right early steps in that space. Can I there's there's a couple of other points I want to make because, you know, Maynard's statement, while I disagree with a lot of it, does raise important issues? So the your your commentary about Orlando and John Evans completely misunderstands the value that they bring to this business.

27:34 So we have now a record number of inbound leads from marketing directors, most of which are generated by John Evans' uncensored CMO podcast, which is the most listened to and most subscribed marketing podcast in the world. If John did nothing else, if he did nothing else and he does a hell of a lot more, he would be of immeasurable value to us. Orlando is a genius. Orlando is the spark that turns a business from being good to great. And Orlando's course is educating. It's called AIP, which is advertising Principles. Principles explained. He is teaching the next generation of marketers why SYSTEM1's methodology and why emotion in advertising is so important. He is educating a whole cadre of future clients into why they should think about the methodologies that SYSTEM1 particularly espouses as well as then working in the business

28:37 to help design our products. And if you can't have a small party with one girl with a guitar who's a friend of somebody at SYSTEM1 to celebrate twenty five years I pay for guitarist. With with one pink cake to celebrate twenty five years of a brilliant business, then you're miserable. So that's why I defend that. Well, that's a miserable comment, frankly. Any other questions? Can I can can I just reply to that? Yeah. Of I can. I've been a shareholder for nine years. If I've you've been been a a shareholder shareholder for for nine nine years, years. You'll be good. Yeah. But if you if you think that the best way to if you think that the best way to run a business is to hair shirt it instead of facing up to the challenge, encourage your people, motivate your people to do better, then you haven't run a business, and I have. And I know what's the right way to run a business.

29:32 Any other questions, please? You've had enough. May not. Thank you. Any other questions? Yes. You talked about 80 new customers in q one, I think.

29:39 There there wasn't a figure disclosed for q two. Is Yeah. We haven't closed our quarter yet. So the the numbers we put out into the market were just in terms of the timing where we're at. We will actually be sharing in October the full q two numbers, and they will come at that point. But it's fair to say that, as Riva mentioned earlier, new business in the first half and so continued into the second quarter remains really positive, positive both on the customer accounts and on the total revenue that's bringing in.

30:07 So that part of the business is working really, really well. I think as we we've mentioned beforehand, what we're seeing as a business and what we talked about in our trading update yesterday is a soft underbelly of our large customers who are either pausing, delaying, or doing smaller amounts of work with us. So not leaving. They are still with us as customers. And not going anywhere else as well. Sorry. This is really important. We haven't lost any business. This is just people are spending less. It's very important. So geographically, I think in q one, you suggested Europe particularly particularly soft. Yeah. In q two, has it been become more widespread across Europe, UK, and The US? Or Yeah. Two so two parts. So, yes, Europe remains tough. I think it's fair to say you'll see that with lots of businesses who trade into there, mainly because lots of our businesses in Europe are ones who export into The US and have been faced into those various tariffs that I mentioned. The US has had a tougher second quarter as well. So we'll remain positive in the first half,

31:08 but we'll have a a tougher q two on q two than it had a q one on q one. We've also had an not as an excuse, but there is also a an FX headwind that flows from The US as well, which isn't insignificant. Again, when we talk about our our results, we'll be able to share more more detail either in October or in December.

31:29 Question? Yeah. Sorry. I'm I'm Sam Walden. I've got a couple of questions. In terms of you said before, you know, you've been outperforming the market. Now you're going down with the market. Do you with your talks to peers in the industry, do you feel you're still outperforming or you're this downturn you're doing is the same as everyone else? Hard hard to say. It was uncanny that the ubiquity sort of percentages were almost exactly the same as ours of of what they they reported on the same day, completely un unknown to us, obviously, until we read it as well. I would say history shows that recessions and as I said to Maynard, I'm not sure this is a conventional recession, shows that challenger brands like ours can actually do well.

32:18 Because when times are really tough, the client community will look beyond the usual big, you know, boring global suppliers and will actually consider or are

32:30 more likely to consider smaller challenger brands like ours. So we see it if we can get all our ducks in a row potentially as a as an opportunity. But as I said before, this isn't a normal recession. So the feedback I've been getting from our peers and the broader advertising media community is that we're all suffering a pretty similar fate. I I haven't seen anybody yet who's bucking the trend. There's bound to be somebody who is. And, obviously, if I ever see that, I'll try and find out how. But the way we're looking at it, and we're spending all afternoon together to look at what we should you know, what other things we should do, including looking at some of the points that Maynard raised, is we are going to, you know, see what more we could do to at least outperform the market.

33:21 I mean, ultimately, you can't buck buck market trend. I mean, for example, we have major pharmaceutical clients who are looking at

33:31 massive cost increase increases on imported ingredients and then have a president who stood up two nights ago and told them their products were killing people. I mean, it doesn't really help. And, you know, the the the the chaos in the pharma sector in The US is pretty frightening. I think the boss of Eli Lilly was saying this morning, I know he was trying to get prices down in The UK, but was just saying, generally, the macro environment. It's it's not it is partly the tariffs themselves, but what our clients are telling us is they were expecting by now that at least they'd have settled down and they knew what's what. But they still don't know. Stuff's moving. I mean, every time there's an international summit, it changes. You know? Somebody you know, he meets with Putin and things changes. He meets with the EU and things changes. He's now gone off to the UN and upset everybody, and no doubt something else will change. That's the problem is they don't know what the

34:26 outcome's gonna be. And uncertainty is the enemy of marketing spend, always has been. I think just and just to add to it, Ruby. So the the thing that we can do at the moment is ensure that we're truly focusing on driving that demand. So you take this week just as a week, for example. Last night, we had a launch with Ardman, one of our partnerships of a bit of thought leadership we've done with them, which is excellent in showing how do you create true sort of showmanship advertising in that space. And also this week, we're also part of with iCV, Punch It

34:56 With iCV, seventy years of advertising, and what does great advertising look like? And just to sort come back on the earlier comments on Orlando and John, the reason we get invited to those partnerships, the reason we're on there is because we the credibility of people like Orlando and John who can stand on a stage and actually projects, not just as a supplier vendor, but as a voice in the industry, what it means. And they are incredibly strong in driving our new business generation, both directly through inbounds that will come from a course or from a podcast or through that wider perspective that they can have because of their brands they've been able to build up. Yep. I'm sorry. Yep. Yeah. Carol, as many as you want. Was on terms of staff morale, which talked about the LTIPs. Now it seems sort of worthless in a sense or maybe. But how many people benefit for how many executives benefit from the LTIPs, and what does that what does that mean for morale going out for a few years? Yeah.

35:50 Fortunately, I I regularly take you over on a Monday evening, so I'm feeling quite meditated and calm about it. But, Phil, maybe do want to help? No. Find woods. Find the woods. That's in a in a local village hall. Yeah. Obviously, the the details of the shape of the scheme are within the annual report that's been published. In terms of memberships, both clearly, the executive directors are members of that scheme. And beyond that, there's a team of eight of the exec team that benefit from it or could potentially benefit from it. Clearly, we're still six months away from the start of the first period, so start of f y twenty seven. So I don't sitting here today, clearly, I'm sure management will have a different view of the likelihood of achievement, but I certainly don't feel we're in a position we should be ripping it up and starting again.

36:41 We have a structure of both fixed remuneration, in year remuneration, which we have used really, tactically in the past when we've had strategy

36:52 changes, and we've had previous challenges in revenue trajectory. We've used those really well to kind of motivate and, align the behavior of people in the business with the business' objectives. So they're all still in place. And and as I say, we're still six months away from the start of a three year period of LTIP assessment. I mean, it it is a management challenge in times like this. I've been there myself in person in the past to keep up morale, but but, you know, what what you have to project to to management to the staff is confidence in the mid to long term, which we have absolutely bundles of confidence in the mid to long term, that you're doing all the right things in the short term, that you're not blaming them except where, very specifically, if somebody has underperformed, then clearly that that would as a normal course of business, you'd be exit exiting underperformers.

37:49 But people who are still working damn hard and delivering, you know, good results, we you know, you have to keep them motivated, and it's hard. That's gonna be tough. But we know how to do it. James and Chris are held in huge regard by the by the team at SYSTEM1. It would be catastrophic if we changed them or lost them for any reason. And so I hope to god you're gonna get a hang hang around for a bit. Despite despite what Maynard said, it would be absolutely catastrophic to the business trying to change people who are manifestly successful previously and also are doing a cracking job of managing a very difficult situation. And I I if it helps, I remain optimistic. I mean, if you wind the clock back two and a half, three years ago, we were in a period where the top line hadn't grown and we were facing challenges. And then we delivered roughly 25% top line growth two years on the road. And that was working very, very well until the last six to nine months when we've when we have felt challenges to it. But, fundamentally, does the product work? Yes. Do people want to buy it? Yes. And have we got the right team and the right culture to go and deliver it? Yes. Is there more we can do to continue and improve always? I mean, that's the fundamental job. That's where I go in every day, and I have to tackle with with Chris and the rest of the executive team on that place supported by the board. But we're here because we're optimistic that we can continue to grow the business for the long term value for yourselves as shareholders and for everybody involved.

39:18 Other questions, John? Yeah. Yeah. Can you just comment a little bit about channel mix in terms of, obviously, terrestrial TV advertising is perhaps declining. You've you've they test your ad for TikTok, for example, is a recent innovation. How do you see the advertising market across various channels that you address? Yeah. So, I mean, for that reason, we've been expanding the product suite over the last couple of years. So as you said, we we had originally sort of test your ad products that was then applicable across the law, but we've come in much more targeted. So having an out of home offer, an audio offer, a digital offer, a print offer, etcetera. We've seen some really good traction with our partnership with TikTok and then the products which we offer in that space, which is great. We've seen a lot of the behavioral science applies across many parts of it.

40:08 Yeah. If you want to create greater showmanship, you want to build your brand, you want to drive long term brand growth along time, the short term sales, but the tactics that they use in the different channels will be different, which is why we have these different products. I think as a very long term thing, I mean, it's very obvious that there the market is trending more towards the digital space. A lot of that is also about when you look at the total spend, you'll see people, like, spend on Amazon buying AdWords on Google, which isn't necessarily traditional advertising, but will fall under that bucket where that's also been taking a loss of spend. And I think the position that we have, which I will give us a good defense and good sort of opportunity, is we can still help people understand how they can grow a brand on those channels rather than just go down the route of standard two for one buy now sort of direct marketing. I think that's our position. It's worked really well in the TV space and can definitely apply to those other parts, which is why we're seeing success, for example, with TikTok.

40:58 K. Thank you. Yeah. The the those media partnerships work well. So we've got partnerships with ITV, with TikTok, with ABC in The States, with you know, those things do work well. We're and LinkedIn, obviously, where they build our product into their sales efforts as well. So it's sort of mutually beneficial. Those things are working very well. And, again, protected us from some of the worst of of what's going on at the moment in the market. Are there any other questions? Yeah. Go on. You you nervous AI question. I know that you're working with Warrick Warrick Uni on on AI, and we've seen some AI generated adverts that I think scored very well under the under the SYSTEM1 mythology. Could you perceive a an AI threat to actually the the testing of adverse? Can So so yeah. I mean, so responses that you have built into your system. Opportunity as well as a threat. So we and we'll talk about more in our because we have Capital Markets Day on the October 22, one of the topics we will be going into there will be AI. So in particular, how we can build out our product suites of both our innovation and advertising products in how you can underpin everything we do. I mean, everybody today, whether it's using a phone to find a venue in the morning, but AI is is everywhere now, and then how we can use it for efficiencies within the business. Just three areas that we can really look into it. You think about the value chain and where it works.

42:21 It does AI mean that people can create more advertising and more ideas that need testing? Yes. Fundamentally. So you can imagine actually a world where there is increased demand for testing at the back of it, especially if it's coming in from a more either commoditized or differentiated way than it has been coming traditionally. If you think about opportunities lower in the value chain, so could you swap out human respondents for synthetic respondents? Yes. And and and other vendors are doing that. We API to multiple vendors. So if that becomes appropriate for our business, we can do that. And then in our space, one of our one of our sweet spots is truly understanding human emotion. Now we have an incredible database. We have over a 140,000 adverts in our database, over 60,000 new products or innovations in our in our database as well. If you wanted to truly build out AI that was be able to mimic human emotion to be able to offer the services that we do, you need that level of data. So we're also in a really strong position in terms of having that data, which something can be trained on. Hence, the learnings with Warwick and other partners have been doing since that point. So I think, actually, from our I think as an overall industry macro perspective, yes, it's there. Yes. It can be seen as a threat. The system one, there's quite a lot of upside on that space too. And it's a lot of the excellent work that John's been been doing Yeah. Doing those partnerships.

43:28 I'm not allowed to say anything about it. Yeah. Well, not at the moment. No. But we will. I mean, that's why you can say whatever you like, mate. You can say anything you like, but, certainly, it's gonna be a key part of the Capital Markets Day. That's for sure. I've been writing songs. Yeah. It writes songs as well. Well, that may not is not party frivolous. This is to help adverts, so you leave us sunlight. There's nothing new to say about dishwash liquid, so I'm trying to bring the jingle back with a song about sunlight. Yeah. Yeah. He writes extraordinary singles. It's quite interesting. Which they love. Anyway so, yes, we are we are we are looking at it from very much from a business perspective, but also playing with it with some clients because it it's early days yet. The best bit of advice we ever got from I've got a friend in New York who's seen as the kind of AI called Noah Brahe, who's like the AI guru in New York.

44:27 And Noah's a he's actually a friend of my nephew as it happens, but I've met Noah, and he's done a masterclass for us. And he just said, look. The only thing I'll ever the only advice I can give you about AI is make multiple small bets. Because if you make a big bet, you'll be wrong because everybody's gonna be wrong. What you need to do is lots and lots of very little, very cheap bets and see what happens, see what works. You'll learn each time, and that's kind of what we're doing in partnership with our clients. Yeah. And, I mean, we are we are trying to be on the forefront of this, a good example. So, again, without getting to name customers, but we we carried out within partnership a project for a customer. It's the first time working with that customer in the innovation space, a large global brand. And we were able to use their AI, which was very much focused on sort of scouring human emotion across Internet, etcetera, where data points.

45:16 And alongside our testing, there's a there's a way to truly accelerate their experimentation and the potential go to markets in a new region for them. I think that's the so those are some of these opportunities where you can move quickly in partnerships, etcetera, before we work out where the market's going to trend and where it can go. So there is real upside for us in that space. And one one one question. There's one one question for Okay. Sorry, Chris. Yeah. So there's a question from Christophe. If the market has turned down, is this a good time to be increasing expenditure or, inverted commas, investment? This probably comes from multiple studies, which are in a that's a question normally aimed at the client community because there are multiple, multiple studies, notably by Procter and Gamble, showing that actually the best time to gain market share is in a recession when you can you get more bang for your buck than by outperforming your competitors.

46:15 When it comes to the narrow system one, I wouldn't say this is the time for us to invest more. I think it's the time for us to stick to our guns with what we've already invested and committed because it's beginning to work, and that's in the innovation space. Now, of course, there's fine tuning to be done and so on in the new world we find ourselves in. But, you know, we made that commitment to in to invest in our innovation product, which we're doing, and innovation people. So I wouldn't I wouldn't say with the SYSTEM1 hat, it's time to invest more, but it's definitely time to hold our nerve and to stick to a strategy that has so far served us very well, although we will always look at it on a sort of continual basis in case it needs to be adapted. Yep.

47:00 Any other questions? Yep. Please. If you could Can you sorry. Could you say Yeah. Oliver Oliver Levy. If you could hi. Tell me. Through predict your data and improve your data, it's labeled as one is labeled as as sort of data and data led consultancy, and the consultant is going the other as data. My can you just walk me through what you mean by data? It's winding that back. Because often, data spend doesn't go as volatile as as you're showing here. Yeah. They're volatile. Okay. That's good. So so I think the other the other word that can be applied to it would be predictions. So we have a platform which in our advertising, our innovation, or in our brand space allows us to predict an outcome. So how how likely will your advert drive long term brand growth or short term sales and impact on your brand overall brand for fluency?

47:50 Those reports are driven through an automated platform. So and that's what we refer to as the data. So if I'm a customer, I want to upload my ads to the platform. I want to understand the impact that's going to have on my business. That revenue derived from those tests and those predictive outcomes are what we call data. The data led consultancy is when our consultants are able to help the customer truly understand what that says, but then improve it further. So we have those database of adverts. We have that database of innovations. So we can go on and we can inspire. We can say use of jingle earlier. Like, how does your sound work? Like, how could could you differentiate your products better? How could you add more surprise or have less surprise depending on what you want to add into the overall products you're developing? So that data we offer is, in reality, sort of almost project led deliveries of data, but the data is a prediction and outcome. It's not a SaaS subscription to access to an x number of data points across the market, which is just fed through onto a platform on a daily, monthly, or yearly basis.

48:49 And perhaps my question was understood a little bit of I've understood, like, some of that in a sense as what I thought. My question comes to how is it how do you price for clients? So do you have Yeah. What visibility do you have? That's that's sort of sorry. Sorry. Yeah. So, yes, we do. Yeah. So we so the our our revenue model is that we so for the majority, say, our brand business tends to be long term commitment because people might test for have a brand tracker for two, three years, for example. Access to our database, so those 100,000 plus adverts I've talked about is on a subscription basis, but that's the downside, that's 10% of roughly of revenue. The 90% of the rest of the revenue will come on a project basis. So we do work with customers to get towards long term commitments that allow them to have, for example, certain rate cards based on spend commitments, etcetera.

49:35 But what we don't have is cash upfront, which is then drawn down against, which would be more of a true I guess, a traditional kind of subscription project based business. Now, again, something which we can look at further in terms of giving more consideration of of defensibility in downturn, for example. But the advantage of that business model also does mean that when you are growing, you are able to grow faster than the market. So part of the reason we've been able to grow faster and have sort of good competitive pricing is because of that model as well. So it's something again, it's a topic we've got we've mentioned we've got time later on today. It's one of those topics on the table of refinements of pricing models, for example, in a downturn, and and would you want to consider something different. And then thinking to that pricing question is, what do you think your return on investment for your clients is by using you? You have a view on that? Are you generating 10 times return, five times return for them?

50:27 Yeah. For every if $100,000 they spend with you, how much do you how much do they save? Well, I mean, think so their sales. Yeah. I mean, it's going through your system, and you're refining it. Yes. I mean, we have and if you answer, we can we can definitely share. So we have shared so we have I think on on our website, we have various validations that take you through the various levels. So if your if your category average star score is x and you are y, this is the long term brand market share you can you can steal for it. We also that's what we tend to work with on our customers. So when we have, like, a new pitch conversation, it's very easy for us to have a conversation to say, look. You know the business results you had over the last year. You've run 10 campaigns. We can tell you what we predicted those campaigns to do. You you know the results. Do the correlation and see if it works. Our predictive correlation is what allows us to win in that space. We're ahead of the market by a long way on the predictive what we call predictiveness and the which is the predictive correlation.

51:17 I think the the other bit also to reflect. So if you think about, say, for example, in the advertising space, pretesting is worth about 1¢ of total spend in advertising. So the money spent on us is very, very much worth it either to work out should you add air that in the first instance, should you just air it for the minimal amounts, or should you really be doubling down on this one as you go forward? Because that's where the the the long term return is going to come as well from this. Which clients are we allowed to talk about? Not not many, John. But Pfizer, for example, or go ahead. I don't know the figures for that one. Any else? No. Who who are you talking about? Who do you want to talk about? I don't know. Just tell me So I'll I'll I'll ask an ask another question. Name name So basically in principle. In answer to your oh, thank you. In answer to your question, the market the spend that they give us when they have a four or five star ad and their brand share grows, these are big companies, the answer to your specific question could possibly be a thousand to one. Yeah. I mean, massively, it could be 10,000 to one. So so with that data point and let's just say it was 10 to one. Let's get a thousand to one. It's much more. Yeah.

52:33 What why would anybody cut a penny of spend unless they're not airing ads at all? That's not Right. So they're not they're not airing an ad at all, I get it. Yeah. That that sorry. Is that May maybe I I should have said also in my in my commentary too is a lot of what's happening so I was talking to a nonexecutive director friend of mine of one of the biggest, if not the biggest retailer in The UK, who said, basically, they're having the discussion about rerunning their Christmas app this year and not doing a new one. Well, then if they do that, there's no testing. So we get we get zero revenue, and they're they're protecting. In fact, there was a report about a week ago, and I I've been trying to find it. I've I've definitely read it, but I couldn't find it. They're showing that clients are protecting their media spend, in other words, their reach, by cutting advertising production, I. Making one ad instead of two or no no new ads. And inevitably, if they make less ads or use old ads, they use less of us.

53:35 That that that's the issue. So that's how it tumbles it tumbles down the system. But the ones who are making new ads, our clients always test them because the value is absolutely immeasurable. And one of the things we are looking at is, as James said, in this environment, maybe maybe there are more solid contracts we could negotiate with some of the clients who have shown at least over a couple of years that they do stuff every quarter even in difficult times, even if it's less. And maybe we can we can have a, you know, a a more retained retained relationship. Although, again, this week in campaign magazine, there's a big article saying the move from retained relationships to project relationships and ad agencies is growing exponentially.

54:26 So perhaps our model is where the world's going, and, fortunately, we know how to work it better than most. And your clients are the end customers. Customers. Do Do you you also have ad agencies as major clients? You think every ad agency has to use you? Yeah. So over 90% of our revenue will come from end end customers and brands. We do work with agencies. So either of us is because they want to use us to help validate their work before they proceed in front of a customer. They want to help convince a customer that they're better than another ad agency or because we have strong relations with them as well. Again, we do try and I think because of our celebration of creativity, whereas lots of our competitors tend to bring things back to the norm and sort of almost dumb down creativity in a way, we are seen more favorably by them. Think I if you look in that space at the moment, though, there aren't many who have a wonderful set of results who are looking to kind of increase and and spread the pie.

55:19 Yeah. So they they are they are definitely in a place of looking after themselves. So, again, we need to make sure we can add value to them and we're seen as providing value to them and to the end so that we can have that. I think there's pretty just one macro point on this kind of questioning as well. What we offer is incredible. Okay? So the predictiveness we offer our customers is, like, market leading and best than anybody in the market. The customers who use us truly see that and truly understand it. What we don't have enough is enough brand awareness globally that that's the case. Yeah? So the reason that we invest in things and, again, going back to the early point. But, for example, Orlando's course is exactly that. If anybody goes on that course, it is eight hours of SYSTEM1 Incredi like, saying how incredible it is and how it's the only way that you should think about advertising in the future. So, for example, it's not surprising that we are then we need business off it or we retain customers for longer on it. The reason that John Evans has his global podcast is because he's able to go and have conversations with the world's biggest CMOs.

56:11 And, again, he's able to talk about in my role as SYSTEM1's chief commercial officer, for example, chief customer officer. So those are the bits where we are trying to, in a challenger brand way, extend our brand beyond the norm. We're we're a small business. We don't have the the budgets that the likes of a or a Google or whoever will be a competitor in this space will have to buy a beach at Cannes. So at Cannes, for example, we do great thought leadership that gets us on the stage. We don't spend any money on that. This is where we are asked to pertain, whereas other people spend hundreds, thousands, to millions of pounds just to have a Logan a slogan out there. So that that for that for us has always been a focus, hence the investment we've been doing on long term brand growth. If we get that right, the more we win, more we retain, the more that will cycle upwards. And, again, that's what gives me the hope. To ask that question earlier, that's what gives me hope. We've got that momentum, that flywheel spinning. We've just gotta keep pushing it.

56:58 Any more questions? Another question Okay. Online from Christophe Elligan. I'm struggling to reconcile the board's positivity and the fact that the share price is down almost 70% in the last twelve months. Please summarize why investors should remain invested. I would say if you take a medium term view, if you take a short term view, I can imagine that you are a bit depressed. If you take a medium term view, which is the view as a board, we have to take alongside the short term view, we're extremely confident because we know our product outperforms. We know our people outperform. Outperform. And the thing that gives us the most confidence in the lot is we haven't lost clients, and we've got the best new business pipeline certainly in recent history in terms of not just the number of clients we're winning, but the nature of the class we're winning. We're talking about big global industry leaders that we are starting to win.

57:57 In one case, the entire global business off one of our mega competitors, and in other cases, taking significant share of mega competitors. That's what gives us confidence for the future alongside what I've seen from this executive team and how they how seriously they take both the management of the business, the delivery of the strategy, and their desire to give a good result to shareholders. It is there is there is absolutely no indication whatsoever that anybody on this table wants anything other than the best for all our shareholders, and we need to deliver to that. But, you know, the market is the market, and you can buck it to a degree, and we're gonna look for every way we can.

58:46 But the great thing about I always say that I knew that Jordan Brown was a moron when he said I've abolished boom and bust. Because I grew up by the sea, and the tide always goes in and the tide always goes out, whatever you do. Sometimes it goes in and out more. And just when you think things couldn't get any worse, they start to get better. And what you have to do is to make sure you're in the right place to take advantage of it when things get better. The issue at the moment is it's hard to see when that might be, whereas in a traditional to you know, a recession, it's easier to predict when that might be. I think the only thing I'd be particularly positive about is this might actually change quicker than a conventional recession because it's a lot of it is sort of women madness based rather than, you know, genuine economic fundamental downturns.

59:37 So, yes, we are we are midterm confident, but we know we got a hell of a job to do short term to both ensure the business is in the healthier shape and to try and recover some shareholder confidence because, obviously, we're not remotely happy about where we are today. Other other reasons for optimism, of course, we have a significant amount of cash in our balance sheet, which for any company is very important because it means significant fate is in our own hands. Good point. Sorry. Shouldn't say So with calm heads able to navigate very difficult, uncertain environment, having that kind of balance sheet strength and a strong exec team means we're in great position to navigate this this through. Yeah. Something that actually was mentioned on a number of our major shareholders, that that's a that's a good asset.

1:00:25 Any other questions? Yes, please. And I'll just follow-up on on the multiple question for the client? Given John's answers, actual question for us. Question is, aren't you underpricing your product? The very first thing I said when I joined this board and when there was different executive team in charge is I said, I think our product is too cheap because it's an amazing product, and I think we might be undervalued here. And, actually, we've priced it up quite a lot, I think, John, in Yeah. Certainly over the last couple of years. Again, it's something we've got on the agenda this afternoon. Is there is there is there a way we should be pricing? One of the things I tried to do in my advertising career was to get more bonus payments by results.

1:01:12 Because if, you know, you're predicting something great, you steer a client a certain way, they gain their market share. Is there some kind of bonusing arrangement you can get involved? Again, that's something a a topic we might raise. It's quite hard to do. I got it with a few clients. I tried to I I was involved directly right from the outset in launching GO for British Airways, First Direct for HSBC. I launched Amazon over here for Jeff Bezos. Never met him, but lots of emails. Blah blah blah blah blah. And And I I tried to get shares. Wish to god I had. I certainly wouldn't be here. I'd be in Monaco and joining you remotely. But it's very hard to do because of the way the sort of governance works in major companies. You know? Even on a new product launch, you can't get it. But you sometimes can get performance bonuses, and I think that's something that we we should be looking at midterm.

1:02:03 So good point. And and just on specifically on the tactical point, we did put our prices up by 25% in sort of the first twelve to eighteen months of but after I took on sort of the role. We've also done things like we've launched the ability to ask additional questions on top of it, so what we call pro plus. So if you buy a standard test for call at five thousand pounds, every additional question you ask is another thousand pounds on top. So we are so both at the macro, so at the top level looking at pricing, but also how can you drive value for the customer which they're happy to give you the revenue back for. But I agree. I mean, the value the value which we deliver for customers, if we could link it to a percentage of choice, then we can. John, yeah. Since I've set a hair running, market research in general is bought by the yard. Yeah. One of the things I've always felt, and we're gonna talk this afternoon, is targeting the CFOs of companies where you have actual proof of the fact of the increased brand share and the money that that brings in for the company.

1:03:07 No one's ever done that. I don't know whether we will, but I think we should. Is that do you see, you know, micro searches or we have yeah. You're All I can say say to that is you have to do it carefully because I tried it once without telling the CMOs I was gonna do it. That's true. They didn't like that if I because I they accused me of going over their heads. So but but, actually, once you could get the CFO and the CMO in the room together, then the discussion became more mature and and more interesting. So this is all all stuff we need to look at again. Because when things are going great, you know, stuff the machine works. When things are going less well, you've gotta look at every component in the machine and see what you can do to make it better, which is we're starting that very process for the whole of this afternoon.

1:03:54 So unless there are oh, sorry. Another another one online. Two two two more questions. How are you improve this is from. How are you improving and strengthening your business moats and strengthening the longer game and longer term sustainability? Are you looking for markets that are out of alignment or sync with the Anglo Saxon world? Yeah. Well, I can say, I mean, we'll we'll talk about, as we said, the the future kind of advertising innovation and AI, which will address a large part of that strategically in a month's time. So I'll leave that that part to there. I mean, recently, the investments in our innovation offer is exactly that so that we we aren't just beholden just advertising, but we can also have a growth business in the innovation space as well. Which is a much bigger market incidentally than the the advertising market. I mean, for awareness, not everyone will know, but we offer our products in over 80 markets as well, so both our advertising and our innovation. So we have got global reach, so we can do it, be that across non English speaking countries as well. So we do have some of that as well.

1:04:55 So, yes, I think probably one that we'll come back to in a a future point, if that's okay. And there was another one, Chris. Yeah. This is this is a probably a a very broader question lifting us out of the kind of near term business performance. Can the technology you have understand human sorry. Can technology understanding human emotion be used, for example, for suicide prevention by analyzing speech and written communication? Job care. Oh, yeah. That's John. No. Not really. Oh, what's your No. No. I'm sorry. Go on. No. Not really. I mean, mainly partly or mainly because with that specific example, part of the problem is people can't talk. They don't talk. They can't they don't share. So how would you pick it up?

1:05:47 And even facial recognition, what I mean, you're gonna find a way to sort of watch people for the whole sort of week, day. That's yeah. So Not not on current agenda. No. Well, it's no. But it's I mean, but it's how can it help society, you know, beyond advertising? Yes. You can measure the mood of the nation. And political ideas and stuff like that. Yes. That's I think it definitely can help with that. And you because, again, the focus the sort of the there's hegemony of focus groups where people, particularly politicians nowadays, ask people what they think. What my whole career, what I learned about 99% of focus groups is people tell you what they think you want to hear, and they're trying to be helpful.

1:06:42 So people are trying people on the whole in focus groups are trying to be helpful. And what they do is they always bring you back to what they already know. So they bring you back to the average. So you might wonder why every car ad has somebody driving on a windy road on the, you know, South Of France. That's because if you do a car ad that isn't like that, people say, well, why haven't you got the car driving on a nice windy road in the in the desert or something? And it's because they're trying to be helpful. They're not trying to be boring or obtuse or or they're trying to be helpful. But, unfortunately, that is what people do when you try and talk to them rationally about these things. The whole difference with us is we look at how they emotionally respond. And the fact is if you show car ads with windy roads, they start yawning because they've seen it a million times before. So the whole point is that it's emotional response that makes the difference. And I think that could be used in wider society massively more. Our current techniques are basically the broader the population you're looking at, the more it can help. Exactly. And when it comes to the original question, you know, about suicide, that's where AI, I think, has something to say. The number one use of AI in the world, therapy, or basically treating it as psychology.

1:07:57 Number one. Interesting. I think I I think unless there's any more urgent questions, I'm gonna close it down. I mean, thank you. That was lively old question session. I mean, my apologies if I've got slightly irritated at one point, and you but you make perfectly acceptable valid questions and points. And I'm glad you got your whole statement out, and it wasn't as long as you threatened it was going to be. And I hope and I hope that you can see that, you know, we've tried to answer your questions even if you don't agree with the answers. And, gentlemen, I hope that you you feel that we've answered as fully as we could any questions you have. So I think at this point, hand back to the moderator. So I have to say first, thank you. That brings us to the end of our q and a session and officially concludes today's meeting. A special thanks to all the shareholders who've joined us today. Genuinely, we we do it would be pretty dull if nobody turned up at all.

1:08:46 So thank you for that. And it actually gives us more food for thought for our strategy session this afternoon, so it's genuinely helpful. You you know, so even if some of the things we might not like, it's still genuinely helpful because it makes us think, and that's what we need to do. Thank you very much. So if I hand back to the moderator to close the business. Thank you very much indeed, sir, and thank you to the board for updating attendees today. Can I please ask attendees not to close the session to be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order the team can better understand your views and expectations? This will only take a few moments to complete, and it's greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the board of SYSTEM1 GROUP PLC, I'd like to thank you for attending today's annual general meeting proceedings. That concludes today's session, and good morning to you all.