Director Changes, Business Update

RNS Number : 8963E

SEEEN PLC

16 March 2022

 

SEEEN plc

Director Changes, Business Update

SEEEN plc (AIM: SEEEN) ("SEEEN" or "Company"), the video optimisation platform company offering proprietary technology products and services to help creators, brands and publishers drive value from their video assets, is pleased to announce a repositioning of roles for executive members of SEEEN's Board and other proposed appointments to build on the Company's momentum with respect to customer wins and its recent strategic partnership with Kinetiq, Inc.  

Director Changes

With SEEEN's technology offerings gaining commercial traction, the objective of today's changes is to use more experienced leadership to accelerate the delivery of customer wins and profitability.

As stated in the Group's recently released 2021 Trading Update, during 2022 the Group intends to scale its marketing and sales efforts and build strategic partnerships through joint ventures and M&A.  As explained below, the Board believes that today's changes will deliver those goals.

· Akiko Mikumo and David Anton appointed interim co-CEOs of the Company with immediate effect. Each has complementary execution experience for delivering on SEEEN's growth plan

o  Ms. Mikumo, previously Executive Vice-Chair, is expanding her role.  Ms. Mikumo has significant global mergers and acquisition and corporate finance experience as a senior partner at a leading global law firm. She will be responsible for operating execution and the Group's strategic partnership with Kinetiq, Inc.

o  Mr. Anton, previously a non-executive director, has significant sales experience in the media space with major brands as CEO of Anton & Partners.  He will be responsible for delivering on the Company's sales pipeline and initiating senior level relationships in the media industry

· Kevin Kohn, CEO of Kinetiq, Inc. with which SEEEN announced a strategic partnership on 23 February 2022, is appointed with immediate effect as a board observer

o  The appointment is synergistic with both the leadership of Ms. Mikumo (building strategic partnerships including with Kinetiq) and that of Mr. Anton (sales)

o  Mr. Kohn has more than 25 years of sales, marketing and business development experience in software, online and data technologies; leading 500%+ growth outcomes in multiple prior companies

· The Company intends to appoint Charles Burdick, who has a significant track record as an executive in media and telecommunications, as its Independent Non-Executive Director and Chair of Audit Committee upon completion of customary due diligence.  A further announcement will be made in due course

o  Notable previous roles for Mr. Burdick include: CFO and CEO of Telewest plc, a FTSE 100 cable TV and media company; CEO of HIT Entertainment plc, the AIM listed children's IPR company; and Chairman and CEO of Comverse Technology, a NASDAQ-quoted technology business

o  The Company also intends to appoint another Independent Non-Executive Director

· Todd Carter, who led the development of SEEEN's technology products, resigns as CEO and member of the SEEEN Board but will continue in a different role to oversee customer success and product strategy

Business Update with Respect to Ukraine

· Technology Products: The Company anticipates additional customer wins from its sales pipeline as it is not affected by the Ukraine crisis.

· MCN Business: Cessation of all YouTube advertising in Russia has had an adverse impact on MCN revenue but little impact on MCN profitability. During 2021, approximately 25% of the Group's revenue was generated from views within Russia and neighbouring countries. These revenues, however, had very low margins given distribution agreements made prior to the Group's admission to AIM. The Company continues to add channels in the U.S. and EU including building a sustainability channel for American Leak Detection.

Dr. Patrick DeSouza, Chairman of SEEEN, stated: "Our team is excited by recent customer wins and recognizes that the time is ripe for executing and accelerating our Go to Market plan. The rise of TikTok and recent release of YouTube shorts are increasing market demand among brands and creators for our Video Moments technology.  

We appreciate the effort Todd has made in developing the core product. Now with David's commercial experience and Akiko's transactional experience, we can get the Company to the next level. Further, we welcome Kevin Kohn's leadership in partnering with SEEEN. He joins our Sumitomo investor and commercial partner as an additional Board Observer. We look forward to working with both Kinetiq and Sumitomo to commercialize our offerings."  

Kevin Kohn, CEO of Kinetiq added: "Video in all its forms is quickly becoming the preferred way in which marketers engage with targeted audiences. Whether you are an individual influencer or Fortune 500 company, getting your video seen is becoming more and more difficult. SEEEN's technology introduces a unique combination of AI, software and services to help content creators of all sizes maximize the value and exposure of their video content.  

I am excited to help shape the future strategy of SEEEN especially as Kinetiq is itself leading the way in defining the next generation of video and audience measurement through solutions that help major brands and broadcast networks evaluate what their returns are from their respective video efforts."

Market abuse regulation

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/201 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR").

SEEEN, seeen.com	Tel: [phone]
Patrick DeSouza, Chairman
David Anton, Co-CEO Akiko Mikumo, Co-CEO
Adrian Hargrave, CFO
Panmure Gordon (Financial Adviser, Nominated Adviser & Joint Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Alina Vaskina / Harriette Johnson (Corporate Advisory) Rupert Dearden (Corporate Broking)
Dowgate Capital (Joint Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Stephen Norcross

Information about SEEEN

SEEEN is a video optimisation platform offering proprietary technology products and services to help creators, brands and publishers drive value from their video assets. SEEEN consists of two synergistic divisions: a business selling proprietary AI-based technology products and services and a YouTube Multi Channel Network ("MCN").

The technology division focuses on selling the Group's proprietary AI products that make video actionable through the automated creation of Key Video Moments:

● CreatorSuite - an AI-based tool for creating and publishing Key Video Moments to any online channel, including websites and social media. It optimises videos for Google search to drive larger audiences and increases conversion of viewers into paying customers and subscribers through contextual End Cards

● JetStream - a backbone set of technologies and the Group's key differentiator against other video AI technology businesses. JetStream is used within the Group's other technology products and can be licenced by customers separately either as a whole system or in components

● Dialog-To-Clip - an Adobe approved plug-in for Premiere Pro users that streamlines the editing process via an interactive, speaker diarized video transcript

These proprietary AI products provide the following direct customer benefits:

● Automated identification or Key Video Moments for sharing to the widest audience possible through social media and Google Search with up to 3 times the number of video views and bounce rates of below 20%

● 30% of all Key Video Moments are watched in full, triggering the viewer to see contextual End Cards to take follow-on actions, such as e-commerce

● Clickthrough rates on End Cards of up to 25% supporting both binge consumptions and direct e-commerce

● Proprietary AI models for automated identification of logos, people, speech and objects within videos to measure direct ROI from video creation and marketing spend

● Increased ability to drive contextual advertising as the internet moves away from cookie-generated advertising

The MCN division manages 10,000 YouTube creator channels with more than 11 billion annual video views. These generate revenue from YouTube advertising. These YouTube creators have sought to diversify their income streams and the products from the Group's technology division are being integrated with MCN creator channels to drive increased yield per view.

 

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