‘Innovative methods' pay off at BrainJuicer
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UK-- Online research agency BrainJuicer has reported strong growth in 2007, its first full year since floating on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market.
Organic revenue growth was 42%, and profit after tax was up 127% to £660,000, well above expectations. The firm's gross margin was 74%.
BrainJuicer's business in the Netherlands grew 63%, thanks largely to a mandate that it won with a major Dutch multinational in mid-2006 to conduct all its insight testing globally. CEO John Kearon told Research the firm hopes to secure more such deals with its other big clients, by building a presence “between where good qual finishes and ‘factory quant' begins”.
A possible move into Asia in the next twelve months or so will depend on whether the company feels it needs to be in a market “to win very big mandates from very big clients”.
The firm's growth has been driven by a number of successful innovative methodologies, including FaceTrace, its emotional ad testing tool, and Predictive Markets, which puts ideas from James Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds into practice.
CFO James Geddes said the firm aims to grow from a niche online player to a top 10 research agency. “In terms of positioning I think we're quite close because those firms are our competitors,” he said. “In terms of size we're quite far away – six or seven years at the current growth rate.”
Geddes believes the firm has what it takes to keep its innovative edge as it grows. “Will we become part of the establishment or will the establishment start doing things the BrainJuicer way?” he asks. “If they do, I think that'll just add to our credibility.”
Author: Robert Bain
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