System1 gross profit down 5% in H1 2018

Ahead of its interim results announcement, the agency said it expected gross profit to be 5% below that of the same period last year.

Operating costs in H1 were tightly controlled and, excluding its investment in the new Ad Ratings subscription service, are expected to be 14% below those in the comparable 2017/18 period.

However, underlying H1 pre-tax profits, pre-Ad Ratings and share based payments, are expected to be around £1.9m –73% above the £1.1m achieved in H1 2017/18.

The agency has invested £1.7m in Ad Ratings, a subscription service so clients can compare the effectiveness of their historic adverts with those of competitors and correlate advertising effectiveness with media spend, in H1.