Collective Audience CEO tells Hawk Point Media how an ambitious 2024 agenda in a multi-billion dollar ad-tech market can lead to breakout growth (Nasdaq: CAUD)
Collective Audience (Nasdaq: CAUD) is an innovative audience-based performance advertising and media platform for brands, agencies, and publishers. The company was listed on the NasdaqGM in Q4 and, since then, has been strengthening its management, advisory, and board to capitalize on significant opportunities in the ad-tech sector. Collective Audience introduced a new open, interconnected, data-driven digital advertising and media ecosystem that eliminates many inefficiencies in the digital ad buyer and seller process for brands, agencies, and publishers. They also provide sought-after visibility, complementary technology, and unique audience data that drive focus on performance, brand reach, traffic, and transactions.
To get a better perspective on how Collective Audience intends to capitalize on its opportunities in a sector estimated to be worth over $839 billion in 2023, Hawk Point Media reached out to its CEO, Peter Bordes, to get his take on how his company plans to earn its share of that potential. Here’s what he said:
Q: Your company debuted on the NasdaqGM in Q4 of last year. What’s happened since then?
A: It’s not an understatement to say “a lot.” As investors know, we commenced trading on the NasdaqGM following the completion of the business combination involving DLQ, Inc., a former subsidiary of Logiq, Inc., and Abri SPAC I, Inc., a special purpose acquisition company. At the time, the combined market cap of those entities was roughly $64 million, so it was indeed a value-creating event for our stakeholders.
Since then, Collective Audience has added what can be best described as an all-star management team, including stellar advisory and board members. Listing the accomplishments of each takes pages, so check the link to our website to understand the impact the collective minds on the Collective Audience team can have on near and long-term growth.
We’ve also completed the special dividend portion of the business combination referenced, a second major milestone in that it positions our company to capitalize fully on targeted market potentials. And, of course, we have quite a bit happening on the business front. We look forward to sharing that information in the coming days and weeks.
Q: Until you provide that insight, describe what your company offers to current and potential client companies?
A: In simplest terms, we provide client companies with specialized strategies to enhance digital marketing programs and audience engagement. That’s a simple answer, but the technology behind what we do isn’t. That makes us different and, in many respects, better than our competition. That’s a sentiment one would expect from a CEO. But, it’s justified, knowing that we serve as a one-stop-shop that can leverage industry-best technology to help businesses reach and interact with their target audiences more effectively. Combined services include data analytics, targeted advertising, and customer relationship management. While some in the space do one of those, few provide a package as comprehensive as ours. We think that distinction exposes clear advantages, which motivate clients to engage and are value drivers for us.
Q: Speaking of clients, how significant is the market opportunity?
A: It’s enormous today and increasing at a tremendous pace. The audience-based performance advertising and ad-tech sector is forecast to reach $2.9 trillion by 2031. Today, we are targeting the hundreds of millions in play by providing our brand and suite of services. Of course, we’ll grow into the larger market opportunities as well. That won’t be by coincidence. As the Collective Audience story unfolds, investors and clients will understand how disruptive we intend to be in markets that can often be complacent to change.
So, rather than just participating in what is a technological revolution in the ad-tech space, we want to be a leader in it. Doing so puts tremendous opportunities in play for us in 2024 and beyond. We think our portfolio arsenal will enable us to tap into a period of expected extraordinary sector growth into this decade’s end. Here’s the thing- with expected trillions in play, earning even a modest percentage of the market potential can be transformative for our company. Benefiting as well are our clients and, one would expect, our shareholders.
Q: On the latter, what’s the capital structure at Collective Audience, and how does it play into your optimism of creating shareholder value?
A: So, we debuted on the NasdaqGM as a lean company in that perspective. We currently have about 13.73 million shares O/S. Of those, roughly 83% are held by insiders and about 5.2% by institutional investors. Relatively speaking, that leaves a small number of shares in the public float that, on a revenues-to-shares basis, assuming we grow as planned, can support forward-looking models for higher valuations. At current valuations, roughly $16 million today, we believe we have a capital structure conducive to filling the gap we think exists between our assets, potentials, and share price. And that can start to happen faster than many may expect.
Q: Of course, competition will play a role in that outcome. What’s your perspective on the current landscape?
A: Certainly, there’s competition, with some of it coming from some global players. But keep in mind that we’re not talking about just a handful of companies needing what we provide; there are millions of them, large and small, needing to stay competitive. Many of those lack the technical or financial resources to remain relevant in the changing landscape. So, there’s plenty of business in everyone’s crosshairs.
Still, as I noted earlier- we don’t just want to participate; we intend to lead. So, by being targeted and efficient in our strategies, we are comfortable in our position competitively speaking, especially with our ability to leverage our unique data-driven, end-to-end solutions that make it seamless for clients to access data and activate campaigns across multiple media channels.
Q: That’s important, why?
A: Because digital marketing is and will remain for the foreseeable future, the optimal solution for companies wanting to communicate with current and prospective customers to create and maintain brand awareness. What was a luxury just a few years ago is now a necessity, with digital marketing a critical contributor to brands standing out from competitors in congested markets. We provide them that ability through a holistic, self-serve adtech platform, giving them a data-driven, AI-powered system that enables them, brands and agencies, to advertise across thousands of the world’s leading digital media and connected TV platforms. That’s crucial to businesses today.
Keep in mind that every day, billions of eyes are glued to one type of device or another. As it should, that’s led to significant adtech spending, with many companies targeting their customers’ time spent on the multitude of social media platforms. That’s opened the door for ad tech providers like us to provide clients with programs allowing them to reach targeted demographics through new forms of retail media, connected television, and E-commerce channels. We’ve positioned ourselves, supported by cutting-edge technology, to give customers the tools to bring their audience objectives to life quickly and effectively. That’s a value driver for us and our clients.
Q: Do you think that’s what will, as you said, close a presumed valuation gap between your company’s share price, intrinsics, and potentials?
A: As the CEO, I always focus on creating shareholder value. Remember, insiders hold the vast majority of shares, so interests are clearly aligned. Markets can be erratic, especially for newly listed companies still getting introduced to those on the institutional side of the business. But at the end of the day, fundamentals are what supports valuations. And we are working hard every day to strengthen those intrinsic elements.
We’ve added assets, assembled a stellar management and advisory team, and provide a platform to clients that we believe is unrivaled. Combining that, we expect to earn a more appropriate valuation as investors become more familiar with who we are and what we do. It’s certainly in all of the teams best interests, financially and professionally, to create sustainable near and long term shareholder value. So, while low-float stocks like ours can be whipped around, volatility does give way to measurable’s, which can support closing valuation gaps. If we successfully execute our near and long-term strategies, ours included.
Q: Any words of advice for clients and investors heading into Q2?
A: For clients…check us out. For investor’s, stay tuned.
