Brainjuicer Share Discussion Threads

[longshanks] 04/5/2011 18:55

So now we know the source of the share trades this morning:


RNS Number : 9562F

BrainJuicer Group PLC

04 May 2011


Press Release 4 May 2011



BrainJuicer Group PLC

("BrainJuicer" and the "Company")

Director Dealing

Given the level of institutional demand in the Company's shares, John Kearon and James Geddes, respectively the Company's Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer, have sold respectively 700,000 ordinary shares and 75,000 ordinary shares in the Company all at a price of 250 pence per ordinary share.


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I am always a little sceptical of Directors who justify their sales as being to "satisfy institutional demand". Ultimately they are selling shares because they can and they like the price they are being offered. It is always nice to have lots of institutions craving your stock but they can be very fickle bed fellows and not always the type of investor you want to attract.

However I think I was right this morning when I suggested that demand is being led by a desire by brokers to make a market in these shares. We should see better liquidity as a result and if the company continues to deliver good growth there is nothing to say that the share price won't continue to climb.

I haven't too many examples of companies that have been in similar situations but one cautionary tale that comes to mind is that of Pressure Technologies. In January 2008, Directors sold a tranche of shares to "satisfy institutional demand" and, indeed, demand did seem to be sustained for a while with the share price cruising from £2 to £3 over eight months through to September 2008. However the price subsequently cooled off when results didn't quite live up to expectations; we also had the banking crisis, government defence cuts and BP's deep-sea drilling disaster in close succession and these wouldn't have helped. The price has since that time ebbed and flowed and lived for much of that time at a price below £2.

[longshanks] 04/5/2011 11:22

Thanks Jdb2005

Personally I don't think its so much FTSE100 companies that they need to attract but more of the top 20 spenders on MR.

Currently they support campaigns of 11 of the top 20. Of the remaining nine, seven are car manufacturers. It is these who they need to crack next - and in many respects their focus on identifying emotional insight into what makes a brand attractive is a natural fit to these companies.

Whilst I agree that austerity measures and the effect of most western communities having lower spending power are possibly yet to filter down to spending by these companies - I think you mistake spending with productivity. IMHO these consumers of MR will want to spend less but achieve more from their suppliers.

Currently the 11 Top 20 companies who they work with spend less than 1% of their MR budgets with BrainJuicer. In a world where the old rule that "no-one got sacked for buying IBM" is being increasingly challenged BJ stands to benefit tremendously. Speed, quality and price appear to be the key drivers for determining where these MR budgets are spent and are all areas where BJ has been shown to outperform their traditional competitors. As budgets get squeezed but desire for performance is maintained - it is this competitive advantage that will help companies like BrainJuicer.

The ride won't be totally easy - they are still trying to shift a paradigm - but the prize of being the pioneer of these novel techniques could be huge. The full gain will be a long time coming because the company appears intent on growing organically rather than through acquisition. There is also no takeover premium to consider: the WPP monster will never be able to acquire the company nor will avaricious private equity be able to gobble up their potential.

John Kearon is on a mission - he is an evangelist selling a gospel of how things should be done. He wants to tear down the temples of Market Research mediocrity and rebuild them in three days. He is followed by Juicy Disciples who are themselves becoming driven by the same core beliefs and will in turn convert others to their way of thinking. It is this snowball of performance that I think will drive the companies growth and not the overall market for Market Research.

I am no sage - but I genuinely believe that investment opportunities like BJU are rare on AIM and so long as performance is maintained shareholders will prosper.

Good luck to you too - and if you spot any other decent investment opportunities please do share them here.

[jdb2005] 04/5/2011 10:39

Agree investing is about balancing risk with potential reward.
BJU record is impressive - as they get bigger their prospects improve as they could start to win more top FT100 contracts.
Their international spread should see you doing well for another 2/3 years, at least. However you need to balance this with markets and governments austerity measures.
Consumer spending has been falling and some companies are bound to pare back their marketing budgets. GL.

[longshanks] 04/5/2011 10:22

Difficult question Jdb2005.

I like to think of myself as a "smart" investor in as much as I have known in the past when it is time to take profits and have done so quite effectively.

The strange thing is that I have had a rigid policy of buying BJU shares with a fixed percentage of profits made from selling other stocks and never using any new cash to buy BJU equity. My rationale being that I wanted to hold BJU as a long term investment.

The problem (if I have one) is that BJ is now over 40% of my portfolio!

Ultimately I think that once you identify quality - you stick with it. Unless - that is - you either think the price has got too high and/or you identify better opportunities.

I have other stocks in my portfolio that I expect to perform better over the short term than BJU - but they are more risky and could equally perform much worse.

I guess in full answer to your question £3 wouldn't be high enough to justify me taking profits. Where would I consider taking profit: I would possibly sell 25% if we reached £5 and I might consider selling out completely if we reached £7 before next January.

Personally though I don't really want to take profits - I just want the company to carry on growing at 40% and for me to be a BJ millionaire in 10 years time. I like the company - believe in what they want to achieve and think they can do it; they are perhaps a little bit too wacky - but then again - shouldn't there be space in investment circles for us to buy into eccentric entrepreneurs and their pipe dreams.

[jdb2005] 04/5/2011 09:39

Hi Longshanks - BJU going steadily up after posting good results earlier.
Are you in long-term or taking profit on the way to 300p ??

[longshanks] 04/5/2011 09:34

Some institutional action going on today. 700K share trade - and a couple of other smaller trades. Possibly we will get a new "big name" institution announced as a shareholder in the next day or two.

The other possibility is that we will get one (or more) new broker(s) making a market in the shares and presumably issuing broker notes to that effect too. Perhaps they are building books ahead of such announcements.

We could be about to enter a period of price volatility but I think we will see a surge to £2.75 or higher first - so this may be the last opportunity to get in at the relatively elevated ground floor.

[longshanks] 04/5/2011 00:28

Slightly corny video available on Vimeo suggesting a use of SatisTraction/FaceTrace in establishing emotional insight into how a shopper might experience a journey around a supermarket.



BJU working with Tesco?

[longshanks] 27/4/2011 23:56

It looks like they have recruited a "Country Manager" for Italy: Letizia Leprini.

She seems a very high calibre recruit with a string of qualifications. Previously a Senior Research Manager for the Ferrero group she has also co-authored a book on Applied Creativity and Marketing.

Could be another bright move by Brainjuicer to ever expand their empire.

This reminds me of an article/interview with John Kearon back in 2006 where he discussed the expansion plans for Brainjuicer after winning the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. It is well worth re-reading for anyone looking for an insight into the life blood that courses through this incredible company.



Specifically - I think this line is true of the new appointment.

".....We need to find entrepreneurs and it's incredibly difficult. If someone brilliant came along, we'd consider opening an office specifically to back them, even if the location wasn't one we'd planned to cover yet – they are as rare as that."

If Letizia is as good as Krishna Kabra was when setting up the US office and Jonathan Gable was when setting up the German office - we could soon see another profitable region adding to Brainjuicers bottom line.

Presumably the biggest reason behind the company's promotion of just how great it is to work at BrainJuicer is to attract entrepreneurial talent. With luck they will soon have Country Managers in Spain and France too.

[longshanks] 27/4/2011 23:39

To show the Brainjuicer brand is truly becoming global - I found this link to a presentation that Rod Slater will be giving in Sydney, Australia on 20th May.

It is an identikit presentation presumably taken from the blueprint used by John Kearon, Alex Batchelor and others in effectively marketing the way that Brainjuicer techniques more accurately measure the emotional triggers behind consumer behaviour.

Slater marketing is a business that Brainjuicer have an option to buy outright with a price based on performance. I can't find any figures in the BJU accounts to indicate what income is currently generated from Oz. I doubt it is too significant at this point - but I suspect it is something Alex Batchelor is keen to address.

[longshanks] 27/4/2011 17:04

Someone is keen: 15K trade at £2.52 reported after close of trading.

[longshanks] 27/4/2011 06:17

New, colourful, Annual Report is available to download:

[longshanks] 21/4/2011 21:59

BrainJuicer continues to be seen as the most innovative MR company by its peers. This is a conclusion arising from a report issued today by Greenbook:




And meanwhile the company continues to recruit new staff: another research assistant listed for the Chicago office, Allison Vale and a US Marketing/Admin assistant, Nelly Ortiz.

[longshanks] 20/4/2011 14:56

BOOM....there goes the last of the Unilever Ventures holdings at £2.35.

Seem to have a bunch of institutions taking on the bulk of it - we should get some RNS' in the next day of two.

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I also suspect that BJ may have bought some of these shares into treasury to continue/complete funding the Employee Benefit Trust.

This EBT is a model of operation that many other public companies should perhaps consider running. Basically there is a long term incentive scheme that has been set up by the company whereby key personnel can be awarded shares if the share price meets certain performance criteria at the end of April 2014. A share price below £3 and the employees get nothing, Above £5 and they get a decent wad of shares and considerably more if the share price is £7 or above. Up to 1.12m shares could be handed out in 3 years time but the company is funding this incentive scheme ahead of 2014 by sensibly buying shares in the market whilst the price is still low. To date they have 660000 in treasury for these purposes. It has not been confirmed but I would not be surprised if they took up some of the UV shares divested today - perhaps spending up to £1m to finance it which, given the healthy balance sheet and fantastic cash flows, would be easily financed.

[longshanks] 20/4/2011 09:21

MMs looking very short - either that or we have an order being filled. With online limits I can sell as many as I want at £2.43 (highest bid to date) but can only buy 375 at the full offer. I am sure one could buy more at £2.47 through a negotiated trade but I suspect not too many more.

[longshanks] 18/4/2011 16:33

Someone took 10K at the full offer this afternoon. Anyone willing to claim that one?

Online limits have been good for the last week but have now dried up to just 1K available at the offer after this trade. Mm's have walked the price down after the froth following results but I can't see them holding the price at these levels for long whilst they have sustained buying interest and limited interest by punters and/or Market traders to sell. Could see the next leg up to £2.60 before or shortly after Easter.

[longshanks] 16/4/2011 08:37

They have fixed the support link now - looks very much like an innovation they plan to start marketing imminently although this is very much the same product they have successfully trialed with HSBC in the UK and Brasil.

The "App Support" page supports my hypothesis on where they are pitching this product: developing a wholly new market for themselves in "Customer and Employee" experience surveys. The app is free but they need to contact BJ for info on how to set up and implement. Could be an exciting new spinoff for the company; low cost for them and high potential return.



I expect that once this has been fully launched they will start on a "DigiVidual" toolkit with a similar marketing model....watch this space.

These kinds of products are very much in the same line as those provided by the likes of Google. No tangible goods - but strong branding in a niche and novel area providing value added services at a low cost. Not exactly "Software as a Service" which I think is an over hyped idea - but value-added software products that can be self-administered (presumably without charge) but where the developer earns income through advertising, consultancy, training, documentation and spin-off work. There will also be some companies that want to pay for BJ staff to do the implementation than hire their own administrators. I can't see the "Google Ads" model working here - but the MySQL licensing model would work very well for BJ.

It looks like SatisTraction is being marketed principally in the US at the moment but it has global opportunities. One thing they may need though is to have a range of "Actor/Actress" faces to get wider take up.

[longshanks] 13/4/2011 10:12

Anyone got an iPad?

BrainJuicer have launched an iPad app for their SatisTraction tool.



Looks like they are following a model of offering this app as a freebie - presumably to build market share in wholly new markets and developing spinoff business as a result.

They need to be careful to manage this though...the "app support" link on iTunes goes to a nonexistant page on BJU's website (generates a 404 error message)...such small things can wreck credibility.

[longshanks] 31/3/2011 17:56

New Edison Research note out.



Even though Brainjuicer have intimated they intend to continue growing revenues by 40% p.a. Edison are presuming a more conservative 27% rate - just as they have for the last three years...

[longshanks] 28/3/2011 17:35

Welcome guys - I only share my best tips with serious investors...

Brainjuicer is a damn good stock to be invested in but I would advise caution at the current price because there has been some "froth" around the results and Unilever Ventures is still in the process of "recycling capital" and have about 1.6m shares left to offload. This could present some good buying opportunities in the next six to eight months though I don't expect any excessive stock overhang to develop because of the sheer class that John Kearon and co are demonstrating.

This is the one stock in my portfolio that I have never sold a single share in - and - if they carry on performing the way they have - I doubt I ever will.

Take a look at www.brainjuicer.com - check out the Investor videos and then take a look at the additional videos on Vimeo (Google "Vimeo Brainjuicer") and you should get a good flavour of the business.

Last year they had two international mandates, they appear to have garnered three more in a single year since then: Ocean Spray, HSBC and GAP. They are charmingly modest in their aspirations - talking about maintaining 40% growth until they get to be a "top 10 MR company". However, to me this business looks like a snowball rolling down the hill and growth will come much quicker.

They have a new panel platform that will significantly improve their already impressive performance. JC2 as it is called will both reduce costs of running a campaign and generate research data faster thus enabling them to WOW their customers even more. In 2009 they ran 600 projects at average cost of £20K; in 2010 they ran 750 at an average of £22K. These costs are CHEAP, very cheap - and the market is loving this together with the quality of the results generated. This year, with their new platform, they will be able to offer even faster and better insight whilst probably maintaining prices at 2010 levels.

Very few MR research companies offer the novelty and value that comes with BrainJuicer. By being value-for-money, effective and unique together with that far more important social factor, fun, they will be hard to beat or compete against.

89% of their business comes from existing customers. What will happen when the rest of the market becomes aware of what the 11 largest buyers of MR are doing and starts following suit...and, in turn, become continuous repeat customers.

I can see potential for explosive growth in this company's performance.

[kenmitch] 28/3/2011 15:39

Ditto. Thanks longshanks. Spotted your reminder on the Net Dimensions bb and have been checking them out, finishing with some excellent posts here. Should have bought them ages ago and not at 249p! The obvious place for the proceeds from the Toluna bid due next month.

Yes, the PE ratio is quite high. But Toluna's was over 50 for a good while and more than that when they floated and it didn't stop the share price quadrupling. I don't know enough about Brainjuicer to have any idea whether their share price can do as well in time.

Wish I had followed up your suggestion to look at these in 2009 instead of today.

[spaceparallax] 25/3/2011 10:25

Results very impressive. I'd say the PER is possibly a tad high given the forecast for the next two years, which had they been stronger with lower PEGs would have supported the current PER. That said, this does look an interesting company that I've not looked into before because I'd mistakenly seen them as similar to AGL, whereas in fact they're nothing like.

It'll be interesting to see whether upgraded forecasts emerge in light of the strong growth exhibited in these results. I'll keep an eye on them and could be tempted to take a punt if the forward PER and PEG drop a little.

Long, thanks for bringing them to my attention.

[longshanks] 24/3/2011 12:03

We have "2" SELL votes now....most intriguing.

[longshanks] 24/3/2011 11:35

I can tell you for sure that they are not below the radar of some Private Equity groups.

However I can also tell you that the Chief Juicer is fully committed to maintaining an AIM listing.

Interestingly we have a "SELL" vote on the ADVFN quotes page. I haven't seen any negative comment in recent times but no doubt we will have some bears. Please come forward and give the case for thinking this won't go higher if you are watching.

EDIT: I should also say that I got my calcs wrong for the target price. My current 12 month target is actually £2.95 and 24 months is £4.40.