Cardlytics Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 1, 2023

There are 6 speakers on the call.

Operator

Today and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q2 2023 Cardlytics Inc. Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer session.

Operator

Please be advised today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Nick Litton, Chief Legal and Privacy Officer.

Speaker 1

Good evening, and welcome to the Cardlytics Second Quarter 2023 financial results call. Before we begin, let me remind everyone that today's discussion will contain forward looking statements based on our current assumptions, expectations and beliefs, including expectations about our future financial performance and results, including for the Q3 of 2023, adding new partners to the network and increasing our MAUs, our partners transitioned to the new ad server and user experience, The growth and expansion of our advertiser base, the impacts of our new product initiatives, including our retail media network, our liquidity and our growth and profitability, including expectations related to achieving positive operating cash flow, free cash flow and adjusted EBITDA on an annual basis. For a discussion of the specific risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from today's discussion, Please refer to the Risk Factors section of the company's 10 Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2023, which has been filed with the SEC. Also during this call, we will discuss non GAAP measures of our performance. GAAP financial reconciliations and supplemental financial information are provided in the press release issued today and the 8 ks that has been filed with the SEC.

Speaker 1

Today's call is available via webcast and a replay will be available for 1 week. You can find the information I have just described in the Investor Relations section of the Cardlytics website. Please note that a supplemental presentation to our 2nd quarter results has also been posted on our Investor Relations website. Joining us on the call today is Cardlytics' CEO, Kareem Temsamani and Director of Corporate Development and Investor Relations, Robert Robinson. Following their prepared remarks, we'll open the call to your questions.

Speaker 1

With that said, let me turn the call over to Karim.

Speaker 2

Good evening, and thank you for joining our Q2 2023 earnings call. This was a solid quarter for Cardlytics as billings, revenue and adjusted EBITDA All exceeded our expectations for the quarter. The results reflect our team's hard work in transforming the business during a difficult period for the economy and advertising markets. Adjusted EBITDA performance in Q2 improved by $11,700,000 year over year as our efficiency measures and our new product initiatives took hold. And our operating cash flow for the quarter was positive $5,700,000 These are great outcomes delivered ahead of schedule.

Speaker 2

While we are excited about the positive changes on the way and the early momentum we have in driving new customer facing product innovation, we have much more to accomplish in the business. Every transformation has challenges, but we are making the right long term decisions for Cardlytics. And as our numbers demonstrate, We are clearly making progress. Here are our results for Q2. Billings increased 1.6% year over year to $109,400,000 U.

Speaker 2

S. Billings increased 7% year over year. Revenue increased 1.7% year over year to $76,700,000 Adjusted contribution increased 6.8% year over year to $37,500,000 Bridge revenue decreased 3% year over year to $6,000,000 This is in line with our expectations of short term viability in the business given our focus on Bridge's Retail Media Network product. Our focus on sales effectiveness, delivering new products and making operational improvement led us to exceed expectations despite lukewarm consumer spend and advertiser uncertainty. While restaurants and retail categories are still underperforming versus last year, given these trends, The travel and entertainment vertical continues to outperform for us, even as consumer spending in that category slows.

Speaker 2

On the expense side, we continue to make the right financial decisions for the business. We renegotiated several contracts in the quarter and implemented cost optimizations across AWS and Snowflake. The underlying fundamentals in our business continue to show strength. Unique consumers activating offers increased 2% year over year in Q2. We saw total activations increase 10% year over year and total redemptions 7% year over year.

Speaker 2

Just like last quarter, We increased the number of users activating offers year over year and our current users are engaging more often. While we don't have any significant updates to our partner pipeline, discussions with multiple top 20 U. S. Banks and several high upside Fintechs remain ongoing. And we are confident we will sign at least one of these major partners by the end of 2023.

Speaker 2

We will continue to update you as we make progress on these potential partnerships. Now I would like to discuss our strategic initiatives. As we are making short term financial progress, We are also becoming a strong product led organization, where our partners and consumers are at the center of the decisions we make as a business. First, as you know, we announced this quarter that we renegotiated our contract with Chase. While we cannot discuss financial details outside of what we already presented in last month's 8 ks, this is a testament to the strategic value of our partnership.

Speaker 2

Additionally, we are happy to announce that Chase is 100% live on the new user experience. 2nd, our 3 important product initiatives for our bank partners and advertisers, the new ad server, our new user experience and cloud migration are on track to deliver long term benefits. All our major U. S. Banks have data in AWS and most have systems in AWS.

Speaker 2

We expect nearly all major banks to move to the newer server end user experience by the middle of 2024 versus the end of 2023. As we said in the past, bank timelines can change quarter to quarter. We are having constructive conversations with our partners and our goal is for adoption to happen as soon as possible. Our partners continue to adopt our decisioning engine or ADE to drive higher monetization and offer relevancy for the business. Most of our banks have now migrated or have agreed to migrate to ADE.

Speaker 2

Not only this, we are still seeing great results using ADE. Billings using enhanced targeting are up 10%, Activations are up 6.5% and redemptions are up 5.7%. 3rd, new advertising product initiatives are showing similarly exciting results. For example, multi tier offers, which provide variable incentives based on objectives, have been effective in shifting purchase channel behavior. In a pilot of a 21 day period, in store channels as a percentage of total spend increased from 34% to 71%.

Speaker 2

The product and engineering teams are also hard at work on new capabilities and improvements. We launched our first campaign with receipt level reporting. This is important because it opens up incremental demand from CPGs and retailers who need product level reporting. It also gives consumers access to better content and offers they want to see. We reduced the time it takes to process transactions from 70 hours to 35 hours.

Speaker 2

This reduction allows us to deliver rewards sooner to our partners' customers. It also makes our billings and our serving systems more efficient. We can make more effective adjustments based on budget consumption, meaning we can more efficiently throttle campaigns at risk We launched a target return on ad spending pricing pilot in the past month. This pricing model leverages a dynamic marketplace and features bidding on impressions, Dynamic pricing adjustments and immediate reconnection of campaign spend. While early, these capabilities at scale will vastly improve the efficiency of our financials in the long term.

Speaker 2

4th, we continue to diversify our business. We are making fast progress in transforming the Bridge business. Our retail media network pilots have received Positive responses from major national CPG brands and the initial feedback we've gathered highlights the excitement around the flexibility they'll have In building sophisticated audiences, seamless access to a national footprint and user friendly tools that empower them to get valuable insights, drive substantial incremental sales and accurately measure the impact of their campaigns. Product is not the only area we are upgrading. We are responsibly investing enough people too.

Speaker 2

I want to welcome our new CFO, Alexis DeCieno to Cardlytics. We are thrilled to have attracted such talented and capable executives. Alexis' track record of collaboration across business lines and driving financial results through data driven analysis makes her the perfect fit to drive long term growth and profitability for Cardlytics. She starts in less than 2 weeks And we're excited to speak with all of you on our next earnings call. Alexis is just one example of the high level talent we are adding to the business.

Speaker 2

Cardlytics' potential and the tangible improvements we are making attracting diverse and innovative talent. We saw several senior level hires with exceptional backgrounds join our product, engineering and sales teams this quarter, which will continue to elevate our capabilities and bolster our competitiveness in the market. Before I turn to our market trends and outlook, I want to share some additional insight from our platform. To give investors a better idea of our value proposition and our future potential, each quarter will surface some of the data we share with our advertising customers. This quarter, we were focused on multiline retail, a category that includes over 100 brands that most often sell items such as apparel, electronics and home goods.

Speaker 2

In the quarter, We saw consumers spend $67,000,000,000 a decline of 1.3% year over year and an uptick of 6.1% quarter over quarter. Average spend per customer is $196 per month in this category. This is a competitive category where customers exhibit lower loyalty. On average, consumers choose to spend with 2.7 brands per quarter. This loyalty decreases further during the holiday season in Q4, which represents 28% of the yearly spend.

Speaker 2

On a state by state basis for Q2, California represented 16% of multi line retail spend, followed by Texas at 11% and Florida at 9%. Interestingly, despite the lower brand loyalty, This market is not fragmented. Multiline retail has seen significant consolidation in recent years, with 4 brands representing over 85% of the spend that we analyze. This has been maintained year over year with the top 2 brands gaining market share largely from the next two brands. These are the kinds of insights that we share with our clients to help them make critical business decisions, and we're excited to continue to share more of these insights with you moving forward.

Speaker 2

Moving to market trends and our outlook. Consumer spend in the first half of the year was flat compared to 2022. Year over year spend was down 2% in Q2. Restaurant and retail spend are still struggling, growing 1% and declining 3% year over year, respectively. Travel spend also slowed significantly at 1% growth year over year.

Speaker 2

There is positive news too. The consumer still remains strong based on deposit data And the July Consumer Confluence Index increased for the 3rd consecutive months, hitting its highest level in 2 years. Labor markets have softened, but job growth remains solid. Inflation appears to be declining as Fed rate hikes have their intended effect. Given the uncertain economy and growth environments, we do expect some bumpiness in our results over the next several quarters.

Speaker 2

While there will be differences quarter to quarter, we are now on a path to sustain positive operating cash flow, free cash flow and adjusted EBITDA on an annual basis. Regardless of the economic environment, the teams are focused on improving the business and we are moving forward with a disciplined approach. The organizational changes we are making continue to give our teams room to operate with speed and a clear focus. Our results this quarter are a great sign that our strategy and priorities are moving the Now I will turn it over to Robert, who is filling in this quarter to discuss our financial results.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Like Trem said, we are excited about our results in Q2. I've seen a considerable effort from our teams in the past few months and this outcome is well deserved. Our financials are under control and we are focused on positioning the business for long term success. The numbers are a great sign that the business is moving in the right direction, but we want to stress that the near term economy and advertising environment are still uncertain.

Speaker 1

The chance of a severe to moderate recession has decreased, Our consumer spend is still uneven, causing advertisers to continue to review costs and exercise caution with their budgets. We expect some variability in our quarter to quarter results moving forward. Here are the numbers for Q2. Billings increased 1.6% year over year to $109,400,000 Revenue increased 1.7% year over year is $76,700,000 Adjusted contribution increased 6.8% year over year at 37,500,000 Bridge revenue decreased 3% year over year. Like we mentioned last quarter and earlier in the call, the transformation in the business will cause fluctuation in our growth rates As we begin to convert proof of concepts, we expect growth rates to increase and normalize in the future.

Speaker 1

Geographically, U. S. Revenue increased 7% year over year. UK revenue decreased 35% year over year. UK revenue is still affected due to the loss of a bank partner in the channel, but we have opportunities in the pipeline to increase our supply of UK MAUs to historical levels.

Speaker 1

We expect growth rates in the UK business to normalize in Asia quarters. Moving to customer concentration. Our top 5 customers accounted for 15.7 percent of revenue this quarter compared to 15.8% in Q2 of 2022. Concentration were mainly a key focus as we continue to grow and expand our advertiser base. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $4,100,000 this quarter compared to a loss of $15,800,000 in Q2 of 2022.

Speaker 1

Operating cash flow was positive $5,700,000 These results highlight our discipline and the actions we've taken to right size our call space. That said, we do expect choppiness over the next several quarters. Our expectation moving forward is to be operating cash flow positive and adjusted EBITDA positive on an annual basis starting in 2024. On the balance sheet, we ended Q2 with $92,100,000 in cash and cash equivalent compared to $139,200,000 at the end of Q1 of 2022. During Q2, we used $4,300,000 of cash in operating activities and $5,500,000 for software development and capital expenditures.

Speaker 1

Additionally, we have paid $50,100,000 in cash related to the Bridge earn out. As of the end of Q2, we had $7,000,000 of unused available borrowings under our line of credit. We still believe that our available liquidity is We had 37,100,000 shares outstanding at the end of Q2 compared with $33,700,000 at the end of Q1 of 2023. Diluted weighted average shares outstanding during the quarter was 34,800,000 compared to $33,700,000 for Q2 of 2022. As of Q2, we have issued 2,700,000 shares in connection with the Bridge earn out.

Speaker 1

MAUs were $188,100,000 an increase of 4.6% year over year. ARPU during the Q2 was $0.38 which is flat year over year. Now turning to guidance. While there is renewed optimism in the economy, our advertising clients are still taking a cautious approach to 2023. We still believe this uncertainty is disproportionately affecting smaller advertising platforms.

Speaker 1

That said, we do expect sequential improvement in our Q3 results given seasonality and our focus on operational efficiency. With that in mind, for Q3, we expect Billings of between $111,000,000 $123,000,000 revenue of between $75,000,000 84,000,000 Adjusted contribution of between $39,000,000 $45,000,000 and adjusted EBITDA of between negative $2,000,000 $2,000,000 Our transformation into a product led company is fully in flight. I again want to commend our team's tireless work on improving the business. As we said in the past several quarters, the team is fully committed to achieving a profile of consistent growth and profitability that will allow us to fulfill our long term potential. With that, I will turn it back over to Karim.

Speaker 2

We are committed to running the business with a disciplined focus and closing out the year strong. And I'm looking forward to discussing the new capabilities we are providing to our advertisers and partners with all of you. I will now open the call to questions.

Operator

Thank you. We will now conduct the question and answer session. One moment please. Our first question comes from the line of Kyle Peterson with Needham and Co. Please proceed.

Speaker 3

Hey, guys. This is Sam on for Kyle today. Thanks for taking the questions. Nice results here. I was wondering if you guys could talk a bit more about how ad budgets progressed throughout the quarter and Maybe parse that out across some of the core verticals you guys are in?

Speaker 2

Sure. Thanks for the question. So we've seen that overall, as we mentioned, Consumer is definitely slowing overall. So as we mentioned during the call, the Spend from consumer is down in retail by 3%, for instance, and only slightly up in travel when it was up Quite dramatically over the last several quarters. So overall spend is only up 2% year on year, which means that obviously it has some level of impact on Advertising budgets as well.

Speaker 2

Having said that, there are 2 factors that are positive for us. 1, we're seeing some of the Products that we're driving to market starting to have an impact. And 2, we're really driving more efficiency with our sales teams. Our sales teams are Spending more time in market and we are seeing more demand from advertisers as a result of that. The results have actually been to some degree, a counterintuitive versus what we have seen on the consumer side, where some of the areas where we've seen little slowness on the consumer side, again, namely travel versus The growth that we've seen before and restaurants where and retail where we've seen slowdown are starting to come back for us.

Speaker 2

So a positive trend in this area for our business.

Speaker 3

Got it. That's helpful. Appreciate the color there. And then just thinking about the back half of the year, how are you guys thinking about ad budgets there? And maybe how does that stack up relative To your expectations from last quarter.

Speaker 2

Yes. I think we're still seeing some choppiness, and that's why we are being cautious with regards to The back half of the year, but there's definitely some positive sign as well that are starting to be showcased, both because of, Again, the 2 items I mentioned before, the continued efficiency drive within our sales teams and some of our product coming through. But we're also seeing some positive signs from some of our clients who want to drive No additional spend in the back half of the year, so the positive discussions are occurring there. Again, we need to be cautious with regards to what we're seeing, but But there are definitely some positive signs of what we might see in the economy overall.

Speaker 3

Got it. That's very helpful. Thanks guys. Nice quarter. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. One moment please. Our next question comes from the line of Jason Kreyer with Craig Hallum. Please proceed.

Speaker 4

Great. Thank you, guys. Just wanted to ask on your FI partner contract negotiations. I'm curious if you can maybe talk about What would what new products or services that you're providing that would encourage bank partners to want to renegotiate With terms that would be more favorable to Cardlytics. And then do you think that you can replicate the contract revisions that you've already seen with either existing FI partners or new FI partners that you're looking to onboard?

Speaker 2

Thanks for the question. Listen, the important thing here, as I think I mentioned in the first call that we When I move to Cardlytics is that we really are obsessed about our partners, ensure that we listen to their needs And that we provide the right level of tech and services to what they want to do to achieve better results for Our partners and obviously the consumers as well. I think we are making great improvements and strides towards that. We have excellent engagement and most senior engagements that we've ever had. We are better listening to what our partners want and Creating products that mirror that, you can see some of these improvements both in terms of the UI changes that we have made, But also in several of the new product trials that I've mentioned that essentially are driving benefits For both our partners, the consumers and advertisers, so I mentioned receipt level offers that are coming through.

Speaker 2

We again have Launched a spend target return on ad spend pricing pilot, which also will be helpful. And all of these things are essentially contributing to us having a better program that enables The banks to feel comfortable that we are the right long term partner for them and continue to invest in those changes with us. So it's an overall effort that we're making, but I have to commend the team both on The tech side, but also obviously on the partner side for enhancing the engagement that we have with our key banking partners.

Speaker 4

And Kareem, since you've been there, you've talked a lot about product and making the right investments. You talked about a little bit Of these in the last response here. But can you maybe highlight a few specific product improvements that you've rolled out? And more so curious, How are these manifesting in the numbers? You put up a really nice quarter today.

Speaker 4

Are we seeing those result in new bookings or new share? Or where should we see that and the numbers today and going forward?

Speaker 2

Yes. I think you are definitely starting to see that in the numbers to some degree, although obviously Not at scale yet. But stepping back and to answer your question, the first thing that is really important that has changed Is that the UI of the product is different to what it was before. And when you look at this UI that has rolled out 100% on Chase, The look and feel of the program is entirely different. And the look and feel of the program itself is driving more engagement at consumer level, which is really important for the program as well and obviously for the banks and for the advertisers.

Speaker 2

So that's the core thing already that is really important. The second area is that as we think about new product initiatives that are helping, enabling new product constructs, Some of them that I've just mentioned, so I won't go back into it. But enabling new product constructs that create more interest from consumers, More engagement in the program are really critical as well to driving further engagements and activation. And that essentially is what is starting to be reflected in numbers. But I think as you'll see over the coming quarters, As we gain more scale with more of our banking partners, you should see an even deeper impact across the whole of the business.

Speaker 4

And I'm going to sneak in a third, sorry, but you mentioned Chase being fully rolled out. I'm just curious, what With Chase have you seen that really clicks or that maybe clicks with Chase or your advertisers to prove or to validate this new user experience?

Speaker 2

Well, again, we are seeing all of our key numbers, whether you're thinking about activations or redemptions Our engagement in the program overall continue to improve. So these are very, very positive signal for us that we're making the right

Operator

Thank you. One moment please. Our next question comes from the line of Doug Anmuth from JPMorgan. Please proceed.

Speaker 3

Hey, thanks for taking

Speaker 5

the question. This is West on for Doug. Great quarter guys. I just kind of wanted to touch on the EBITDA guide, Breakeven for 3Q at the midpoint.

Speaker 3

Just curious what that assumes in terms of investments into these newer products and kind

Speaker 5

of what you would see to niche Just going to reach the upper end of that and kind of been slight positive in 3Q.

Speaker 2

Thanks for the question. To a great degree, this is a continuation of the scaling of the products that We believe will happen across the quarter as well as continued discipline from a cost perspective. We are continuing to be cautious with regards to how we look at the advertising market in general, as we mentioned. And therefore, we are again being cautious with regards to how we guide based on what we see in the advertising market. As we continue to roll out products, as we continue to see improvements in the economy, we have potential to continue to do better from a financial perspective as well.

Speaker 2

So And the guide is essentially based on what do we see now and the continued progress we're making both at product level and with our advertising customers.

Speaker 5

Great. I believe you kind of guided to around like a $40,000,000 $42,000,000 in cash OpEx before. Is that Quarterly run rate is still safe to assume here or is there any changes to that number?

Speaker 2

Yes, I'll let Rob take that on or add something, but that's Essentially, roughly the current trend in our expenses line. I don't know, Rob, if you want to add anything.

Speaker 1

No. You certainly answered the question. It is no change from what we've told you guys the past few quarters.

Speaker 5

Great. Super helpful. Yes. Great quarter guys. Thanks.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. At this time, I am showing no further questions. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Karim for closing remarks. Please proceed.

Speaker 2

Thank you. Obviously, this brings the call to a close. I want to leave you all with this. Product is at the forefront of our strategy and it is helping us build stronger partnerships and new capabilities that will attract more advertisers to our business. And as you know, we are highly focused on the long term financial health of the business.

Speaker 2

Our expectation is positive annual adjusted EBITDA and operating cash flow for 2024. We'll continue to be disciplined as we make investments to reach have full potential. Thank you for your continued support and I look forward to speaking with you all soon.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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