System1 Group
System1 Group PLC is an AIM-listed creative effectiveness platform that uses behavioral science to measure emotional response and predict advertising ROI. It serves global advertisers, CMOs, and agencies with subscription-based ad, innovation, and brand testing tools.
- Company typePublic
- Founded2006
- HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
- Headcount101–250
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What System1 Group does
System1 Group PLC (AIM: SYS1) is a London-headquartered marketing and brand consultancy that operates The Creative Effectiveness Platform, a SaaS-based offering which measures emotional response to predict advertising and innovation effectiveness. The company serves the world's largest advertisers and their agencies, helping CMOs and marketing directors validate creative before production, benchmark against competitors, and demonstrate ROI on marketing spend. Originally founded in 1999 as BrainJuicer Limited (the principal operating subsidiary) and listed on London's AIM market in December 2006, System1 has expanded to a global footprint spanning the UK, US, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, France, Brazil, Singapore, and Australia with 101-250 employees.
The platform's core technology is a behavioral science-based methodology that measures emotional response as the primary predictor of advertising effectiveness, validated over decades of research. The product portfolio includes Test Your Ad (delivering ad effectiveness predictions within 24 hours), Test Your Ad Competitive Edge (database of 120,000+ TV ads with emotional response data updated daily), Test Your Innovation (testing up to 50 ideas per study against 50,000+ benchmarks), Test Your Brand (brand health measurement), and Test Your Distinctive Assets+ (emotional measurement of distinctive brand assets). Notable enterprise customers include Pfizer, DSW, esure, Life360, Tony's Chocolonely, Boots, and Tourism Australia. The company holds ISO 27001 and ISO 20252 certifications and maintains research partnerships with TikTok, ITV, JCDecaux, Aardman, Effie Awards, Brand Finance, and Jellyfish.
System1 generates revenue primarily through subscription-based enterprise platform access, complemented by professional consulting and insights services. The go-to-market combines consultative enterprise sales targeting marketing executives at major global brands with self-service platform access. FY25 revenue was £37.4 million with adjusted EBITDA of approximately £6.3-6.6 million (~17% margin). Following a March 2026 strategic investment of £1.3 million, Brave Bison Group holds approximately 27.85% of the company, with board observer rights but not a controlling stake.
System1 Group firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- System1 Group
- Legal name
- System1 Group PLC
- Website
- https://system1group.com
- Company type
- Public
- Founded year
- 2006
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 101–250 employees
- Short description
- System1 Group PLC is an AIM-listed creative effectiveness platform that uses behavioral science to measure emotional response and predict advertising ROI. It serves global advertisers, CMOs, and agencies with subscription-based ad, innovation, and brand testing tools.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
System1 Group industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Advertising Effectiveness Software
- NAICS
- Advertising Agencies (54181), Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910)
- SIC
- Services-Advertising Agencies (7311), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Brand Consulting, Audits & Research (Brand Health, Equity, Competitive) (BPAFAEAJ)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Brand & Advertising Research (Brand Health, Copy Testing, Campaign Effectiveness) (MPAAALAG)
Keywords
Where System1 Group is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- London
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices10 records
Markets served
System1 Group business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- SaaS Platform Subscriptions: System1 operates as a platform business providing subscription-based access to its testing products including Test Your Ad, Test Your Innovation, and Test Your Brand. Customers access the platform for ad testing, innovation testing, and brand health measurement on a recurring basis.
- Consulting and Insights Services: The company provides consultancy services alongside platform results, offering insights and strategic guidance on test results and creative effectiveness optimization.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise platform access with customized testing solutions |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels6 records
System1 Group product offering
Product offeringCore offering
System1 Group operates The Creative Effectiveness Platform, a B2B SaaS suite that uses proprietary emotional response measurement to predict the sales and brand-growth impact of advertising, innovation, and brand assets. The platform's core products — Test Your Ad, Test Your Ad Competitive Edge, Test Your Innovation, Test Your Brand, and Test Your Distinctive Assets+ — are sold on subscription alongside complementary strategic consultancy to the world's largest advertisers.
Product overview
System1 Group operates as The Creative Effectiveness Platform, offering a portfolio of emotion-based testing products. The core offerings include Test Your Ad (primary ad testing), Test Your Ad Competitive Edge (competitive benchmarking database with 120,000+ ads), Test Your Innovation (idea/concept testing), Test Your Brand (brand health measurement), and Test Your Distinctive Assets+ (brand asset emotional measurement). The platform is built on a proprietary methodology measuring emotional response—the core driver of consumer behavior—with extensive global databases enabling benchmark comparisons.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Test Your Ad: The most predictive ad test platform that measures emotional response to predict sales and brand growth impacts.
- Test Your Ad Competitive Edge
- Test Your Innovation
- Test Your Brand
- Test Your Distinctive Assets+
Products and services
- Test Your Ad The primary ad testing platform of System1 Group; measures emotional response to predict sales and brand-growth impact of advertising creative and delivers predictive results within 24 hours for enterprise marketers.
- Test Your Ad Competitive Edge Competitive intelligence product giving enterprise marketers instant access to the world's largest ad creative database with emotional response data on over 120,000 TV ads, updated daily, for competitor and category benchmarking.
- Test Your Innovation Innovation testing platform that predicts and improves the commercial impact of new product ideas, concepts, claims, packaging, and taglines by measuring emotional response, with benchmarks against 50,000+ global innovations.
- Test Your Brand Brand health measurement platform providing predictive measures for brand performance and brand strategy improvement for enterprise brand teams.
- Test Your Distinctive Assets+ Solution measuring Feeling to understand the emotions evoked by distinctive brand assets (such as fluent devices and brand identifiers) for brand and creative teams.
- Creative Effectiveness Consulting and Insights Professional services offering strategic guidance, interpretation of platform results, and creative effectiveness optimization support to enterprise clients alongside their SaaS subscription.
Quantifiable outcome
- AI-produced ads scored average 3.4 stars vs 2.3 stars for traditionally made ads in System1 database of 123,000 video ads
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use System1 Group
Customer profileNamed customers7 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
System1 Group technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability7 records
Feature6 records
System1 Group partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Brand FinancecoreSystem1 partnered with Brand Finance to analyze effectiveness of emotional advertising in B2B marketing across US and UK markets (2020-2025). The research found that emotionally engaging campaigns significantly enhance brand value in traditionally rational B2B sectors, citing Adobe, Microsoft, and Accenture case studies.
- JellyfishcoreSystem1 and Jellyfish collaborated on research testing 18 AI-produced video advertisements. Jellyfish's Share of Model platform was used to test ads on LLM platforms. Research found AI ads scored 3.4 stars vs 2.3 for traditional ads, challenging narratives about AI creativity lacking craft.
- Effie AwardscoreSystem1 and Effie partnership produced 'The Creative Dividend' research proving the combined power of creative quality and media using large-scale evidence from Effie campaign data. The research makes advertising predictable and demonstrates effectiveness to justify marketing investment.
- Mazda / Boundless AgencyminorCase study partnership demonstrating AI-driven visual prototyping for Mazda South Africa. Boundless agency used System1's Test Your Ad Pro platform to validate AI-animated creative concept with target consumers before final production commitment.
- LBB & Friends BeachminorCollaboration with LBB (Little Black Book) for Cannes Lions presentation featuring Professor Mark Ritson's global audio effectiveness research using System1's analysis of 1,250+ Effie campaigns. First collaboration between global audio industry bodies from Australia, UK, US, and Ireland.
- TikTokcoreSystem1 partnered with TikTok to explore what makes TikTok ads effective. Research using Test Your Ad platform reveals how sentiment, attention, and creative features impact performance on the platform.
- ITVminorLiving Room Legends research partnership with ITV examining effective television advertising and viewer engagement patterns.
- JCDecauxminorOut-of-home advertising effectiveness research partnership exploring creative effectiveness in OOH media channels.
- Aardman AnimationsminorCase study partnership examining Aardman's 'Putting on a Show' creative effectiveness approach.
Scale indicators8 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
System1 Group competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Realeyes: Realeyes uses facial coding and emotion AI to measure ad creative effectiveness — directly competing with System1's emotional response methodology for the same brand and agency customers testing video ads.
- Ace Metrix (iSpot.tv): Ace Metrix, acquired by iSpot.tv, is the closest direct competitor to System1's Test Your Ad, offering creative effectiveness scoring and TV ad benchmarking. Both compete for the same Fortune-500 advertiser and agency budgets measuring emotional resonance of ads.
- MetrixLab: MetrixLab (now part of Macromill Group) competes head-to-head with System1 in advertising pre-testing, brand equity tracking, and innovation testing — overlapping product portfolio and similar CMOs as target buyers.
Broad incumbents
- Kantar: Kantar (Millward Brown brand tracking, Link pre-testing) is the global incumbent in advertising and brand effectiveness research with vastly greater scale. It serves overlapping CMOs across brand health measurement and creative pre-testing, although it competes across broader research categories.
- Nielsen: Nielsen's Ad Intel and consumer measurement portfolios overlap with System1's competitive intelligence offering (Test Your Ad Competitive Edge). A massive incumbent across TV ratings, audience measurement, and ad effectiveness.
- Ipsos: Ipsos ASI and broader marketing research teams compete with System1 on creative pre-testing and brand health. A larger, diversified research incumbent with comparable advertiser clients across global markets.
Emerging players
- VidMob: VidMob offers creative analytics and effectiveness measurement for digital ad creative, with comparable scoring methodologies. An emerging player encroaching on System1's territory as media shifts from TV to digital video.
- TVision: TVision measures attention to TV ads using computer vision, competing with System1 for the same brand-side budget. Both target advertisers seeking to validate creative quality for video advertising.
- DAIVID: DAIVID uses AI and facial coding for ad creative effectiveness prediction, similar to System1's emotion-based forecasting. An emerging AI-native challenger focused on creative scoring automation.
Others
- Affectiva (Smart Eye): Affectiva, acquired by Smart Eye, provides emotion-sensing AI used in some ad testing pipelines. Adjacent technology provider rather than direct end-to-end competitor, but its emotion AI underpins several ad effectiveness offerings competing with System1.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
System1 Group social profiles
Digital presenceSystem1 Group compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
System1 Group financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
System1 Group leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles10 records
System1 Group subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries1 record
System1 Group funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors2 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
System1 Group M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about System1 Group
What does System1 Group do?
System1 Group operates The Creative Effectiveness Platform, a B2B SaaS suite that uses proprietary emotional response measurement to predict the sales and brand-growth impact of advertising, innovation, and brand assets. The platform's core products — Test Your Ad, Test Your Ad Competitive Edge, Test Your Innovation, Test Your Brand, and Test Your Distinctive Assets+ — are sold on subscription alongside complementary strategic consultancy to the world's largest advertisers.
Is System1 Group a public or private company?
System1 Group is a public company. It is classified as public and is currently operating.
When was System1 Group founded?
System1 Group was founded in 2006. It employs 101 to 250 people.
Where is System1 Group based?
System1 Group is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does System1 Group make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. SaaS Platform Subscriptions are the primary driver. The others are consulting and Insights Services.
Who are System1 Group's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Realeyes, Ace Metrix (iSpot.tv) and MetrixLab. Broad incumbents are Kantar, Nielsen and Ipsos. Emerging players are VidMob, TVision and DAIVID. Affectiva (Smart Eye) is listed as an others.
Does System1 Group have an API?
No public API is recorded for System1 Group.
What industry is System1 Group in?
System1 Group's product category is Advertising Effectiveness Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAFAEAJ, Brand Consulting, Audits & Research (Brand Health, Equity, Competitive), with a secondary code of MPAAALAG, Brand & Advertising Research (Brand Health, Copy Testing, Campaign Effectiveness). Its NAICS code is 54181 and its SIC code is 7311.