Polling firm YouGov says demand from tech clients has improved

LONDON (Reuters) - YouGov said on Tuesday it was seeing improving appetite from tech companies for its research after reporting a 9% rise in half-yearly revenue, helped by the closure of its GfK consumer panel deal near the end of the period.

Chief Executive Steve Hatch said the British polling group had seen a "step change" in demand from tech clients as it entered its second quarter in November, even though it was taking longer to close deals with customers.

Tech companies reined in spending on marketing last year, hitting ad groups such as WPP.

However, they were using data from YouGov's consumer panels to give insights beyond just marketing, Hatch said.

"We're as likely to be working with the public affairs division to understand consumer sentiment on regulation as we are the marketing department on advertising recall or the product department on whether different features are working for different users," Hatch said in an interview on Tuesday.

YouGov is best known for political polling, although that only makes up around 5% of revenue. Its profile is set to rise in an election-heavy 2024, led by the U.S. presidential election in November.

Hatch said YouGov was already seeing an uptick in revenue from political polling.

"This year we have already made the same revenue we made in the entirety of the previous year," he said.

YouGov reported revenue of 143.1 million pounds ($181 million) and adjusted pretax profit of 30.3 million pounds for the six months to end-January.

Its shares fell 7% in morning deals, as it said it was on track to meet full-year market expectations.

($1 = 0.7904 pounds)

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Sachin Ravikumar)