MediaAlpha, Inc.

Good afternoon. My name is Samantha, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the MediaAlpha Q2 2022 earnings conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. All lights have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star 1 once again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Denise Garcia, Investors in Relations. Ma'am, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, Samantha. After the market closed today, MediaAlpha issued a press release and shareholder letter announcing results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2022. These documents are available in the Investors section of our website, and we will be referring to them on this call. Our discussion today will include forward-looking statements about our business and our outlook for future financial results, including our financial guidance for the third quarter of 2022, which are based on assumptions, forecasts, expectations, and information currently available to management. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause future results or events to differ materially from those reflected in those statements. Please refer to the company's SEC filings including its annual report on Form 10-K and its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for a fuller explanation of those risks and uncertainties and the limits applicable to forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions as of today, August 4, 2022, and the company undertakes no obligation to revise or update them. In addition, on today's call, we will be referring to certain actual and projected financial metrics of MediaAlpha that are presented on a non-GAAP basis. These metrics include adjusted EBITDA, contribution, and contribution margin, and we present them in order to supplement your understanding and assessment of our financial performance. Non-GAAP measures should not be considered as a substitute for or superior to financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our press release and shareholder letter issued today. Finally, I'd like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded and will be made available for replay via a link on the Investors section of the company's website at investors.medialpha.com. Now I'll turn the call over to Steve and Pat for a few introductory remarks before opening the call to your questions.

Hey, thanks, Denise. Hi, everyone. Welcome to our second quarter 2022 earnings call. I'd like to start with a few key takeaways from our shareholder letter. A year into the P&C insurance hard market cycle, we continue to work through challenging market conditions as the industry grapples with some of the highest inflation it has seen in the past 50 years. As a result of elevating place costs, the vast majority of our P&C carrier partners continue to prioritize profitability over growth, which has resulted in additional price declines in our P&C marketplace. While we expect near-term results in our P&T vertical to remain under pressure for the remainder of the year, we continue to expect a swift rebound in demand once carriers restore their profitability. The transition periods following hard markets present compelling opportunities for carriers to gain market share, as higher rates lead to increased consumer shopping. This is optimism that stems from direct past experience. When we emerged from the last hard market cycle in 2018, transaction value in our P&C vertical grew over 80% year over year. Turning to our health insurance vertical, we continue to anticipate a strong annual and open enrollment period in the upcoming fourth quarter. We closed the CHT acquisition on April 1st, and we have been encouraged by our early success extending this team's social media capabilities to our under 65 health insurance vertical. We continue to expect its acquisition to help us benefit from the rapid growth in digital marketing investments from health insurance carriers, particularly in the years ahead as the expanding population of Medicare beneficiaries increasingly shops and opts for Medicare Advantage policies. With that, I'll turn the call over to Pat to say a few words before we open the call to your questions.