WPP today boasted revenue gains of 10.5 percent for the first quarter of 2016, to about $4.5 billion (£3.07 billion) from $4.2 billion reported in the first quarter of 2015, including revenue growth of 5.1 percent on a like-for-like basis.
The British ad/PR conglomerate also posted net sales growth of 8.1 percent, revealing like-for-like gains of 3.2 percent, with almost all regions and business sectors — with the exception of its data investment management properties — reporting like-for-like revenue increases.
Reported billings were up 8.3 percent to £11.922 billion (about $17.4 billion). Net new business in Q1 achieved about $1.8 billion, compared to $1 billion reported for the first quarter of 2015.
In a Quarterly Trading Update statement released today, the world’s largest advertising group said these figures accounted for a performance that was "well above budget."
Performance was strong in all regions, but particularly so in North America, where like-for-like revenue growth was up 6.9 percent and net sales growth reported 3.9 percent gains. Second place went to the UK (which boasted 4.7 percent and 3.2 percent gains in like-for-like revenue and net sales growth, respectively), followed by Western Continental Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Latin American, Middle Eastern and Central and Eastern European regions.
Revenue at WPP's PR and public affairs operations — which includes powerhouse properties such as Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Cohn & Wolfe, Finsbury, Burson-Marsteller and Ogilvy Public Relations — achieved £239 million for the quarter (about $349 million), a 6.9 percent increase from the £224 million (about $327 million) reported during 2015’s first quarter.
WPP in a statement today noted that these figures reveal "a slower rate of growth than the final quarter of 2015, but significantly stronger than the first quarter of last year."
All regions boasted growth in WPP’s PR/PA sector, with the exception of North America. WPP noted that New York unit Cohn & Wolfe performed "strongly, especially in the United States," as did Finsbury and Ogilvy Public Relations.
WPP expressed caution amid the good news, claiming that clients remain “risk averse,” and that the conglom's operating companies were "still hiring cautiously and responding to any geographic, functional and client changes in revenue,” establishing a pattern WPP characterized as “very similar to 2015,” and one for which the multinational sees “little reason, if any, for this pattern of behavior to change in 2016.”
The advertising and PR giant now projects like-for-like revenue growth of "well over 3 percent" for fiscal 2016, a similar forecast made during 2015's fourth quarter results.
WPP celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.
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