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| Mark Read |
WPP CEO Mark Read reported 2024 revenues (less pass through costs) fell one percent to $14.4B, due to weaker client discretionary spending.
Though WPP's “top line was lower,” Read noted 2024 accomplishments such as the June merger of BCW and Hill & Knowlton to create Burson.
WPP’s PR operations, which included FGS Global until the completion of its sale to KKR in December, posted a 1.7 percent decline in Q4 revenues to $1.4M. Headline operating profit dropped 13.1 percent to $166M.
Read noted significant advances on the AI front during he past year. He believes AI will be the single most transformational development in the industry since the internet.
“It will impact every element of how we work, freeing up our creative people to do better work, increasing the efficiency of our production teams to produce much greater volumes of high-quality work and empowering our media teams to develop and deploy more effective plans in a fraction of the time," he said
WPP Open, the AI-powered marketing system, is used by 33K of the firm’s staff, according to Read. WPP plans to hike investment in WPP Open 20 percent to $375M this year.
Read remains cautious about the outlook for 2025, but feels WPP’s simpler client-facing offer and operational excellence will support growth and deliver value to shareholders.
Institutional Shareholder Services advises investors to vote "no" on a compensation package for WPP chief Cindy Rose at the May 8 annual meeting.
FTI Consulting chalked up a 9.5 percent rise in Q1 revenues to $983.3M, powered by gains in its PR, corporate finance and technology segments.
Stagwell reports 4 percent growth in Q1 net revenues to $585M and a record $141M in net new business wins.
WPP reported a 6.7 percent drop to $3.1B in Q1 like-like revenues less pass-through costs. CEO Cindy Rose says 'it will take time to outpace historical losses."
Omnicom CEO John Wren reports Q1 revenues from “core operations” rose 6.7 percent to $5.6B, driven in part by a 3.9 percent boost in organic growth.
