WPP expects to return to growth in second-half as AI tools ‘deployed at scale’
For the full year, the company said it expected to report like-for-like revenue growth less pass-through costs of zero to one per cent.
Advertising and media giant WPP reported a 2.1 per cent increase in like-for-like revenue for the first quarter of the year, according to a statement published today.
The company said revenue growth in the UK and Western Continental Europe was offset by declines in North America and Asia Pacific, which saw strong growth in India offset by a decline in China.
While the company took on a number of new clients during the period, including Astrazeneca, Canon and Rightmove, it said “the loss of assignments at a healthcare client and reduced spend at technology companies,” hit its top-line growth.
Like-for-like revenue growth in the first quarter, excluding pass-through costs, was -1.6 per cent compared to growth of 2.9 per cent in the same period last year.
Total net new billings in the first quarter were $0.8bn (£0.6bn) compared to the $1.5bn (£1.2bn) reported for the first quarter of 2023.
For the full year, the company said it expected to report like-for-like revenue growth less pass-through costs of zero to one per cent.
With cost-saving initiatives underway at key divisions such as Burson, Groupm and VML, WPP said it would see a headline operating margin improvement of 20 to 40 basis points for the year.
WPP chief Mark Read said: “Strategically, we have progressed well on the priorities set out at our capital markets day at the end of January. We’ve rolled out multiple AI tools through our intelligent marketing operating system WPP Open, including the latest foundation models from Bria, Google and OpenAI, and at Google Cloud Next we launched our Performance Brain to predict the best-performing content ahead of campaigns going live.
Read added: “These products are being deployed at scale, together with investment in training for our people. WPP Open was also at the heart of our most recent new business successes, including major media wins with Nestlé.
“Our outlook for the full year is reiterated. We remain on track to return to growth in the balance of the year, supported by an encouraging new business pipeline and the strength of our business creatively and in media, both powered by new AI capabilities, while our simpler structure will drive organisational flexibility and stronger cash conversion,” the CEO summarised.
