The world's largest advertising firm WPP unveiled its strong growth of 6.7% for Q1 2022. WPP has Ogilvy, Grey and GroupM in its portfolio and has reported organic growth of 9.5% across the board with a revenue increase of just above EUR 3bn on Wednesday.
According to the corporation, the year has begun strongly, continuing the significant momentum established through 2021. In the first quarter, revenue increased by 6.7 % to £3.1 billion (A$5.4 billion). Revenue rose 6.4 percent year on year in constant currency. Like-for-like growth was 8.1%, excluding cash, acquisitions, and disposals.
Revenue less pass-through costs increased 10.3 % year on year to £2.6 billion (A$4.5 billion) in the first quarter and 10% in constant currency. Like-for-like growth was 9.5% after adjusting for the favorable net impact of acquisitions and disposals.
The top five markets for Q1-like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs were the United States (8.9 %), the United Kingdom (8.1 %), Germany (16.1%), China (11.9 %), and India (25.1 %).
WPP predicted that full-year net sales growth in 2022 would range between 5.5 and 6.5 %. This is an increase from the group's earlier expectation of roughly 5%.
"The year has started very well with continued momentum from 2021 resulting in strong growth across all businesses and regions. Demand is strong for our services, particularly in digital media, ecommerce, data and marketing technology," said CEO Mark Read.
"The year has started very well with continued momentum from 2021 resulting in strong growth across all businesses and regions. Demand is strong for our services, particularly in digital media, ecommerce, data and marketing technology," said CEO Mark Read.
WPP has been making rapid moves across its owned companies which involves mergers and a launch of Everymile in the D2C sector.
GroupM, WPP's media investment wing on Tuesday, announced its strategies for transformation with enhanced agency offerings and unified performance organization. The steps involve two major mergers of Essence with Mediacom and Mindshare with Neo.
Essence and MediaCom will unite to become EssenceMediacom, a new agency that will combine Essence's digital and data-driven DNA with MediaCom's scalable multichannel audience planning and strategic media experience.
GroupM Nexus, the world's top media performance organisation, will bring together industry-leading expertise and solutions from Finecast, Xaxis, and GroupM Services — GroupM's global network of activation professionals.
Mindshare will complete its integration with global performance agency Neo, allowing customers to access a greater range of transformative media offerings.
When it comes to Everymile, the company's recently launched venture, WPP says, "Everymile builds on WPP's existing global omnichannel commerce capabilities in strategy, customer experience and technology development, adding demand generation, online trading and merchandising, supply chain and logistics. It will enable companies and brands to deliver brand-led DTC commerce – from the customer's screen to their doorstep – simply and cost-effectively."
With the launch of Everymile, WPP becomes the first firm in its industry to provide an end-to-end e-commerce solution.
While talking about the way ahead, Reed said, "We continue to see strong demand for our services from our clients and to invest in the many opportunities for growth driven by the digital transition, including Choreograph and the recent launch of Everymile. As a result of a strong first quarter, we now expect our growth to be in the range of 5.5% to 6.5%, up from around 5% at the start of the year. We remain very mindful of the impact of the broader macroeconomic environment on our business and will respond quickly to any changes as the year progresses."