"I am excited by the creation of the world’s largest creative agency, VML, and the continued evolution of GroupM," said WPP CEO Mark Read in the company's press release announcing its financial results for the quarter-ended September 30, 2023.
“In a world being rapidly reshaped, we need to continue to evolve our offer to clients and simplify our business. Both these developments will strengthen our offer to clients, simplify the integration of our services and maximise the returns on our ongoing investments in AI and technology," he commented.
The advertising and communications giant clocked in a revenue of $4238 million (£ 3508 million) for the third quarter. This was a loss of 1.8 per cent when compared to the previous year’s third quarter.
The total year-to-date revenue stood at $12,971 million (£ 10,729 million), marking a 3.9 per cent increase from the previous year.
WPP has won $1.4 billion net new business in Q3, including from Estée Lauder, Hyatt, Lenovo, Nestlé, Unilever and Verizon.
According to the advertising and communications giant, the third-quarter performance was impacted by the continuation of second-quarter trends. Additionally, the launch of the creative agency, VML, also impacted the revenue.
Further integration of GroupM with common products and a single technology platform, streamlining of operations and back-office functions supporting client-facing agencies has strengthened the business.
Read noted, “Our top-line performance in Q3 was below our expectations and continued to be impacted by the cautious spending trends we saw in Q2, particularly across technology clients with more impact from this felt in GroupM over the summer than the first half.”
“We continue to win both creative and media assignments from leading global companies including significant wins in the third quarter with Estée Lauder (media), Hyatt (creative), Lenovo (creative), Nestlé (media) and Verizon (creative). Our net new business performance of $1.4bn in the quarter showed sequential improvement after a tougher first half.
“We will provide more detail on today’s announcements, our strategic roadmap and actions to drive growth, further efficiencies and margin expansion at our Capital Markets Day in January.”
