WPP reports its second-quarter earnings on Friday,with some better-than-expected surprises. The company sees its revenue return to growth, up 1.6 percent in the first half of the year and 2.3 percent in the second quarter. In North America, revenue rises 0.4 percent in the second quarter but falls 0.2 percent in the first half. U.K. revenue is up 2.9 percent and 1.1 percent in the second quarter and first half, respectively. Like-for-like revenue, less pass-through costs, improves in the second quarter but is still down 1.4 percent overall and down 5.3 percent in North America. The company’s profits are down a significant 44 percent and billings down 0.5 percent in the first half. WPP stock climbs 5.12 percent in New York on Friday afternoon. WPP CEO Mark Read says the revenue boost is helped by new client wins including eBay, Instagram and L’Oréal. He notes strong growth from clients in technology and (surprisingly) consumer packaged goods, which historically has been the drag on results, but “weakness in health care" (the big moneymaker for agencies). “The majority of our revenue declines were concentrated in a small number of clients which underwent account reviews in 2018, or which significantly reduced their spending in 2019,” Read says, pointing out that the group did win assignments from Ferring, Merck, Pfizer, Walgreens and Walmart in the second quarter. News from that other advertising group across the pond MediaMonks, the production shop owned by Martin... Continue reading at 'Advertising Age'
[ Advertising Age | 2019-08-09 19:31:00 UTC ]