Wpp Plc Stock Price, News & Analysis

WPP (NYSE: WPP) announced its 2024 Interim Results, showing sequential improvement in Q2's like-for-like (LFL) growth. Key highlights include:

Revenues at £7.227bn, a 0.1% increase, with LFL revenue rising 2.6%. Revenue less pass-through costs decreased by 3.6% to £5.599bn. Reported operating profit grew 38.2% to £423m, while diluted EPS surged 82.5% to 18.8p.

Q2 LFL revenue less pass-through costs fell 0.5%, with growth in North America (+2.0%) and Western Continental Europe (+0.3%), offset by declines in the UK (-5.3%) and China (-24.2%).

WPP's sale of its majority stake in FGS Global to KKR at a $1.7bn valuation will generate £604m in cash proceeds to reduce leverage, targeting a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 1.60x. The interim dividend remains at 15.0p per share.

Full-year guidance adjusted to -1% to 0% LFL revenue growth due to macro pressures and weakness in China.

WPP (NYSE: WPP) has announced the appointment of Philip Jansen as Non-Executive Director and Chair-designate, effective September 16, 2024. Jansen will succeed Roberto Quarta as Non-Executive Chair on January 1, 2025. Jansen, former CEO of BT Group and Worldpay, brings extensive experience in technology, consumer goods, and organizational transformation. The appointment, recommended by the Nomination and Governance Committee, aims to leverage Jansen's marketing background and technology expertise to support WPP's future growth. Jansen will receive annual fees of £575,000 and join the Compensation and Nomination and Governance Committees. Roberto Quarta will retire from the Board on December 31, 2024, after nine years of service.

VTEX (NYSE: VTEX), a leading digital commerce platform, has partnered with H Mart, the largest Asian-American supermarket chain in the U.S., to modernize its ecommerce operations. Collaborating with VML, a global creative agency, VTEX completed the migration from H Mart's legacy system to a new SaaS platform in just seven months. The platform now supports consolidated shopping for both shelf-stable and fresh goods, improving real-time inventory visibility and efficient order fulfillment. This partnership signifies a major step in H Mart's digital transformation, aiming to enhance the online shopping experience for its customers.

WPP has been named Creative Company of the Year for 2024 at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Ogilvy, part of WPP, won Creative Network of the Year, while their client, The Coca-Cola Company, was named Creative Brand of the Year for the first time. WPP agencies amassed 160 Lions, including prestigious awards like Titanium, 6 Grand Prix, 27 Gold, 43 Silver, and 83 Bronze Lions, with winners from 41 different countries. This follows Unilever being named Creative Marketer of the Year in May 2024. Notable wins include Ogilvy’s DAVID for JCDecaux’s Meet Marina Prieto, WPP Open X for Coca-Cola's Recycle Me, and Grey for Sol Cement’s Sightwalks. GroupM, WPP’s media agencies, also performed strongly, earning 90 Lions. CEO Mark Read, Chief Creative Officer Rob Reilly, and Ogilvy’s Global CEO Devika Bulchandani expressed their pride in these achievements.

WPP and IBM have announced the launch of WPP Open for B2B, a new AI-driven business-to-business marketing solution powered by IBM's watsonx platform. This initiative aims to address complex B2B marketing challenges by accurately identifying and engaging buying groups, thus enhancing clients' return on investment. IBM is the first user, aiming to accelerate its AI-driven marketing transformation. The collaboration includes LinkedIn to leverage its unique insights on buyer groups. Key features include the AI-powered Buying Group Brain™ model, orchestration and optimization tools, and a CMO command center. These capabilities are designed for enterprise-scale integration, security, and governance.

KERV Interactive and CMI Media Group, part of WPP, announced a new partnership to launch video attention metrics for pharmaceutical advertising. This partnership will allow CMI's pharmaceutical clients to use KERV's AI-powered video analysis and interactive ad technology to enhance engagement and optimize performance. Key features include KERV's Active Attention Index, which offers over 20 metrics such as interactions, hovers, clicks, and conversions. This technology aims to improve audience engagement, regulatory compliance, and campaign efficiency. CMI Media Group is the first to offer such detailed video creative insights in the pharmaceutical industry.

WPP has integrated Anthropic’s Claude AI models into its WPP Open marketing system using Amazon Bedrock from AWS. This move enhances capabilities for WPP’s 114,000 marketers. Claude models, including Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku, offer high performance, intelligence and speed, helping WPP deliver innovative solutions and better client results. Claude's AI can understand complex briefs, generate high-quality content, and process various formats. WPP's strategic partnerships and £250 million annual investment in AI, data and technology underline its commitment to leveraging emerging technologies to drive innovation.

Doceree has launched the HIEP (High Interaction & Engagement Platforms) UK and Europe edition, in collaboration with WPP's CMI Media Group. The report analyzes endemic, point-of-care, and physician networking platforms, emphasizing the importance of effective digital strategies in healthcare marketing. It addresses the prevalent challenges in selecting optimal digital platforms for HCP engagement and offers solutions for efficient digital strategy formulation. The report aims to enhance operations, improve business outcomes, and provide a win-win situation for marketers, publishers, and HCPs. Key highlights include in-depth analyses, case studies, and recommendations for optimizing omnichannel marketing campaigns to maximize ROI.