Mark Read

WPP puts AI tools in the hands of brands; YouTube’s dynamic sponsored segments could redefine creator monetization; and Hollywood is getting into “microdramas.”

AI Overviews are even dinging Google Search ads’ traffic; WPP downgrades its earnings forecast; and Google’s AI competitors launch their own web browsers.

Mark Read is exiting WPP at the end of the year; the CEO of DeepMind is important, we swear; Google’s major SEO swings have changed the game.

Sports sponsorships can play well for small brands; Perplexity was first to AI search ads, but advertisers waited for Google; and GroupM officially rebrands to WPP Media.

WPP’s GroupM is getting a new name; there’s no such thing as a TikTok ban at NewFronts; and Meta’s ad growth prospects might be plateauing.

Etsy sellers aren’t feeling great about the US tariff situation. Plus, X’s data licensing and subscription revenue is increasing.

WPP shares dipped to a four-year low on after posting its 2024 earnings results. Plus: How brands are courting virality.

IPG buying Node continues the trend of agencies trying new business models; IPG and Publicis support principal-based buying while WPP opposes it; and billionaire owners believe controlling their newsrooms will win back public trust.

Publicis outperforms its agency holding company rivals because of three primary factors: technology strategy, leadership and deal-making.

Can Netflix do live programming? Plus, efficiency gains from generative AI are causing some ad agencies to rethink how they bill clients.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Another Cookie Delay? The third-party cookie might receive another stay of execution – and this time it wouldn’t be Google pushing the deadline. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) reiterated that Google won’t be allowed to kill cookies next year unless the […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. A Slow Slide WPP reported lackluster Q2 results during its earnings call on Friday.  The agency holding company saw a “shortfall” in the US, accounting for about 37% of WPP’s biz, which “took us a little bit by surprise,” CEO Mark Read told […]

Agency holding company WPP met its own expectations in the first quarter of the year. Standout GroupM, its media buying and planning agency, contributed to about 36% of WPP’s Q1 revenue, growing 6.1% in Q1.

The ad agency holding company WPP is on the up and up and remains confident in its clients’ continued investment in marketing projects despite a challenging macroeconomic environment. WPP is “well positioned to deliver sustainable, long-term growth” after seeing broad-based growth in 2022, said CEO Mark Read during the company’s earnings report on Thursday.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Against Mall Odds TikTok is many things: a payday for influencers, a news service, an entertainment provider, a music video player, a search engine and more. “Though, what executives really want TikTok to be known as is a digital shopping mall,” MarketWatch reports.  TikTok […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Identity Star Neustar is at it again on the identity front. On the heels of rolling out its cookieless Fabrick ID in December, Neustar has launched an end-to-end identity management solution called – you guessed it – Neustar Unified Identity. It is a core […]

COVID-19 has had an outsize negative effect on GroupM than on the rest of parent company WPP’s business as clients paused and cut back on media spend during the crisis. The holding company did not break out GroupM’s Q2 or H1 revenues, but WPP CEO Mark Read told investors on Thursday that the media buying […]

WPP is slogging along with the rest of the agency market. Q1 like-for-like revenues were down 3.8% to $3.5 billion, the company said Wednesday. In North America, WPP’s largest market, like-for-like revenue was down 1.9% to roughly $1.2 billion. Grey, GroupM and VMLY&R all grew in the region, but revenues began to sag across the […]

WPP CEO Mark Read will speak at AdExchanger’s upcoming Industry Preview conference in New York on Jan. 28-29, 2020. WPP CEO Mark Read has worked to make the holding company faster, simpler and more collaborative. Since taking on the top role a little over a year ago, Read reshaped the world’s largest holding company, notably folding […]

WPP has struggled to grow in recent years, as key clients in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) reduce spend and its traditional creative agencies underperform. While the tech vertical and its media business are relative bright spots, they aren’t big enough to buttress the entire holding company. WPP’s Q3 performance, which the company reported Friday, […]

WPP said Friday it has sold a 60% majority stake in Kantar to Bain Capital in a deal that values the company at around $4 billion. Read the release. The news marks the end of a months-long bidding process that involved Apollo Global Management and Vista Partners. Bloomberg reported earlier in July that Bain had […]

After two years of stock declines, WPP is finally inching toward progress. The holding company on Friday reported revenue was down 1.3% in 2018 to $2 billion and billings up 0.4% to $7.4 billion, at the upper end of guidance set in October. Shares jumped 8% upon the news. But work remains to be done […]

GroupM said Wednesday that Wavemaker global CEO Tim Castree has been named CEO of GroupM North America. Castree does not yet have a successor and will stay on in an advisory role at Wavemaker until a replacement is named. Castree’s big task will be to get GroupM back to growth in North America, its slowest […]

Even before WPP’s restructuring announcement Tuesday, the holding company had already merged digital agency VML with creative agency Young & Rubicam, and digital agency Wunderman with creative agency J. Walter Thompson. It’s still unclear what that means for GroupM’s four large media agencies. WPP CEO Mark Read didn’t comment directly about the media buying arm, […]

The new WPP, as CEO Mark Read called it during a Tuesday morning investor call in London, will return to organic growth by reducing headcount by about 2.5%, consolidating agencies and investing strategically in technology. WPP expects to deliver annual savings of $346 million by the end of 2021 thanks to this strategy. Restructuring costs […]

Something is wrong with WPP Group – or, perhaps, many somethings. On its Q3 call with investors Thursday, management detailed a list of ailments longer than that of a septuagenarian overdue for his physical. North America? “Further weakening.” Creative agencies? “Doing poorly.” Account losses? As bad as you’ve heard. Revenue was down .8%, and the […]

Wunderman global CEO Mel Edwards has big shoes to fill. Last Thursday, the CRM and digital agency said it would replace CEO Mark Read, recently named CEO of WPP, with Edwards, who previously led the agency in EMEA. Read is credited with turning Wunderman around from a legacy direct marketing company into a digital powerhouse. […]

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The Big Story is a breezy new podcast featuring a roundtable of AdExchanger editors talking about the biggest stories from the past week. It is available wherever you subscribe to podcasts. WPP and Nike have some new spokespeople. While Mark Read’s appointment at WPP was expected and uncontroversial, Colin Kaepernick headlining Nike’s new campaign was […]

WPP may have a new CEO, but it still has the same old problems. During its Q2 earnings report Tuesday, the holding company posted its first quarter of growth in a year, with like-for-like revenues up 1.6% for the first half of 2018 and 2.4% for Q2 to $9.6 billion. But the company’s strongest region, […]