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 […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. State Of The TransUnion Credit bureau and consumer data provider TransUnion acquired cross-channel marketing company Signal on Monday (not to be confused with TruSignal, the predictive analytics and data firm TransUnion acquired in May of last year). TransUnion didn’t share a deal price. The […]
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 […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Third Time’s A Charm Bryan Wiener and Sarah Hofstetter joined the ecommerce software company Profitero as CEO and president, respectively. This is the third business Wiener and Hofstetter have jointly led, following their long tenure at 360i before it was acquired by Dentsu and […]
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 […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Welcome To The Club Sam’s Club has agreed to acquire advertising technology and some executives from Triad, its retail ad tech partner and sales rep, Ad Age reported. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Along with the technology, Sam’s Club will pick up […]
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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, […]
Agency holding companies have spent $12 billion on data assets over the past five years but have yet to successfully deploy those assets at their creative agencies, according to a Forrester report released Monday. “It’s still very much a media proposition,” said Jay Pattisall, Forrester analyst and author of the report. “[Creative] seems to be […]
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S4 Capital had a solid second quarter earnings report on Wednesday, with revenue up 41.6% to $108.5 million in the first half of 2019. But that didn’t stop CEO Martin Sorrell from spending a significant portion of the earnings call throwing shade at his competitors, especially his former empire WPP. When asked whether S4 needs […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Hold Up In the event of an economic downturn, holding companies – specifically WPP and Publicis – could be in a vulnerable position. Both companies are saddled with debt and plummeting stock values that will be difficult to recoup, especially as clients bring more […]
The agency holding companies all face the same external struggles – new competition, slowing growth and the need for new skills. But they’re taking different paths to confront these challenges. Traditionally, holding companies followed the same playbook: growth by acquisition to amass the scale that gave them clout across major clients. But the shift to […]
Kantar didn’t have much flexibility under WPP to buy companies and solutions to modernize its traditional market research business. “We’ve been out of the market for three or four years,” said Kantar CEO Eric Salama on a press call held Thursday to provide an update on its strategy under its new owner Bain Capital. But […]
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 […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Audit This WPP has had enough of Accenture playing agency and media auditor at the same time. So, starting in 2020, it will no longer participate in pitches run by the consulting firm. WPP is concerned that Accenture can use the media and services […]
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 […]
Remember when WPP CEO Mark Read said he wanted the holding company to be known for creative transformation? That need to evolve has finally hit Triad, a company WPP acquired in 2016 that sells paid media on ecommerce sites. On Tuesday, Triad rebranded from Triad Retail Media and launched a consultancy to help brands increase […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Amazon Vs. Williams-Sonoma A lawsuit filed by Williams-Sonoma against Amazon in December demonstrates the ecommerce platform’s ability to replicate and overwhelm rival product lines. Williams-Sonoma is relatively strong online, with ecommerce accounting for the majority of sales, and its furniture business West Elm is […]
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 […]
What’s a coco de mer? A double coconut, which is what Martin Sorrell is cultivating with S4. The holding company he once described as a peanut grew into a coconut – also his description – when it acquired MediaMonks in June. With its second acquisition with MightyHive on Tuesday, the coconut has doubled up. From […]
Martin Sorrell’s self-proclaimed “peanut” of a holding company has officially graduated to a coconut. S4 Capital reported its first-ever earnings as a public company Wednesday, following its reverse takeover of Derriston Capital in April. Q3 revenue grew 45% to $33 million and rose 48% to $94 million for the first nine months of the year. […]
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 […]
After stagnant growth in 2017, holding companies are getting rid of assets that aren’t related to their core focus on digital transformation, programmatic, data and technology. Omnicom, Publicis Groupe and WPP have significantly pruned their portfolios this quarter. IPG and Havas, on the other hand, have disposed of smaller and less strategic agencies in the […]
Martin Sorrell is bullish on Amazon. The platform will eventually reach $100 billion in ad spend, Sorrell, the CEO of S4 Capital and former WPP honcho, predicted Tuesday at AdExchanger’s Programmatic IO in New York City. He did not mention a timeline. In Amazon’s Q3 earnings in July, the company said it brought in $2.5 […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Setting Up A Private Practice Amazon’s private-label brand business is on pace to generate $25 billion by 2022, up from $7.5 billion this year, according to investment firm SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. And Amazon has quietly taken measures to rapidly grow its exclusive brand roster, […]
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. […]
Martin Sorrell took a page out of his own playbook when he launched his new holding company, S4 Capital, in April. S4 released a 191-page prospectus Tuesday detailing its financials, share structure and go-to-market strategy. If all goes as planned, the company will begin trading on the London Stock Exchange on Sept. 28. But Sorrell’s […]
