How much attention should we pay to the first quarter numbers (dismal) from WPP and IPG? After all, we’ve yet to see the effects of the Trump tariffs.
WPP is still saying it made “continued strategic progress” in Q1 2025 despite revenue falling 5% against the same period of 2024 (down like-for-like 0.7%) with revenue less pass-through costs (its preferred measure of organic growth) down a whopping 7.6% (2.7% like-for-like.) Like-for-like usually means comparable businesses although it’s hard to see how WPP’s business has changed that much in a year, there have not been that many acquisitions or disposals, PR firm FGS excepted
WPP says it’s sticking to its 2025 forecast of flat revenue to a decline of 2%. It says it expects a stronger second half.
By business global integrated agencies in Q1 fell 2.8%, with media business GroupM down 0.9%. Other agencies declined 4.4%. public relations was down 6.6% while specialist agencies grew 1.2%. By geography, North America was flat at -0.1%, while the UK fell 5.5%, Western Continental Europe fell 4.5% and the rest of the world 3.8%. That included growth of 5.5% in India but China, where WPP is under the cosh for alleged media infractions, fell 17.4%.
IPG, which is planning to merge with Omnicom, fell 2.9% in organic terms in Q1, reporting a steep revenue decline and an overall loss. Some of the latter was due to tidying up prior to the anticipated merger. CEO Philippe Krakowsky blamed the reverse on client losses, including a big chunk of Amazon media (some of which went to WPP.)
WPP CEO Mark Read (above) says: “We continue to make solid progress on our strategic priorities. With the internal focus of integration behind them, VML and Burson are seeing renewed momentum in new business with Generali, Heineken and Levi Strauss & Co important wins during the quarter. The acquisition of InfoSum and its integration into GroupM’s data offer accelerates our AI-driven data approach, leapfrogging traditional identity-based solutions. We are also on track with the continued adoption of WPP Open across the organisation with 48,000 of our people (60% of client-facing staff) using it in March vs. 33,000 in December.
“Our financial performance in Q1 was in line with our expectations, reflecting macroeconomic challenges and the timing of new business, and we expect these factors to continue in Q2 with performance anticipated to improve in the second half.
“While WPP is not itself directly affected by tariffs, they will impact a number of our clients as well as the broader economy. At this point we have not seen any significant change in client spending and we reiterate our full-year guidance which already reflected a challenging environment. As ever, we remain agile and vigilant and will continue to be disciplined on how we are managing our cost base.”
Will WPP shareholders be as patient? As we’ve noted before, the impact of Trumponomics on business across the world may buy Read and co. some much-needed time. Rival Publicis is still expecting 4% plus growth for the year as a whole.
