WPP Posts 0.5% Revenue Growth In Q3, AI Drives Growth

WPP recorded a 0.5 per cent increase in like-for-like organic revenue in the third quarter. The growth was driven by strong performances from GroupM in North America, western continental Europe and India, although trading conditions in China continue to be challenging.

Mark Read, CEO, WPP said, “We returned to form in new business, winning Amazon’s media account outside the Americas and securing our media relationship with Unilever, including taking back the retail media and activation business in the United States. Our success with two of the world’s top ten advertisers demonstrates the renewed competitiveness of our offer. We are also proud to be supporting the new Starbucks leadership team with our recent creative win in the United States.”

In Q3, the network secured new clients such as Amazon (media excluding the Americas), Unilever (media, retail media and activation and creative services) and Henkel (media). The company began Q4 on a strong note with wins from Starbucks (US creative) and Honor (global media including China).

WPP reported a 7 per cent growth among its top 10 clients in Q3, with growth in the consumer packaged goods, automotive, travel and leisure and financial services sectors during the quarter.

Artificial intelligence (AI) remains a strong pillar of growth for WPP. “Our people are increasingly embedding AI in the way that we work and deliver creative and media campaigns to clients, with usage of WPP Open up 107 per cent since the beginning of the year. Supporting this, the creation of VML and Burson, and the simplification of GroupM, are delivering a stronger business and structural cost savings,” said Read.

WPP Open is the network’s AI-powered marketing operating system that consolidates all of WPP's services, technologies, applications and data into a single platform.

Since the beginning of the year, WPP has experienced a 107 per cent increase in monthly active users, a 300 per cent rise in the usage of large language models (LLMs) and a 349 per cent growth in image generation as it aims to boost adoption throughout its network. Key clients including Google, IBM, L'Oréal, LVMH, Nestlé and The Coca-Cola Company are increasingly utilising the platform.

Clients particularly find value in WPP Open for enhancing collaboration with WPP, leveraging the platform's workflow features to standardise processes.