Global advertising giant WPP has reported a 5% fall in its first quarter revenue as weakness crept into the global marketing sector.
First quarter revenue of £3,243m, was down 5% year-on-year, on a reported basis and down 0.7% like-for-like (LFL), while revenue less pass-through costs of £2,482m was down 2.7% LFL.
However, the FTSE-100 London-listed company said that performance in the quarter was consistent with expectations and guidance given at the preliminary results back in February.
WPP first quarter update
WPP said that while it noted “elevated macro uncertainty” in the near-term, it continues to expect 2025 LFL revenue less pass-through costs of flat to -2% and around flat headline operating profit margin.
WPP noted that the United Kingdom declined 5.5% with pressure on project-based spend, particularly in Healthcare and Automotive, offsetting more robust trends in CPG.
It said that Western Continental Europe also saw a broad-based decline of more than 12% on reported revenue against the toughest comparison from 2024.
Mark Read, Chief Executive Officer of WPP, said: “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 (c.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.”
WPP’s shares were trading just over 1% higher at £5.66 in London following the trading update on Friday morning.