WPP announced strong results for the first quarter of the year, buoyed by its investments in tech, AI, and influencer marketing. The holding company reported revenue was up 11.9%, with like-for-like revenue increasing 4.9%. With pass-through costs, that growth hit 2.9%. Total revenue was 4.9% higher at £3.46 billion on a like-for-like basis.

WPP in Australia has seen better growth in the March quarter than the rest of the advertising group’s business in Asia-Pacific. The world’s biggest global advertising group reported a “positive” start to 2023, posting a 2.9% rise in net sales for the March quarter. 

Across Asia-Pacific, organic revenue was down 2.9%. but Australia recorded a posittive 2.5%. WPP’s strongest area was the UK with 7.4% growth. The US was 2.3%

The company is attributing that rise in part to continued spending among clients, in the communications, customer experience, commerce, data and technology sectors. 

The focus on AI over the last five years is paying off, with many examples of our work with clients, using the main AI platforms, in-market today. As a result, the company has advised it is on track to hit its revenue targets for 2023 – the effects of foreign exchange notwithstanding.

Despite the positive outlook, WPP did sound notes of warning about the tech sector slowdown. It noted that, in the US, otherwise solid performance in CPG, financial services, telecom, and media were offset by lower technology and retail client spend. As a result, the proportion of its client base of tech companies shrank by 0.6%. 

No doubt for the remainder of the year fast-reaction pivots that scale to a new market condition are essential to endure economic uncertainties.

Honest Eggs Co. and VMLY&R have launched FitChix, the first-ever fitness trackers designed for chickens. Accompanying the innovation is an integrated campaign designed to show people how free and healthy Honest Eggs Co. chickens really are.

VMLY&R collaborated with Airbag to create ergonomic, chicken- friendly fitness trackers that doesn’t impose on day-to-day life and behaviour. Multiple prototypes were engineered and calibrated to properly capture the activity levels of individual chickens – including step counts, which are printed onto the eggs that Australians buy at the supermarket.

Says Roger Boyd, general manager, Honest Eggs Co.: “Honest Eggs Co. is on a mission to change egg farming for the better. We launched FitChix to help monitor the health of our chooks and to continue to bring attention to why regenerative farming is better for the hens, the egg, the land, the farmer and the community.

In an extremely confusing category, Honest Eggs Co. is an easy choice as it is the one you can count on to be honest and transparent about the way we farm.”

As well as the fitness trackers and step count on each egg laid, FitChix will appear in OLV, OOH, Social and in-store to educate consumers on the importance of sustainable, regenerative farming practices.

Says Jake Barrow, group executive creative director of VMLY&R: “The egg category is a minefield of naming conventions, all designed to sound like the chickens are getting a pretty good deal. The reality is often otherwise. Right through from product, to campaign, to transaction point, FitChix is an innovation that delivers irrefutable proof that the chickens at Honest Eggs farms live a free and healthy life. So, make sure your next carbonara is an Honest one!”

Says Charmaine Griffith, growth director, VMLY&R: “As shoppers become increasingly conscious of their environmental impact, Honest Eggs Co. is helping to bring the promise of regenerative farming front and centre on supermarket shelves. As one of Australia’s foremost pioneers in this field, we’re proud to share their story.”

WPP has been named as an ‘Inclusive Employer’ by the Diversity Council Australia (DCA). This status is the only award of its kind in Australia, recognising organisations that ensure inclusion as part of their business operations.

To be deemed an ‘Inclusive Employer’, an organisation must prove they are actively committed to inclusion by exceeding the National Index Benchmark on at least five out of six of the inclusivity measures. These measures are Awareness, Engagement, Inclusive Organizational Climate, Inclusive Leadership, Inclusive Team and Exclusion. WPP surpassed the benchmarks in all six areas.

Creating an inclusive workplace is fundamental to WPP’s purpose of using creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, client and communities. The Inclusive Employer status is a welcome recognition of WPP’s mission build and foster an inclusive culture of belonging, one that is equitable and respectful of diverse thought and individual expression.

Being the employer of choice for all is central to WPP’s people strategy and is supported by initiatives like WPP’s Reconciliation Action Plan, Inclusion Council, and Unite, an LGBTQ+ community united to ensure diverse thinking and creativity within the network.

Says Rose Herceg, president for Australia and New Zealand, WPP: “WPP is delighted to have been named an Inclusive Employer by the Diversity Council Australia, having exceeded the National Index Benchmark across all six inclusivity measures following a company-wide Inclusive Employer Index Survey.

This result is a testament to WPP’s commitment to being the employer of choice for all as we build better futures for our people, planet, clients and communities. We believe that ultimately diversity produces extraordinary creativity, manifested in the work we do for our clients and the impact we have on the world. It is the very reason we put the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion at the centre of everything we do at WPP.”

This month we launched the WPP Australia & New Zealand Creative Council with representation from Ogilvy, VMLY&R, Wunderman Thompson, AKQA, Whitegrey, and Hogarth. A good mix of wise old creative heads and exciting young talent. 

I’m one of the old heads and been lucky enough to be appointed to lead and coordinate the group. This talented bunch will meet regularly and already has a series of programs, events, and activities planned for 2023. It’s all about our WPP agency creative teams participating in and gaining more insight into creating powerful creative ideas and work.  

Creative Excellence is our collective goal, an ambition, a drive, and a spirit. It’s a destination and a journey. And almost as importantly, it’s a discipline made of many ever- evolving programs and processes.

All the most creative brands or agencies we admire around the world go way beyond the “Get brief, answer brief, sell idea, produce, repeat.” model. They all spend time conceptualising what their creative voice is, train their people, elevate creative standards and are relentless hunters for opportunities. What we all see now from the outside –the creative fame- was built over years of processes by great people with a vision and a set of principles.

In the Most Creative Company in the World, the pursuit of Creative Excellence should be nothing short of exhilarating. We all joined this industry for the work, and that’s what it’s all about: setting up the framework for our teams to make the best work of their lives in your markets, globally or on your agency brand.

We formed the council to talk about the work. To celebrate it. To study it, let’s try, fail and try again. Let’s explore new platforms and new crafts, and open to new perspectives. I will keep you posted of our developments.

Almost 285 million people worldwide aren’t able to enjoy live sport to the fullest due to visual impairment.

For people living with blindness or low vision, the experience of broadcast sport is severely limited. On television, sports coverage relies heavily on visuals, while radio commentary can be too slow to give fans a true sense of the action.

Developed by AKQA in partnership with Tennis Australia and Monash University, Action Audio draws on ball monitoring using computer vision to emphasise key moments of play. It does so with a 3D sound design system that has been developed in collaboration with the blind and low vision community.

Action Audio launched as a pilot during the finals of the 2021 Australian Open tennis tournament. After the success of the pilot, Action Audio was made available across every match at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena for the 2022 tournament.

Via Australian Open radio and Google Assistant, audiences could listen to Action Audio together with the live radio commentary of each game.

Using voice commands, visually impaired tennis fans could ask Google to stream the Action Audio live feed and access information about how Action Audio works, to learn more about the experience.

WPP has reported this week strong first half of 2022 with broad-based growth, sustained demand from clients and the growth guidance upgraded again. This reflects the improved competitive position of our creative businesses, with their growing capabilities in commerce, experience and technology posting $AUD11.790 billion (£6.755 billion) in revenue, up 10.2%, and like-for-like revenue up 8.7% from 2021.

Alongside this results WPP has also been named a Leader among Global Marketing Service providers in The Forrester Wave™: Global Marketing Services, Q3 2022 report. The research evaluated a field of 10 of the most significant service providers, which were invited to participate in the evaluation.

The report identifies that “The integration of agency, technology, and consulting services brings together a converging landscape of holding companies, digital networks, and management consultancies. The result elevates the industry beyond advertising delivered by individual agency brands to marketing solutions delivered by teams of specialists. However, turning disparate, global capabilities into integrated solutions is much easier pitched than delivered. The best integrated marketing providers orchestrate their vast expertise in digital experience (DX), data, creative, and media with fluidity, not friction.”

The report assessed providers against 17 criteria spanning three categories: Current Offering, Strategy, and Market Presence. Among these categories, WPP received the highest scores possible in seven criteria, including creative and content services, customer data strategy and activation services, digital experience services, workforce strategy and performance.

The Forrester report notes, “WPP pioneers end-to-end marketing solutions with global creativity and scale… They include scaled, data-driven creative capabilities; integrated digital experience development; media performance prowess; and strong identity management and robust measurement and analytics. Client references support the company’s ability to orchestrate marketing campaigns and technology across regions.”