WPP chief says use of AI in advertising is an ‘opportunity’ not a threat April 27, 2023 Contrary to some commentators’ fears, chief of WPP Mark Read has called artificial intelligence a “massive opportunity to optimise creative” work rather than representing a threat. Speaking to the Financial Times, Read revealed the advertising giant has already been using artificial intelligence and automation to “amplify” its creative work for some years. He added that [...]
Sir Martin Sorrell: S4 Capital boss made ‘excellent recovery’ after tumour April 17, 2023 Sir Martin Sorrell has revealed that he had keyhole surgery to remove a tumour in February and is underdoing further “preventative treatment”. The 78-year-old advertising mogul, who is currently executive chair at S4 Capital, said he has made an “excellent recovery” following the tumour operation. Sir Martin added in a statement that he is having [...]
FTSE 100 close: London index slides into red despite Rolls-Royce scaling more than 20 per cent February 23, 2023 London’s FTSE 100 fell further away from the 8,000 point mark again today despite investors pouring into aerospace giant Rolls-Royce. The premier index shed 0.29 per cent to close at 7,907.71 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, jumped 0.59 per cent to [...]
WPP shares soar as ad giant defies fears of marketing slowdown February 23, 2023 London-based communications and advertising firm WPP has seen its shares soar over five per cent this morning after the group posted stellar earnings for 2022. The firm saw its revenues soar 13 per cent to £14.4bn in 2022, up from £12.8bn in the same period last year, assuaging fears that companies would pull back marketing spending [...]
How To Know Layoffs Are Coming And What To Do About It February 2, 2023 If recent headlines are anything to go by, the future of the tech industry isn’t as secure as we once thought it was. Mass layoffs at Stripe and Meta closed out 2022, and in January alone, Google’s parent company announced it plans to shed 12,000 of its workforce, while Amazon has decided to cut 18,000 [...]
The Notebook: Neil Bennett’s Davos dispatch January 17, 2023 The Notebook is a place for interesting people to say interesting things. Today it’s the turn of Neil Bennett, Global Co-CEO of communications advisory giant H/Advisers – writing on Ukraine in Davos, Manchester United’s bold marketing strategy and why the Swiss town remains the place to be I am in Davos this week to host [...]
TikTok rides out wider advertising slowdown December 5, 2022 TikTok is expected to ride out the advertising slowdown, as the Chinese-owned social media titan becomes an outlier to the wider industry slowdown. According to a new report published by GroupM, the media buying agency owned by WPP, TikTok doubled its advertising revenue in 2022. “This has likely been another driver of the advertising deceleration [...]
Sir Martin Sorrell’s venture fund backs US digital asset management firm November 21, 2022 A venture capital fund backed by Sir Martin Sorrell revealed its first public investment in a US digital asset management platform this morning. In a statement, S4S Ventures announced that it had co-led a $10m Series B investment round alongside Bertelsmann’s BDMI for Tenovos, a New York based software-as-a-service provider. Tenovos helps clients streamline and [...]
S4 Capital revenues jump despite tech slowdown November 14, 2022 Investors in S4 Capital saw a much-needed boost in share price today after the London-listed firm appeared to dodge the wider tech turmoil. The brainchild of WPP founder Sir Martin Sorrell revealed that like-for-like gross profit climbed over 29 per cent to £249.9m in the third quarter, with “whopper” client projects bolstering the company’s results. [...]
Sorrell tells ad land to calm down about Elon Musk’s Twitter November 3, 2022 Despite the pandemonium caused by Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter last week, there is one media mogul who seems largely unfazed by the news. S4 Capital chief and former WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell underplayed the $44bn takeover and said that Facebook owner Meta was the one to watch when it came to the future [...]