WPP chief executive Mark Read was today nervously eyeing the situation in Ukraine, where he has 200 staff.
“We are working with them to help them, to keep them safe”, he said, declining to elaborate on what is plainly a difficult security situation.
Read’s concern for the staff somewhat took the gloss of strong 2021 results.
The ad giant swung from a loss of £2.8 billion to a profit of £951 million. The group won business from Coca-Cola notably, while continuing to work with Google and Unilever.
Clients are shifting away from traditional media such as TV and towards Tik-Tok and similar. The amount WPP spent on Tik-Tok ads is up fivefold, said Read, but didn’t give an actual amount.
WPP is pledging growth of 5% this year, significantly better than market expectations.
The Russian factor could complicate matters, he admits. “It is hard to evaluate. We’ve got two factors at play. There is the opening up of the global economy, against that there is political and economic uncertainty which clients don’t like.” The London office is typically 50% full and “starting to feel buzzy”, he said.
The shares today fell 85p to 1093p.
