{"id":637464,"date":"2026-04-29T02:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T02:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/637464\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T02:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T02:14:08","slug":"wpp-australia-falls-for-sixth-straight-quarter-as-omnicom-posts-solid-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/637464\/","title":{"rendered":"WPP Australia falls for sixth straight quarter as Omnicom posts solid growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

WPP\u2019s Australian performance has now recorded six consecutive quarters of organic revenue decline, as it posts a 7.9% fall for the first quarter of 2026.<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s largest advertising holding company has seen a sustained decline in organic growth in Australia since the fourth quarter of 2024, with the local decline spiking at 8.5% in the third quarter last year.<\/p>\n

WPP\u2019s local Q1 results contrast sharply with those of Publicis Group, which recently flagged Australia as a global star performer having posted 7.6% organic growth during the same period.<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite the continued decline, WPP\u2019s Australian operations have secured recent new business wins, including media accounts for BYD<\/a> in the current quarter and Suncorp in the previous period<\/a>, while its public relations arm has added Airbnb as a client.<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

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Released overnight, WPP\u2019s global performance was also subdued, with a 4.0% like-for-like organic decline and a 6.7% fall in revenue less pass-through costs, to \u00a32.2b (A$4.3b).<\/p>\n

Speaking on a webcast, WPP CFO Joanne Wilson said the group continues to expect a full-year headline operating profit margin in the range of 12% to 13%.<\/p>\n

On the media business, she said WPP had made \u201cgreat progress\u201d on improving the competitiveness of its proposition, adding that it was resonating with both existing and new clients. \u201cThe real lead indicator in that is our new business and also our client retentions,\u201d she said. Wilson also pointed to internal changes, saying the media leadership team had been \u201cincredibly focused on building a much more effective and much more agile operating model.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the webcast, Wilson did not comment on reports that WPP is in the process of offloading its PR network, Burson.<\/a><\/p>\n

Global CEO Cindy Rose did not appear on the webcast, but said in a statement that she was \u201cencouraged\u201d by early momentum under the company\u2019s Elevate28 strategy, adding that it validated the \u201cstabilisation\u201d phase of the plan, which will focus on saving \u00a3500 million (A$949 million) over the next three years.<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, fellow holding company Omnicom Group,\u00a0 reporting its first quarterly results since completing its merger with Interpublic Group at the end of last year,\u00a0 posted 3.9% organic growth globally.<\/p>\n

Omnicom reported Asia-Pacific revenue of US$503.5m (A$700m for the quarter, but did not disclose organic growth performance for the region.<\/p>\n

The addition of Interpublic Group added a further $2.6b to Omnicom\u2019s total of $6.2b in revenue compared to the prior year period.<\/p>\n

The group incurred $59.4m in integration and transaction costs related to the deal, alongside $4.1m in repositioning costs and a $34.3m loss on planned dispositions following completion of the acquisition.<\/p>\n

Brands merged or axed since the deal\u2019s closure include DDB and Mullenlowe, which are being folded into TBWA globally, with the former merging with Clemenger BBDO in Australia.<\/p>\n

Omnicom also recently flagged changes in its experiential division, announcing the sale of Jack Morton to The Riverside Company\u2019s Impact XM.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Omnicom\u2019s Q1 earnings webcast, CEO John Wren said the group remained \u201cvery healthy in terms of competition\u201d and continued to win \u201cits fair share of new business,\u201d noting this was strong performance given it was integrating two large organisations in a short period of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re functioning very well,\u201d he said. \u201cIf there\u2019s an underlying trend that\u2019s out there, it\u2019s really clients\u2026 becoming more focused on selecting a single provider to take care of most of their needs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WPP\u2019s Australian performance has now recorded six consecutive quarters of organic revenue decline, as it posts a 7.9%…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,69742,73862],"class_list":["post-637464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-omnicom","tag-wpp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}