WPP is confident of a strong 2022 as the world’s biggest advertising group posted a 12% lift to £10.397 billion in like-for-like revenue for 2021, passing pre-pandemic levels.
The company rewarded shareholders with more than £1 billion in share buybacks and dividends.
WPP said "very strong" growth was driven by demand for digital services, ecommerce and technology. Compared to 2019, like-for-like in revenue was up 2.9%.
Staff costs were up just 3.2% to £6.57 billion. However, incentives surged 220% to £592 million.
The company sees “good momentum” in 2022 and forecasts revenue less pass-through costs growth of around 5% in 2022.
Australia recorded negative like-for-like growth in the December quarter. In other markets: : US +11.7%, UK +9.9%, Germany +3.4%, Greater China +13.6%.
WPP called out GroupM for its “very strong” performance, with like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs +16.1%, and what it described as market-leading $8.7 billion of net new business won, including global Coca-Cola, Google and Unilever.
CEO Mark Read: “It has been an outstanding year for WPP. Our top-line growth, driven by strong demand for our services in digital marketing, media, ecommerce and technology, has resulted in our fastest organic growth for over 20 years. As a result, we are two years ahead of our plan, hitting our 2023 revenue target in 2021.
“As clients seek to accelerate their growth and transform how they reach customers, the depth, breadth and global scale of our offer - which combines creativity with technology and data, through Choreograph, and the largest global media platform in GroupM - is proving its value for existing and new clients.
“The talent, dynamism and commitment of our people have also shone through. Our extensive partnership with The Coca-Cola Company, the expansion of our work with Google and the continuation of our longstanding relationship with Unilever demonstrate the value that three of the world’s leading marketing organisations place in WPP.
“We look forward to 2022 with confidence. We are guiding to strong top-line growth, improving profitability and continued investment in our people and services.”
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