WPP CEO says Twitter is 'more stable' and that AI is 'fundamental' to its business

WPP CEO Mark Read said Thursday that artificial intelligence has already become “fundamental” to the holding company's business and that clients are beginning to think about returning to Twitter. Read's comments came as WPP forecast sales that will rise more than analysts anticipated in the coming year, indicating that companies will continue spending to reach consumers. Shares rose as much as 6.4% in London on Thursday. “Clearly it’s a great use in our media business,” Read said of the AI technology, “where we can use it to find relevant audiences and measure the impact of our work. We’re using it a lot creatively in our production processes to accelerate how we produce work and reduce the cost of doing that. So it’s pretty fundamental.” Related: A ChatGPT and generative AI guide for brands Read said AI subsidiary Satalia has worked across clients and agencies after London-based WPP acquired it in 2021. He said the group has to build AI into everything it does, mentioning work such as a video for Nike, which showed tennis champion Serena Williams playing past versions of herself. He also said he’s been personally experimenting a lot with OpenAI’s ChatGPT as chatbots and image generators fuel surging interest in the technology. “The best technology is like magic,” he said of the Microsoft—backed platform. “At the same time, is it perfect? No,” he added, “but it’s brought to life the potential of generative AI in a way that’s really captured people’s imagination.” In an interview with Bloomberg TV on Thursday, Read said “Twitter seems to be a lot more stable the last few months than perhaps it was towards the end of last year,” adding that “I think clients want to start to look about how they can come back onto Twitter. Top media agencies pulled clients’ ad dollars from Twitter in the days after Elon Musk took over the company, leading to a 46% year-over-year decrease in ad sales, Ad Age reported in January. WPP’s spend on TikTok last year “more than doubled” compared to a year earlier, Read said, adding that the social media platform has helped train its people on how best to work with influencers and produce ads specific to the platform. Revenue excluding pass-through costs will increase between 3% and 5% this year from £11.8 billion ($14.2 billion) this year, the London-based group said in a statement on Thursday. That’s better than the average analyst forecast for approximately flat growth, according to a Bloomberg survey. Margins will rise to about 15%. Sales excluding pass-through costs rose 6.9% last year, at the high end of the company’s previous guidance. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs WPP has been consolidating the group’s large stable of agencies while folding in new technology and announcing partnerships with the likes of TikTok, Snap and Stripe bounced back following ad spending freezes during the Covid-19 pandemic. As China reopens from its lockdowns, WPP announced the opening of its third campus in the country earlier this month. Earlier this month, Publicis Groupe reported that its fourth-quarter net revenue jumped 18% and organic revenue increased by 9.4%. For 2022, Publicis’ net revenue was up almost 20% and its organic revenue rose 10.1%. It also predicted single-digit growth for this year. Omnicom Group also exceeded its full-year 2022 financial forecast, posting 9.4% organic revenue growth after predicting growth of 8% to 8.5%, and targeted organic revenue growth of 3% to 5% for 2023. Subscribe to Ad Age Sign up now for the latest industry news and analysis Click here —Bloomberg News with Ad Age

WPP CEO says Twitter is 'more stable' and that AI is 'fundamental' to its business

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