Agencies:
- CFO Joanne Wilson led WPP’s earnings call on Tuesday — because CEO Cindy Rose only turns up for the half and full-year meetings — and the holdco’s results were as bad as expected. Revenue (minus pass-through costs) was down 6.7% overall, and WPP Media was the worst-performing part of the business, down 8.5%. Wilson also shared that 20-25% of WPP’s net sales now come from performance-based contracts with clients.
Media owners:
- Instagram is testing a new image-sharing app called ‘Instants’. The Snapchat-like app, which is available in Spain and Italy, lets users share disappearing photos that can only be viewed once. With regular people posting less and less on social media, this is part of a trend of sites exploring new ways to increase engagement.
- The European Commission has found Meta in preliminary breach of EU law for failing to stop under-13s accessing Facebook and Instagram. Regulators say age checks are ineffective, exposing children to online risks, though Meta disputes the findings. If upheld, the ruling could lead to fines of up to 6% of the company’s global turnover.
- The Times launched a new tool that allows advertising effectiveness to be tested against a synthetic audience. ‘Times ExplorAItion’ feeds multiple data sets into the synthetic audience platform to generate versions of key audience segments, and is promoted as a shortcut version of qualitative research that would normally take weeks.
- Microsoft may be developing a cheaper Xbox Game Pass ‘Starter Edition’, offering a lower-cost tier with a limited streaming allowance and access to older titles. Leaks also suggest a possible bundle with Netflix, though details remain unconfirmed. The move appears aimed at making Game Pass more accessible while controlling costs.
Brands:
- UK adspend increased 6.4% year-on-year in 2025 to reach £46.7bn, spurred on by an 8% boost during the final quarter of the year, according to the latest Advertising Association/WARC Expenditure report. In particular retail media got a 17.5% boost to reach £3.7 billion, replacing search to join addressable TV (grew by 37%) and social (grew by 21%) as advertising’s fastest-growing channels. Search is still the largest overall at £ 17.9bn, and grew by 5.8% last year. Despite these nominal gains, WARC’s Director of Data, James McDonald, noted that high inflation significantly impacted the sector, leaving growth in real terms at 2.9%.
- During the company’s Q1 earnings call, Chipotle chief executive Scott Boatwright announced that former Burger King CMO Fernando Machado will be starting as chief brand officer from 1 June. Boatwright said that Machado’s ‘proven track record of building iconic brands, driving category-defining innovation and leading customer-centric marketing strategies’ are ‘exactly what we need’ as Chipotle focuses on loyalty and brand value. Machado’s time at Burger King was marked by a heavy focus on growing customer loyalty through apps, and Chipotle’s recent focus has been on building their customer loyalty scheme, with 32% of sales now coming through the app.
- While major brands are increasing their investment in creator content, with U.S. advertisers expected to spend $43.9 billion this year according to the IAB, the Wall Street Journal reports that market growth is actually slowing. 94% of sponsored content on YouTube was found to come from smaller or DTC brands, and WSJ cited one expert saying that creators often have to guide agencies for bigger brands through setting up these partnerships.