Marketing is all about the art of persuasion and Mark Read, the WPP boss, had been winning over investors before the war in Ukraine overshadowed signs of progress at the giant communications group. Tightening advertising budgets is an obvious place to start for consumer goods companies facing rapidly rising energy, wage and raw materials costs.
The share price fall that greeted full-year figures last month was WPP’s worst one-day decline in almost two years, a sharp reversal from previously steady gains. A disposal programme aimed at simplifying a bloated and unfocused operation, efforts to cut debt and tentative signs of improvement in revenue growth had helped to address the market discount attached to the conglomerate when compared with international peers such as Publicis and Interpublic.
