Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Today was always going to be volatile and unpredictable but a 5% drop at the end was a shock as you say NigeCo. I guess just like the US today we may tomorrow make a recovery once the post mortem and analysis of the BofE wording has been completed.
I think part of WPP's downside today is partly due to the recent 'smoke and mirrors ' announcements. WPP has merged its agencies to leave 6 core agencies. This will inevitably result in reduced head count . Something S4 did last year and is ahead of the curve in this area. WPP's new targets are based on internal efficiencies. Not gaining market share.
Note extract below from AJ Bell yesterday
'Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: 'Advertising agency WPP’s move to upgrade medium-term financial targets is encouraging but is based on achieving cost cutting not on improved momentum in the business.'
Could it take 2024 t0 get WPP to where S4 are now ?
Auson
I agree. I'm surprised they are still hanging around. The risk for them
must be increasing. We will inevitably see some pull back on some days as profits are taken but I would think (hope) the trajectory will be upwards from now on particularly as the year progresses.
Redwineday
Apologies. For clarity I meant Ajaz Ahmed to be an employee or ambassador/evangelist. He knows his stuff, hence the digital business he built up 25 years ago and being the richest person in the UK under the age of 30 crystalises that. I can only guess but I would think he has a good relationship with SMS
And who is Claire Enders?
Companies aren't going to bring marketing in house just because of AI. Its a tool not a replacement. And Its not their core businesses, it would still take a year or three to set up internally, You can't just key in a marketing brief to an AI package and expect a marketing campaign to pop out. PC World would be selling marketing packages off the shelf. Ridiculous. And that example given on this BB of Cadbury's and the drumming gorilla is an excellent example of how you need human input. . And it probably doesn't take into account religious and cultural differences. I remember working on the launch of Microsoft's first XBOX games console in EMEA and we were shown reels by various agencies who were pitching for the business, one was the Stella Artois advert with the Germans in France during WIi, we found it funny but the French and German colleagues didn't. Would AI pick that up. Doubt it.
IMO AI will speed things up but that's about it otherwise the likes of AKQA would be up for sale.
We used AKQA before it became part of WPP for our new media/digital advertising at Microsoft. Ajaz Ahmed (pronounced Ajar) was listed in the Times rich list at just the age of 26 He is a visionary in the digital space and If SMS could persuade him to join SFOR that would be a real industry coup.
The timing of today's buy back scheme I would hope cements SFOR's belief that we are now at bottom. I'm wondering if the next key moment or boost will be a Direcror(s) buy on or around the final 2023 figures released on 27th March ( I'm assuming this is not a closed period). Then after that a rate cut in the summer to give a further SP boost.
Anything that needs to be dragged along on wheels is not 'hand' luggage. These people are just taking the P and steal space from other passengers who do turn up with an acceptable size case/bag.
And these people that turn up with canvas bags that are big enough to hold a small marquee should be charged at the gate