WPP reported a net revenue decline of 7.6% to nearly 2.5 billion GBP with an organic drop of 2.7% in the first quarter, which was in line with the company’s earlier guidance. Shares were down less than 1% in Friday trading on the news. 

The company said it was standing by its previously stated full-year organic revenue outlook of flat to down 2% and flat profit margin.  

Regarding the elevated macroeconomic stresses, CEO Mark Read stated that “while WPP is not directly affected by tariffs, they will impact a number of our clients as well as the broader economy.” 

But as Omnicom and IPG stated recently, WPP also said it has so far not seen “any significant change in client spending.” 

Media management arm GroupM was down 0.9% for the period, with growth in the US offset by losses in prior years in the UK and other regions. 

The company’s creative agencies as a group were down 4.4%. The PR group was down 6.6%. Other specialist agencies were up 1.2%. 

By region, North America was flat, the UK was down 5.5% and Western Europe was off 4.5%. The “rest of the world” was down 3.8%, including a 17.4% shortfall in China. India was up 5.5% 

The company reported that its top-25 clients were up 2.5% collectively with a “robust” performance in CPG and further improvement in the tech and digital services sector. Healthcare was described as stable while retail, telecom and travel & leisure experienced declines. 

Q1 business wins included Heineken’s global commerce business, Electronic Arts (media), Levi Strauss (PR) and L’Oreal’s influencer portfolio among others.