Bob Willott

Bob Willott, founder of Willott Kingston Smith, a former special professor at the University of Nottignham Business School and editor of “Marketing Services Financial Intelligence” (www.fintellect.com), explores the financial ramifications behind marcoms agency news

Another year older, but not deeper in debt?

By December 19 2012, 11:02 pm 1 Comment

It is too early to know what marketing agencies’ balance sheets will look like on 31 December, but there have been some signs that borrowing levels have stabilised.  A survey published in October suggested that balance sheets of most publicly listed marketing groups appeared to have remained fairly stable during 2011 despite the gloomy economic environment, and that trend seems to have continued.

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Must escalating staff costs continue to erode profit margins?

By December 10 2012, 5:04 pm 1 Comment

Lots of people no longer believe it is possible to keep staff costs down to no more than half an agency’s gross income.  Undoubtedly it is a difficult challenge – one that is increasingly dismissed as unrealistic by those who note how a number of US agency groups seem content to spend at least 60% of income on their staff.

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Reported profits: when nothing is quite as it seems

By November 27 2012, 9:46 pm Leave a comment

Anyone who thinks that businesses are easy to manage and that profits are easy to predict could learn a lesson or two from the results of two public companies in the marketing sector that reported this week.

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Economic gloom, but it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good

By November 19 2012, 10:26 pm Leave a comment

As each week passes, we hear more gloomy outpourings about trading prospects from the major groups in the industry.   Huntsworth and Dentsu joined the gloomy chorus last week, countering Maurice Lévy’s attempt to cheer us up with news of better trading in October.   Even those companies that are currently on target for the year feel the need to counsel caution about their future prospects – witness Chime Communications and Levy’s warning about December.

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Publicis bid for Lbi all over bar the cheering?

By November 12 2012, 9:33 pm Leave a comment

With 86% of LBi International’s shares either already purchased or subject to irrevocable undertakings, it is hard to envisage any circumstances that would prevent Publicis concluding its takeover bid next January – provided the regulators don’t intervene.

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Share incentive scheme and development costs wipe out Facebook profit

By October 27 2012, 10:30 pm 2 Comments

If share incentive schemes are intended to reward staff for building bigger profits for shareholders, the Facebook scheme is an unmitigated failure.  While revenues grew by 36% in the nine months to 30 September, profits have vanished completely.

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Publicis trumpets the past while WPP analyses the future

By October 26 2012, 12:37 pm Leave a comment

Publicis Groupe’s ability to continue building revenues at a seemingly faster rate than its global competitors – reflected in its third quarter results announced today - may well have been helped by favourable currency movements – not least the decline in the euro – and aggressive investment in digital acquisitions, but the fact remains that the growth is real enough.

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It would be nice if sector share prices anticipated economic trends

By October 17 2012, 9:41 pm 4 Comments

There is some evidence – but not a lot – that the stock market anticipates trends in economic activity, pruning back share prices when a downturn is expected and cautiously lifting those prices back upwards when better times are seen to be on the horizon.

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Pinch yourself…agencies seem to be making bigger profits

By October 9 2012, 8:55 pm Leave a comment

It’s hard to believe that many of the financial results reported in the last week or so have been very positive.   What happened to recession and the financial crisis that we are all supposed to be experiencing?

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Why does Maurice Lévy want to spend €416m on buying LBi?

By September 23 2012, 3:46 pm Leave a comment

Few would challenge the Publicis policy of investing in digital assets in the manner pursued so energetically by chief executive Maurice Lévy. It has proved to be a good strategy so far.  And, as a target, LBi has made great progress from its darker days to become a well respected business.

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