Advertising’s bad boy Sir Martin Sorrell has seen his ad agency S4 Capital report solid Q3 profit.
In its third-quarter trading update, S4 Capital reported a gross profit/net revenue of £144.4 million (approx AU$264.3 million), up almost 92 per cent.
Year to date revenue increased 101 per cent to £457.7 million (approx AU$837.9 million), while gross profit/net revenue was up 91 per cent to £381.1 million (approx AU$697.7 million).
Sorrell, the executive chairman of the company, said “following an exceptionally strong second quarter, we saw continued very strong momentum in the third quarter, which was ahead of the revised 40 per cent top line like-for-like guidance.”
“We now have secured six “whoppers” and identified nineteen more potentials, setting up the possibility of exceeding our 202 target. The pandemic has proven to be an accelerator of digital marketing transformation and we are taking full advantage of this opportunity by choosing to invest a proportion of our EBITDA margin in growth.”
The ‘whopper’ clients that Sorrell is referring to includes major businesses Google, BMW/Mini and Mondelez, as well as Facebook and HP, which the company won this year.
According to S4 Capital, it is preparing a three-year plan for 2022-2024, and preliminary budgets for 2022.
At the end of the third quarter, the company reported 6, 926 employees, and it said that it would continue to “hire aggressively”.
