Top Business Headlines of The Week
Marketing is becoming a more powerful force in the economy. What?! yea right our salaries are flat and 66% of us have had layoffs in 2025?!
Correct- Labor hasn’t been rewarded but it’s hard to deny the amount our economy is relying on Google, Amazon, and Meta (Which are all media / cloud storage focused) is staggering. Unfortunately media spend revenue doesn’t benefit agencies that much vs. creative work and alongside AI tools in walled gardens it was no surprise WPP earnings on 10/30 missed and their stock dropped 17% on Thursday.
“The Magnificent 7” Earnings This Week:
Meta Earnings (10/29): Reported record revenue but is investing so much in AI their stock temporarily dropped Wednesday but bounced back on Thursday.
Microsoft Earnings (10/29): Beat and it’s cloud business grew 40%
Google Earnings (10/29): Quarterly revenue reached over $100 BILLION in a single quarter. Cloud revenue grew 34%. Remember when everyone was freaking out earlier this year about Gemini? LOL they’re doing just fine.
Apple Earnings: (10/30): Beat earnings and expect a strong holiday season (Which is insane because it seems like nobody has any money)
Amazon Earnings (10/30):Beat earnings and Amazon said revenue at AWS increased 20% to $33 billion.
Cloud- Storage and purchasing GPU’s is driving growth. Question becomes when spending slows down how much data do you need to store?
Mag 7’s combined market cap has surpassed $22 trillion, making up 37.4% of the S&P 500
Top Advertising Headlines of The Week:
WPP Misses BIG on Earnings: WPP stock was down -17%, with CEO Cindy Rose calling the performance “Unacceptable”.
Omnicom Responds To Rumors That It Will Sunset DDB: Following unconfirmed reports that the DDB brand could be retired, Omnicom says it is still evaluating its agency structure and hasn’t made a formal decision yet.
Kraft-Heinz CEO Warns of worst consumer sentiment in decades: Big CPG’s are experiencing consumers that have no discretionary income for groceries.
Reddit shares jump following strong quarterly results: This is going to be one of the biggest social growth sites as AI slops overtakes TikTok and Instagram. It has 91% gross margins too which means its a lean team too.
Coca-Cola, Disney: In addition to media revenue advertising is also getting hit by creative revenue as companies like Coca-Cola and Disney turn to tools like Adobe to variate creative at scale in different sizes, languages and designs at scale. (See below)
Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Disney Are Using Adobe AI To Scale Creative Variation
👻Advertising Layoffs To Know About 👻
Here are the 5 biggest layoffs related to advertising specifically in 2025:
Company | Rationale |
|---|---|
WPP ~7,000 roles (Headcount reduced from 111,000 to 104,000) | The reduction was announced during the H1 2025 earnings report. The cuts reflect a major cost-saving drive, a response to financial pressures, and a strategic shift toward an AI-driven operating model. |
Dentsu Group ~3,400 roles (8% of international headcount) | Announced alongside Q2 2025 financial results. Cuts target international operations (outside Japan) to address significant operating losses and are part of a major cost-reduction and restructuring plan. |
Interpublic Group (IPG) ~2,400 roles (4.5% of workforce) | The total number of reductions from Q1 and Q2 2025 was reported in the company's H1 2025 SEC filing. These cuts were made to streamline operations and create internal cost savings ahead of the proposed merger with Omnicom. |
Omnicom / IPG Merger Synergies $750 Million (Targeted annual cost savings from consolidation) | While Omnicom has not released a specific 2025 layoff number, the consolidation of IPG and Omnicom is expected to generate $750 million in annual synergies, which industry experts confirm will result in substantial, ongoing redundancies, particularly in corporate and back-office functions. |
GroupM (WPP Media Arm) Undisclosed Thousands (Restructuring of core agency P&Ls) | CEO confirmed impending layoffs and major restructuring aimed at creating a single operating model and centralizing leadership across its agencies (Mindshare, Wavemaker, etc.) to compete with rivals. While no specific number was given, the restructuring of a 40,000+ person division implies a substantial impact. |
Not shockingly, as layoffs riddle the headlines, rents skyrocket alongside record profits for companies while wages stay flat, people grow frustrated. It’s obvious no matter what political party you align with why candidates like Mamdani promoting free buses and lower rent are gaining in popularity…
Current Odds For NYC Mayor Scheduled November 4th
🎃“Scary” Stats This Halloween 🎃
U.S. Snap Benefits Set To Pause November 1st: It’s never good for any economy to take away support but seems like it will for a bit. Everything is more expensive but this is scary stuff.
More than 1 in 4 Americans surveyed were still paying off debt from the previous season. It will be interesting to see eventually if this manifests in holiday spending. Average balance per person (Q1 2025): $6,371. #Yikes
Costco dropped its Black Friday ad early — here’s what’s new and how to shave membership cost Deals start on HALLOWEEN LOL
Average price of a bag of Halloween candy increased from $9 to $16 in five years
As a result companies are activating for the holidays earlier than ever before (See ALO ad received on (10/26). It will be shocking if it’s a strong holiday season but it’s 2025 and at this point nothing would be a surprise lol.
Alo Google Email Sponsored Ad On October 29th (Month Before “Black Friday” 11/28 this year)
Sorry Sweetie I’m not paying $50 for an ALO baseball cap for “Early Access” LOL
Inside Scoop On WPP
I can’t verify if all of these are true but from our story below are the top excerpts from you on what’s happening at WPP:
Australia WPP agencies were told last week there is a hiring freeze / no bonuses.
A ton of investment in AI but not people.
Internal mess a lot of redundant roles and no unique value. Morale is low.
Mindshare is doing well.
Ogilvy had significant layoffs in July.
Losing Mars APAC was a bit morale and business hit.
Advising accounts have to be grown organically.
Creatives are mad about the investment in AI tools.
Too many bosses.
Did You Know? despite the economic downturn during COVID-19, Americans increased their Halloween spending to an average of $92 per person in 2020, a rise from $86.27 in 2019, with candy sales seeing a significant jump. This demonstrates the holiday's strong consumer appeal, as people prioritized spending on Halloween festivities even when other spending may have decreased.
Help us spread the word to help more marketers like you by forwarding this email to colleagues via slack, teams, and email to help get more topics going!