Madison and Wall: Saturday Summary
Analysis of Google, Meta, Amazon, WPP, Marketer Trends And More From The Week Ending Feb. 3, 2024
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Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple – five of the world’s top 20 sellers of advertising representing more than $400 billion in annual ad revenue, or probably around 55% of the world’s advertising outside of China - all reported quarterly results this past week, with trends that should be characterized as very positive, if consistent with my prior expectations. I provided my analysis of Google and Microsoft here (with notable trends in the dynamic between O&O vs. network inventory) and my initial analysis of Meta, Amazon and Apple here.
I also published a more detailed analysis and observations of Meta’s business based on filings and other information that came out subsequent to the earnings release here, including country-level analysis to size more than the Chinese export market (which the rest of the world is now picking up on as Meta is providing specific disclosures – in absence of them I have written extensively about this segment of advertisers and estimated size for many years) to include estimated revenues for Meta in Canada, Brazil, Australia and Japan.
The week was also a busy one in agency-land, with WPP hosting a capital markets day on Tuesday. I provided my general views on what to look for in an agency holding company’s strategy here and specific observations on the unambitious plans WPP actually announced here. Next week we’ll get more color on the sector as both Interpublic and Omnicom release their results. I’ll publish updated data about the industry over the course of the week.
Finally, more marketers including Mondelez, Clorox and Diageo released their third quarter results, and along with the advertising expenses disclosed by Amazon, Alphabet and Meta, we received useful color commentary on the packaged goods and technology categories, which I compiled and analyzed here.