WPP expects to maintain current growth levels throughout 2010

WPP has today said it expects the pattern of growth experienced in the first five months of the year to continue throughout 2010, with "mini-quadrennial" events including the Asian Games, the US mid-term congressional elections and the Commonwealth Games boosting its advertising coffers in the second half. The marketing services company said it had achieved 2% year-on-year growth on a like-for-like basis in the first five months of the year. Revenue growth in April and May has been "well over" 5%, as chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell outlined to MediaGuardian.co.uk last week , and WPP cautiously expects to continue into the more uncertain advertising waters of the second half of 2010. "At this stage we expect this trend to continue as the mini-quadrennial events... have a positive effect on the group's revenue growth and may add 1% to industry-wide growth," said Philip Lader, non-executive chairman of WPP, giving a trading statement at the company's annual general meeting in Dublin. "However we have to continue to be cautious." The company said there had been "marked recovery" in its advertising and media buying arm in the last two months with combined year-on-year growth of almost 5%, compared with 0.9% in the first three months of the year. "Our global advertising businesses [including "soggy" Western Europe] returned to growth in May, the first time since November 2008 ," said Lader. WPP said the US continued to show "remarkably strong" growth in April and May, up more than 7%, and "well over" 5% for the first five months of the year". The UK has also "shown continuous improvement" this year with revenue growth in April and May "well over 4%". Continental Europe overall showed flat growth in the first five months but western continental Europe "remains difficult, with revenue down slightly in the first five months, with France and the Netherlands the most challenging". "However, Germany and Belgium performed relatively better, especially in April and May, with Italy also showing signs of improvement," the company said. WPP also said that provisionally its ad agencies managed a record haul of 177 lions at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival , which finished on Saturday, a 62% year-on-year improvement. Last week Sorrell said his aim was for WPP to top the awards haul over its global advertising rivals . WPP said today that this year's haul put the company "very close to first group position overall". • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".