Profits and turnover at the parent company of Dublin-based advertising and public relations group Wilson Hartnell climbed in 2023.
Accounts for Ogilvy & Mather Group Limited and Subsidiaries show its pretax profits increased 19 per cent to €2.27 million last year, after turnover swelled 9.3 per cent to more than €19 million.
The directors said this was “driven mainly by significant growth in the group’s public relations and influence business”.
Ogilvy and Mather is a subsidiary of the FTSE 100-listed advertising giant WPP, the largest advertising company in the world. Wilson Hartnell has been led by chief executive Sharon Murphy since 2018.
A dividend of €2.7 million was declared and paid to WPP for the year. This was the first such dividend paid by the group to its parent company in 12 years.
Gross profit across the group arrived at €11.9 million, down 2 per cent the level recorded for 2022, which the company said was due to the downsizing of one of WPP’s global client activities in Ireland. Operating profit from continuing operations arrived at €1.53 million, down from €1.75 million.
In 2023, the group was focused on “bedding in” its new client base after a number of client wins were secured in the previous year. It signalled that innovation, particularly as it relates to the role and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI), was a “key focus” in 2024.
The group employed 100 people last year, down from 104 in 2022, while its payroll costs rose from almost €6.6 million to €7.2 million.
Separately, accounts for Newswhip Media Limited – an Irish digital and social media monitoring company that uses predictive AI tools – show that it made a net loss of €3.9 million last year, which followed a loss of €3 million the year before.
Turnover at the company, which was founded in 2011 by Paul Quigley and Andrew Mullaney, rose to €9.86 million, up from €9 million. But it said 2023 had been a “challenging year” for revenue growth amid macroeconomic challenges and it had reduced its headcount in the latter part of the year as a result. It employed an average of 76 people in 2023.
During the year, the group invested in the development of new ways to track social engagement, new data sources and enhancements to its products, it said, with R & D costs in 2023 arriving at €2.5 million, up from €2.2 million the year before. It said this acceleration in its investment programme contributed to a planned increase in losses.
In January 2023, Newswhip received $8.1 million (€7.7 million) of debt funding to fund this investment, with a further $4.9 million available to draw down after a fundraising.
As with Ogilvy & Mather, Newswhip noted that greater leverage of AI would help it develop its business.
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