Omnicom Secures Creative Mandate for Air India Express
Air India Express has awarded the creative mandate to Omnicom. The contract has been signed, and the account is of a retainer nature. It was a multi-agency pitch in which the company sought to refresh its brand identity and create content that would appeal to younger audiences.
Omnicom secures creative mandate for Air India Express
Air India began implementing its new worldwide brand identity across all touchpoints last year. The major airline started the exercise by completely switching to digital and online platforms and rebranding at the airports in Delhi and Mumbai. In August, the company revealed its new brand identity.
Air India rebranding
Air India Express and AirAsia India, two subsidiaries of Tata-owned Air India, unveiled the redesigned new Boeing 737-8 aircraft bearing the redesigned Air India Express branding in October 2023. The airline encouraged customers to “Fly As You Are” with its sleek, contemporary design, vivid colors, and aircraft livery.
Air India’s new brand colors include Air India red, aubergine, rose gold, and gold accents. The updated designs feature these colors. The Tata Group-owned airline, said that visitors will start to notice the new branding at different touchpoints, such as check-in counters, boarding gates, lounges, and newly created boarding cards, beginning with the airports in Delhi and Mumbai.
Recent endeavors
Air India recently unveiled new Manish Malhotra-designed uniforms for its cabin and cockpit crews. The company plans to gradually implement the new uniforms over the next few months. It will mark the beginning of Air India’s first Airbus A350 aircraft service.
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Deciphering Big Tech Giants’ Quarterly Results: Here’s What They Say!
The Big Techs recently disclosed their fourth-quarter results. For those who are interested in the industry, these are a few key findings and insights from the quarterly reports.
ALPHABET
Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, exceeded Wall Street forecasts with its fourth-quarterly earnings report. Ad sales, however, failed to expand quickly enough to keep up with experts’ predictions. YouTube, which has been contributing to increased growth, came up barely short of projections. With over 2 billion monthly users and an average of 70 billion views per day, YouTube Shorts continues to be a top priority for Google.
The cloud division, which was losing money for years while it attempted to compete with Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services, is where the company makes its money. Google Cloud continued to be a growth engine in the fourth quarter, expanding by 26%. The primary driver of revenue growth continues to be search. While brand and direct response advertising drove YouTube advertising, growth in retail was the main driver of Google Search and other forms of advertising revenue.
By the numbers
- Revenue reported was $86.31 billion, up 13.5%.
- Google Search and other advertising revenues rose to $48 billion, up 13% Yo-Y.
- Google cloud computing revenue was $9.19 billion up 26% Yo-Y.
- Advertising revenues reported were $65.52.
- YouTube advertising reported $9.2 billion, up 16% Yo-Y.
- Network advertising revenue was $8.3 billion, down 2%.
- Traffic acquisition costs were $13.9 billion.
Google is beginning to provide generative AI to an increasing number of companies to assist them in creating more effective campaigns and advertisements. Google unveiled Gemini, a large language model that it claims to be its most powerful AI model, in December. The business intends to license Gemini to users via Google Cloud so they can utilize it in their apps. Additionally, Google plans to test the usage of Gemini in Search, where it will speed up consumers’ Search Generative Experience (SGE).
Sundar Pichai, CEO, said in the conference call,
We are pleased with the ongoing strength in Search and the growing contribution from YouTube and Cloud. Each of these is already benefiting from our AI investments and innovation. As we enter the Gemini era, the best is yet to come.
Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer, CFO said,
We ended 2023 with very strong fourth quarter financial results, with Q4 consolidated revenues of $86 billion, up 13% year over year. We remain committed to our work to durably re-engineer our cost base as we invest to support our growth opportunities.
Read More: Google Integrates Gemini AI Into Search Ads Platform
META
Meta exceeded Wall Street expectations and had a positive fourth quarter. The positive outcomes show that digital advertising has recovered well from its 2022 decline. It was a significant year for both the business and the community. According to Meta’s estimation, over 3.1 billion individuals use at least one of the Meta applications daily. The already enormous social media company keeps on adding new users across all platforms.
Overall, Meta’s Q4 revenue increased by 25% over the previous year. Threads, the business’s Twitter-like social app that launched in July 2023, now has over 130 million monthly active users, according to the company. As is usual, almost all of Meta’s revenue came from sales of digital advertising. Chinese retailers have increased their spending to reach customers worldwide, which has contributed to Meta’s financial turnaround during the past year. They have been heavily investing in Facebook and Instagram ads.
By the numbers
- Revenue was $40.11 billion, an increase of 25% Yo-Y, and $134.90 billion, an increase of 16% Yo-Y for the full year.
- Facebook DAUs were 2.11 billion on average, an increase of 6% Yo-Y.
- Facebook MAUs were 3.07 billion, an increase of 3% Yo-Y.
- Family DAPs were 3.19 billion on average, an increase of 8% Yo-Y.
- Family MAPs were 3.98 billion, an increase of 6% Yo-Y.
- Ad Impressions delivered across all Meta apps increased by 21% Y-o-Y and the average price per ad increased by 2% Yo-Y.
Strong sales of the company’s Quest device during the holiday season drove record sales of $1.1 billion for the metaverse-focused Reality Labs division. Additionally, Zuckerberg stated that the ad business, which is expanding more quickly than Google, has benefited from advancements in artificial intelligence. By the end of the year, Meta plans to completely launch Meta AI assistant and further AI chat experiences in the United States using generative AI.
Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a news release,
We had a good quarter as our community and business continue to grow. We’ve made a lot of progress on our vision for advancing AI and the metaverse.
Susan Li, CFO, stated that Meta’s big areas of focus in 2024 will be working towards the launch of Llama 3, expanding the usefulness of Meta AI assistant, and progressing on our AI studio roadmap to make it easier for anyone to create an AI.
AMAZON
For the fourth quarter of 2023, Amazon reported better-than-expected revenues, exceeding sales forecasts thanks to new generative AI capabilities in its cloud and e-commerce businesses, which drove strong growth throughout the Christmas season. The e-commerce behemoth had a great holiday season. Over 1 billion items were bought on the site in the course of the company’s 11-day Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Additionally, the events helped bring in new Prime members and save consumers billions of dollars.
With 26% Yo-Y growth in worldwide advertising, Amazon had a great result. Because machine learning has improved ad relevancy, sponsored products have been the main driver of advertising strength. The shift in customer attention towards encouraging innovation and introducing new workloads to the cloud was attributed to the increase in AWS revenues.
By the numbers
- Revenue was reported at $169.9 billion versus expectations of $166.2 billion, up 13.9% Yo-Y.
- AWS Revenue 13% increase in sales over the prior year to a total of $24.4 billion.
- Advertising sales of $14.7 billion.
- Subscription services were up 13%, reporting $10.4 billion in revenue.
Amazon has launched Rufus, a new AI shopping assistant trained in Amazon’s product catalog and other web-based information. The tool, driven by generative AI, may provide product recommendations and respond to queries from users of the Amazon mobile app. The corporation believes that advancements in AI might bring in tens of billions of dollars for its cloud computing division.
Chief Executive Andy Jassy said in Amazon’s press release
This Q4 was a record-breaking holiday shopping season and closed out a robust 2023 for Amazon. While we made meaningful revenue, operating income, and free cash flow progress, what we’re most pleased with is the continued invention and customer experience improvements across our businesses.
Amazon’s Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky added,
We’re coming off a period where we’ve done a lot of hiring. There’s a general feeling in most teams that we’re trying to hold the line on headcount.
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MICROSOFT
Microsoft had a record-breaking quarter, mostly due to Microsoft Cloud’s ongoing growth. Strong executions in the commercial areas and device advancements were credited for the anticipated growth in its quarterly results. The robust demand for Microsoft Cloud offerings, particularly AI services, led to enhancements in Azure, which in turn drove revenue growth.
On October 13, 2023, Microsoft completed the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. With the acquisition, the business expanded its player base by hundreds of millions. It broke previous records for MAUs on Xbox, PC, and mobile devices with over 200 million MAUs in a single month. The business has been integrating AI into every aspect of the IT stack, bringing in new clients and fostering increased efficiency. Additionally, the business reported increased revenue from Windows OEM sales and improved performance in consumer markets.
By the numbers
- Revenue recorded was $62.0 billion, an increase of 18%.
- Intelligent Cloud unit $25.9 billion, increasing 20% ahead of expectations.
- Azure revenues increased by 30%.
- LinkedIn’s revenues increased by 9%.
- Microsoft Cloud Revenue was $33 billion, up 24%.
- Search and news advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased by 7%
AI is helping to drive revenue in the Azure consumption business. Over the past year, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have all invested billions of dollars in artificial intelligence (AI) in an attempt to overtake one another as the leading providers of AI software.
Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft said,
We’ve moved from talking about AI to applying AI at scale. By infusing AI across every layer of our tech stack, we’re winning new customers and helping drive new benefits and productivity gains across every sector.
Amy Hood, Chief Financial Officer added,
While it’s early days for Microsoft 365 Copilot, we’re excited about the adoption to date and continue to expect revenue to grow over time.
Read More: Vodafone and Microsoft Sign 10-year Strategic Partnership for IoT, Cloud, AI and More
APPLE
In its first-quarterly report, Apple exceeded analysts’ projections for both revenue and profits, but it revealed a 13% drop in sales in China, one of its most significant regions. The tech giant surpassed 2.2 billion active devices, setting a new milestone for its installed base. Apple attributes this to extremely high levels of customer satisfaction and unmatched customer loyalty.
According to projections, Mac sales increased by less than 1% throughout the quarter. Nonetheless, this is a noteworthy comeback for the product line, which had an annual decline of about 34% in the September quarter. iPad sales are still declining. For the first time in iPad history, Apple did not introduce a new model in 2023.
By the numbers
- Revenue was $119.6 billion, up 2% Yo-Y.
- iPhone Revenue was $69.70 billion 6% up.
- Mac $7.78 billion 1% up Yo-Y.
- iPad $7.02 billion down 25% Yo-Y.
- Wearables, home, and accessories revenue was $11.95 billion, down 11%.
- Service Revenues $23.13 billion up 11% Yo-Y
Additionally, Apple unveiled the Apple Vision Pro, their most sophisticated personal electronics gadget to date. Customers in the United States will be able to purchase it via Apple stores; later in the year, it will also be available in other countries. It is considered a groundbreaking gadget that is years ahead of anything else and is based on decades of Apple ingenuity. Additionally, the company announced that customers may select any Apple Watch model that is carbon neutral for the first time.
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO said in the conference call,
Today Apple is reporting revenue growth for the December quarter fueled by iPhone sales, and an all-time revenue record in Services. We are pleased to announce that our installed base of active devices has now surpassed 2.2 billion, reaching an all-time high across all products and geographic segments. And as customers begin to experience the incredible Apple Vision Pro tomorrow, we are committed as ever to the pursuit of groundbreaking innovation — in line with our values and on behalf of our customers.
SNAP INC
Snap Inc. released a forecast that was slightly below Wall Street expectations. The company has now recorded six consecutive quarters of single-digit growth or revenue contraction. Snap Inc. struggled to recover from the downturn in the digital ad sector.
Snap Inc. has announced a new publisher partnership with Spotify in the United States, which will bring short-form highlights from Spotify’s podcasts to Spotlight and Stories. Additionally, the social media giant revealed new AI-powered tools for Snapchat+ users, enabling them to edit and share Snaps as well as create and send AI-generated images in response to text prompts.
By the numbers
- Revenue was $1,361 million, an increase of 5% Yo-Y.
- DAUs were 414 million, an increase of 39 million or 10% Yo-Y.
- MAUs increased 8% Yo-Y and surpassed 800 million in Q4.
- Subscriptions for Snapchat+ have reached over 7 million
Snapchat made a large investment in its augmented reality system. On average, almost 300 million Snapchat users use its augmented reality feature every day. Additionally, it has invested in automation and technology, used generative models, and optimized the ML Lens generation workflow.
Evan Spiegel, CEO said in the announcement,
2023 was a pivotal year for Snap, as we transformed our advertising business and continued to expand our global community, reaching 414 million daily active users. Snapchat enhances relationships with friends, family, and the world, and this unique value proposition has provided a strong foundation to build our business for long-term growth.
OMNICOM MEDIA GROUP
Omnicom exceeded analyst forecasts with impressive Q4 and full-year 2023 results. The growth in advertising and media during the quarter was driven once again by the performance of global media, with softer results from Omnicom’s advertising agencies serving as a partial offset.
Additionally, Omnicom completed the acquisition of Flywheel Digital, which will contribute to the introduction of scaled capabilities in the retail, media, and digital commerce sectors—the fastest-growing areas of the business. Furthermore, Omnicom disclosed that it has partnered with Getty Images as a first mover, giving them early access to a new generative artificial intelligence tool.
By the numbers
- Revenue reported increased $192.7 million or 5% organically, to $4,060.9 million.
- Advertising and media were up 9.3%.
- Public Relations was 2.9% down.
- Third-party service costs increased by $97.5 million or 12.4% to $884 million
Omnicom has reportedly spent tens of millions of dollars developing artificial intelligence over the past ten years, according to CEO John Wren. With the recent June 2023 launch of Omni Assist, a generative AI-powered virtual assistant that organizes, carries out, and produces advertising campaigns through cooperation with Microsoft, Omnicom became the first agency holding company to get access to the most recent Open AI GPT models.
John Wren, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Omnicom commented,
Omnicom finished 2023 with 4.4% organic revenue growth in the fourth quarter and 4.1% for the year. Looking out to full year 2024, we are set up well with solid fundamentals, tremendous opportunities in digital commerce and retail media from our Flywheel acquisition, and momentum in new business wins. Our accelerated investments in analytics and AI will enhance our ability to drive the best outcomes for our clients, while shareholders remain supported by our profitable operations and balanced deployment of capital through dividends, acquisitions, and share repurchases.
Read More: Decoding Big Tech Giants Quarterly Results: Insights Await!
HP’s Global Media Account Retained By PHD
PHD has retained HP’s global media account following a competitive review. The firm will still be in charge of global traditional media planning, buying, and strategy. HP will handle its own digital media buying and has a sizable in-house media team. In 2023, HP invested $194 million in media globally, with digital channels accounting for 69% of the expenditure. Following a three-month evaluation, PHD, an affiliate of Omnicom Media Group, was able to keep the contract. Participating media agencies and specialty stores were split between the holding companies.
PHD’s media responsibilities
It was awarded the entire global HP business in 2017 after the technology company transferred its digital media buying account from Essence. Since 2009, PHD has been in charge of HP’s traditional media buying. HP selected PHD because of its global reach, its capacity for strategy and planning, its emphasis on accountability and transparency, and its adaptable model and competence in collaborating with internal teams. HP has operations in over 170 nations. Antonio Lucio returned to HP in November as chief marketing officer, and he took on this role soon after.
PHD’s most recent victory with HP
After acquiring Grupo Bimbo, Uber, and McCain Foods in the previous year, PHD now has HP as its most recent victory. This puts it at the top of the Campaign’s most recent US Agency Rankings table. In September, Marks took over as CEO of PHD Worldwide, succeeding longstanding CEO Philippa Brown, moving up from the same position in EMEA.
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Here’s what they said
As reported by Campaign US,
PHD’s Agency as a Platform model “delivers the talent, tools, and technology that will drive better outcomes for HP, while also enabling the flexibility to wrap around and support our in-house team,” according to Freddie Liversidge, global head of media at HP, in a statement shared with Campaign US.
He continued,
This partnership combines the best aspects of the agency world with the closeness and transparency of an in-house team to advance the business goals of both the brand and the wider business.
Guy Marks, CEO, of PHD Worldwide, said in a statement provided to Campaign US,
Over the course of a relationship that began in 2009, HP and PHD have been partners in navigating disruption. Having concluded an extensive competitive review with the decision to continue that partnership, HP has given us the best possible vote of confidence as the preferred agency for their ongoing transformation. Our collaboration will continue to evolve, as we bring the connected intelligence of the global PHD network, supported by the scale and infrastructure of Omnicom Media Group, to augment HP’s in-house team, delivering future-ready marketing strategies that translate marketplace challenges into business growth.
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Omnicom Centralizes Leadership for Three Creative Powerhouses
To boost its creative offering in India, Omnicom has announced the formation of a new group called Omnicom Advertising Services (OAS). Aditya Kanthy was appointed CEO of the recently established advertising services group by Omnicom Chairman and CEO John Wren. With an emphasis on talent, cross-agency collaboration, and innovation to propel growth in one of the company’s quickly expanding markets, Kanthy will be in charge of Omnicom’s creative agencies in the area. The respective agencies in the group, DDB Mudra, BBDO, and TBWA India, will uphold their current branding in the Indian market. The goal is to provide clients with a greater range of capabilities and scale.
Power consolidation
The power of Omnicom will be combined through Omnicom Advertising Services. It will deliver outstanding integrated solutions that satisfy the needs of Indian clients. The team will leverage the best talent contained within its leading networks and collaborate with other Omnicom agencies. Among them is Omnicom Media Group, which will improve Omnicom’s all-encompassing offering in India even more. Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Gurgaon are the four campuses of Omnicom’s recently announced large global capability centers.
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Aditya Kanthy appointed as CEO of Omnicom Advertising Services
Kanthy currently holds the title of CEO of DDB Mudra Group too. It is acknowledged that he will stay in the dual role for the time being. The leadership of Omnicom Advertising Services comprises BBDO\India’s Chairman and CCO Josy Paula and CEO Suraja Kishore, TBWA\India CEO Govind Pandey, and CCO Russell Barrett. As the new leader of Omnicom Advertising Services India, Kanthy will ensure that all capabilities are extended to elite clients further solidifying Omnicom’s presence.
Here’s what they said
John Wren, Chairman and CEO of Omnicom said,
This year India will become the most populous nation on the planet. It is an important growth engine for Omnicom. By centralizing the leadership of three creative powerhouses under Aditya, we will continue to build on our agencies’ strong foundations to deliver a wider breadth of capability and scale for our clients. Aditya brings deep experience to the newly created Omnicom Advertising Services, and our India operations is primed to thrive under his leadership.
Speaking about this development, Aditya Kanthy said,
Omnicom is the most creative global network in the world. Our agencies represent the enduring power of creativity to build brands and businesses. I look forward to bringing the might of the Omnicom network to clients in India and continue to attract the best creative talent in one of the most exciting markets in the world.
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Decoding Big Tech Giants Quarterly Results: Insights Await!
Big tech companies recently released their quarterly results for Q3 2023. Here are some key insights for industry enthusiasts.
ALPHABET
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, released third-quarter earnings that were above analyst projections. The business was satisfied with the quarterly results. The tech giant credited Cloud, YouTube, and Search for the overall boost. Out of all three, Search continued to be the key driver of their revenue expansion. However, Google’s Cloud business division failed to meet its revenue projections. Since Q1 of 2021, this has been the slowest documented growth in the Cloud business.
Because of this, Alphabet keeps investing in the cloud industry, which is growing in significance as generative AI emerges. YouTube’s advertising income exceeded experts’ forecasts thanks to increases in direct response and brand awareness. This is attributed to Shorts, the TikTok competitor of YouTube with 70 billion views every day.
By the numbers
- Revenue reported was $79.69B, up 11%.
- Google Search and other advertising revenues were $44B, a rise of 11% Y-O-Y.
- Google Cloud computing revenue rose 22% to $8.41B against estimates of $8.64B.
- Advertising revenue was up 9% to $59.6B as against an estimated $59.1B.
- YouTube advertising revenue reported $8B, up 12% Y-O-Y.
- Network advertising revenue was down 3% to $7.7B.
- Traffic acquisition costs were up $12.64B vs estimates of $12.63B.
- Search ad revenue was up 18%.
Google disclosed its quarterly results in the middle of its antitrust lawsuit. Government authorities claim Alphabet uses unlawful monopolistic methods to maintain control over its search engine. Additionally, it’s predicted that more advertisers will spend money on Google advertisements, which could lead to increased rivalry among them. In addition, Google keeps funding its attempts to develop Generative AI in an attempt to overtake its rivals.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, said in the earnings call,
I’m pleased with our financial results and our product momentum this quarter, with AI-driven innovations across Search, YouTube, Cloud, our Pixel devices, and more. We’re continuing to focus on making AI more helpful for everyone; there’s exciting progress and lots more to come.
Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer; CFO said,
The fundamental strength of our business was apparent again in Q3, with $77 billion in revenue, up 11% year over year, driven by meaningful growth in Search and YouTube, and momentum in Cloud. We continue to focus on judicious capital allocation to deliver sustainable financial value.
META
In terms of earnings and revenue, Meta exceeded the third-quarterly results. This was attributed to the increase in digital advertising spending. Exceeding expectations, the results showed the fastest growth rate, with revenues rising by 23%. Additionally, the company’s user base has grown in the face of fierce competition from rivals such as TikTok.
As its clients recover from a challenging 2022, Meta is witnessing faster growth in its core digital ads businesses. Right now, Meta’s business is doing better than its rivals. Its recovery can be largely traced to increasing the impact of its online ads. Additionally, Meta has cited its significant investments in AI as a crucial technological advancement that has enabled it to attract businesses seeking to serve clients with tailored incentives.
By the numbers
- Revenue rose 23% to $34.15B.
- Facebook DAUs were 2.09 billion on average, a 5% increase Y-O-Y.
- Facebook MAUs were 3.05 billion, an increase of 3% Y-O-Y.
- Family Daily Active People (DAP) was 3.14 billion on average, up 7% Y-O-Y.
- Family Monthly Active People (MAP) was 3.96 billion, higher by 7% Y-O-Y.
- Ad impressions across all Meta apps increased 31% Yo-Y and the average price per ad was down 6%.
Meta anticipates its spending in 2024 will exceed that as it continues to invest in AI infrastructure. Meta expressed a distaste for falling behind in the race towards generative artificial intelligence. To boost engagement, the internet giant intends to roll out AI-powered avatars on Facebook and Instagram. Users may be able to engage with the platform in new ways, receive recommendations, and do more with these identities.
Susan Li, Meta’s Chief Financial Officer stated that for Reality Labs, Meta’s augmented reality and virtual reality division, the company expects operating losses to increase meaningfully Yo-Y due to its ongoing product development efforts and investments to further scale the ecosystem.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO said in the announcement,
We had a good quarter for our community and business. I’m proud of the work our teams have done to advance AI and mixed reality with the launch of Quest 3, Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, and our AI studio.
MICROSOFT
Microsoft released the first quarterly results of its 2024 financial reports, and the company was off to a great start to the fiscal year. The favorable outcomes were ascribed to Microsoft Cloud’s strength, which outperformed analyst predictions. Microsoft completed its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, a publisher of video games, earlier this month.
Microsoft claims to have the greatest AI infrastructure and the widest cloud footprint. Furthermore, compared to other cloud providers, it has more regions where AI services are installed. Furthermore, while search income growth was still influenced by third-party agreements, the rise in search and news advertising revenue was linked to higher interaction on Bing and Edge.
By the numbers
- Revenue recorded $56.5, higher by 13%.
- Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud Unit revenues were $24.3, up 19% beating estimates of $23.4B.
- Azure revenues rose 29% against an estimated 26.2%.
- LinkedIn’s revenue increased by 8%.
- Microsoft Cloud Revenue was $31.8B, up 24%.
Microsoft is still dedicated to making investments in the cloud and AI potential. In order to increase consumer productivity, it is concentrating on quickly integrating AI into all facets of its technological and business processes. In addition, it will maintain strong growth in the upcoming year thanks to its leadership in the commercial cloud and AI platform wave.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft said,
With copilots, we are making the age of AI real for people and businesses everywhere, we are rapidly infusing AI across every layer of the tech stack and for every role and business process to drive productivity gains for our customers.
Amy Hood, Chief Financial Officer, Microsoft, commented,
We saw healthy renewals, particularly in Microsoft 365 E5, and the growth of new business continued to be moderate for standalone products sold outside the Microsoft 365 suite. In Azure, as expected, the optimization trends were similar to Q4. Higher-than-expected AI consumption contributed to revenue growth in Azure.
Read More: Delve Into What the Quarterly Results For Big Tech Titans Are Saying
AMAZON
Amazon outperformed analysts’ expectations and exceeded its own projections for the third quarter. Growing online sales in its retail section and significant cost reductions drove growth. Additionally, a notable increase in advertising revenue and growth in its cloud business, which kept stabilizing, were its main drivers. According to Amazon, the increase in AWS revenues of over $900M was offset by customers’ shifting focus towards fostering innovation and delivering new workloads to the cloud.
Amazon is still concentrating on buyer behavior and customer happiness. Thanks to the Prime Day event, when over 375 million goods were purchased globally by Prime members, Q3 revenues increased 11% YoY. The company’s introduction of generative AI capabilities into its products and services compensated for the decline in advertising revenue. Demand for daily necessities in areas like health, beauty, and personal care has remained high on Amazon.
By the number
- Revenue posted $143.1B, up 11% Yo-Y vs analysts’ expectations of $141.41B.
- AWS revenue was $23.1B, higher by 12% Yo-Y.
- Advertising sales jumped to $12B, rising 26%.
In addition to warehouse robots, which were already a prominent business for the corporation, Amazon continues to make large investments in generative AI. Further, AWS and Anthropic, Amazon’s generative AI, will work together on future advancements in AWS Trainium and AWS Inferentia chip technology, according to CEO Andy Jassy of Amazon. He thinks that the partnership will support the ongoing acceleration of the benefits to customers in terms of pricing and performance.
Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy said,
We had a strong third quarter as our cost to serve and speed of delivery in our Stores business took another step forward.
Brian Olsavsky, Amazon’s Chief Financial Officer added,
We’re ready to make this a great holiday season for customers. Overall, consumers have shown resilience in their spending despite rising interest rates and stubbornly high inflation that has steadily eased since last year. Amazon said Thursday its retail business grew by 6% during the third quarter. It was boosted by the company’s popular Prime Day sales event held in July. It’s also seeing strong customer demand across categories like beauty, health, and personal care items. But we still see customers being cautious about price, trading down where they can and seeking out deals.
He further added that as Amazon enters the holiday season, its operations network and inventory are in the optimal position like never before.
SNAP INC.
Snap INC. reported the third-quarterly results of 2023 and numbers that were better than anticipated by Wall Street. Its ad platform enhancements were the cause of the improvement in outcomes. For quite some time, Snap’s company has been in turmoil. This is because of TikTok’s rivalry, Apple’s modifications to iOS’s ad tracking, and a number of other issues. It was encouraging to see sales rise again. Moreover, Snap improved the ML ranking and optimization for the web, app, and Dynamic Product Ad (DPA) platform by implementing over 17 significant changes.
By the numbers
- Revenue posted $1,19B, up 5% from estimates of $1.11 B.
- DAUs 406 million, high 12% (43 million) Yo-Y.
- Snapchat+ reached more than 5 million subscribers.
By concentrating on investing in ML models to enhance content ranking and personalization across all content offerings, Snapchat is aiming to increase the depth of engagement with its content. Additionally, it will keep utilizing AI technology to provide the community with new services and goods. In addition, the business declared that over 200 million users have sent over 20 billion messages on My AI since its debut.
Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap INC. said in the earnings call,
Our revenue returned to positive growth in Q3, increasing 5% year-over-year and flowing through to positive adjusted EBITDA as our reprioritized cost structure demonstrated the leverage in our business model. We are focused on improving our advertising platform to drive higher return on investment for our advertising partners, and we have evolved our go-to-market efforts to better serve our partners and drive customer success.
OMNICOM MEDIA GROUP
Beyond estimates, Omnicom revealed remarkable revenue growth in the 2023 third quarterly results. With consistent growth in media, advertising, and precision marketing, the business is still on track for the entire year. The outcomes follow significant recent victories, like the $600 million Uber media contract, which was transferred from competitor WPP to Omnicom Media Group in September.
With the release of Omni Assist, Omnicom’s customized version of ChatGPT that improves every task with Omni, it continues to develop its Generative AI capabilities. In addition, it keeps evaluating how Generative AI will impact Omnicom’s operations throughout the entire company and plans ahead.
By the numbers
- Global revenue reported $3.58B, a high of 3.3% or $113.1M organically.
- Advertising and media posted a 6.1% growth to $1.9B.
- Public Relations was down 5.5% against 12.6% delivered in Q3 2022.
- Third-party service costs increased $90.6M or 15.4% to $678.6M organic growth.
Omnicom is confident that its clients will receive the greatest creative skills and capabilities from the newly established Omnicom Advertising Services.
John Wren, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Omnicom stated,
We are pleased with our strong organic revenue growth of 3.3%, with notable performances in our Advertising and media, Precision Marketing, and Healthcare disciplines. Our year-to-date organic growth of 4.0% remains in line with our full-year expectations, which reflects the resiliency of our business even in periods of economic uncertainty. Omnicom continued to post strong profitability and earnings growth in the quarter, and our recent business wins validate the benefits of our client strategy in this rapidly evolving marketplace. We are very well positioned for a recovery in business conditions, with a strong balance sheet and leading creativity in all of our service disciplines.
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