Welcome in, today is Friday, August seventh, and we begin with the sharpest single-day repricing of WPP shares since the group listed, per Tech Times. WPP shares rose as much as thirty percent on Thursday and settled around twenty-five percent higher, at three hundred eighty-three point six pence, the biggest single-day gain since its nineteen ninety-five listing. Per Tech Times, first-half headline operating profit came in at three hundred ninety-eight million pounds, more than thirteen percent above a consensus of roughly three hundred forty-seven million. What moved the stock was the trajectory. Revenue less pass-through costs fell four point seven percent like for like across the half, better than the mid to high single-digit drop management guided to in April, and the quarterly decline narrowed from six point seven percent in the first quarter to two point eight percent in the second. That is the first half in which the restructure reads through to the revenue line rather than only the cost line. The same account has the board holding the interim dividend at seven and a half pence and reaffirming a full-year headline operating margin of twelve to thirteen percent. On the Elevate28 plan we have been tracking, it reports one hundred million pounds of in-year savings on track against the five hundred million target by twenty twenty-eight. Chief executive Cindy Rose told analysts the first phase, putting the new structure in place, is complete, and that reporting credits the Open Intelligence platform with wins including Estée Lauder and Airbnb. MediaPost adds that media is now forty-six percent of quarterly revenue less pass-through costs, the first time the company has broken the split out that way. Industry reaction leans toward reading the move as a verdict on structural change rather than on the numbers, with sentiment hedged as early progress on a multi-year plan. Also today, the cost side of that same turnaround. Yahoo Finance reports WPP has cut more than twelve hundred jobs since December, a one point three percent reduction taking headcount to ninety-seven thousand three hundred and eighty-eight. That follows our earlier reporting on planned cuts in the mid to high hundreds under Elevate28, which the company had not confirmed at the time. Staff costs fell almost six percent in the first half, per that account, which also notes thousands of roles went last year. For anyone benchmarking staffing across WPP's networks, it sets a live marker. The same reporting places the figures against a hard stretch: WPP left the FTSE 100 in December, Publicis passed it as the largest group by revenue in twenty twenty-four, and it lost a one point seven billion dollar Mars account to the French group. Deutsche Numis analyst Steve Liechti called the figures very encouraging, while adding it is early days. Industry reaction leans toward reading the reductions as a structural repricing of production, though a strong counter-current disputes the headline savings claims circulating about AI, arguing the compressible part is execution rather than strategy or approvals. Separately, Digiday's Sam Bradley reports that WPP chief executive Cindy Rose sees outcome-based pay as still several years off. Her words, in that account: it will take a few years. The same piece frames her direction of travel as a mixed economy model, set against what it describes as green shoots at the group. That timeline is the practical part for anyone opening a scope renegotiation this year, because it leaves fees and retainers as the working basis rather than a bridge to something already arriving. Industry reaction leans skeptical that the shift is genuinely underway, a recurring view being that a handful of marquee deals reads as experiment rather than proof, and that the unsolved problem is attribution: agreeing whose contribution produced the measured result. A related caution in the channel is that efficiency gains so far appear to have been reinvested rather than shaved off fees. Now, a few more headlines moving the trade today. On the adtech side, Nielsen has agreed to acquire DoubleVerify for two point one five billion dollars in cash, per AdExchanger and Adweek, taking a second verification player off the public markets. Adweek reads second-quarter earnings as a split verdict on World Cup sponsorships, favourable for Coca-Cola and Visa, less so for Adidas and McDonald's, following our earlier report on Adidas' billion-dollar quarter. Kraft Heinz is adding nearly one hundred million dollars to marketing, with executives telling Marketing Dive that higher-impact media partnerships and stronger creative are showing green shoots in the United States. And finally, Marketing Dive reports Papa Johns chief marketing officer Jenna Bromberg is departing as the chain appoints a global marketer, rebalances its media mix toward mass reach and keeps investing in co-ops.