AD Agencies
Mogae acquires Ashish Dabral’s Ao1 with share-swap
MUMBAI: A leading provider of integrated mobile marketing services Mogae Media has acquired Ao1 personalized video platform from Dentsu Marcom CEO Ashish Dabral. He had been developing this new-age technology platform for the past 18 months with a young tech team out of Gurgaon.
The transaction is a cashless one, involving a share-swap that will see Dabral joining Mogae Media as the executive director and Mogae taking full ownership of the tech platform. Mogae will fund the further development and deployment of the platform.
Ao1 is actually an acronym for ‘Audience of One’ which is what Mogae’s new acquisition seeks to deliver. “This is a wonderful technology that combines technology with creativity. It is like producing a TV commercial for just one person as audience”, said Mogae Media chairman Sandeep Goyal. “Worldwide, the trend is towards more and more video content consumption. With Ao1 we can personalise that content. So messaging to high-value customers can be individualized, and personalized such that the recipient feels special, and more positively disposed towards both the brand and its communication.”
Ao1 works as a sell/cross-sell/up-sell engine for customer loyalty. It works to enhance the messaging in any CRM effort of banks, insurance companies, telecom operators, retail, airlines, hotels, e-commerce destinations and all such business that seek to engage their customers better. Mogae Media has in the past worked with Idomoo of Israel, the pioneer-leaders in video personalisation.
The platform connects with the database of any client. The real-time personalisation engine resides in a cloud that enables the right video to be served to the right customer at the click of a link received by the customer in an email or text message. The driving principles behind Ao1 are engage (involve and inspire customers), connect (make it personal), satisfy (reward loyalty) and impact (create visible positive ROI).
AD Agencies
WPP to cut jobs in £500m restructuring drive as revenue drops 8.1 per cent
CEO outlines reset after 30.1 percent profit decline
LONDON: WPP has signalled further job cuts as it embarks on a multi-year restructuring aimed at simplifying its sprawl, hardwiring artificial intelligence into its services and hauling profitability back on course.
The UK-listed advertising group will fold itself into a single integrated company structured around four divisions: WPP Creative, WPP Media, WPP Production and WPP Enterprise Solutions, under a plan to deliver £500 million in gross annual cost savings by 2028.
On the fourth-quarter earnings call, chief financial officer Joanne Wilson said the arithmetic was unavoidable. “In a business where most of our cost savings are people, that will mean a reduction of certain heads,” she said, adding that the group would reinvest in newer capabilities such as commerce, influencer marketing and advanced analytics.
The shift reflects a deeper rewiring. As AI becomes embedded in client workflows, the skills mix across the company is changing. Some roles will go; others will be created. “We will be reallocating talent around the business,” Wilson said, noting fresh hiring in data, technology and performance marketing.
Chief executive officer Cindy Rose said WPP was expanding internal training, including AI coaching and creative-technology apprenticeships, and embedding engineers from technology partners into client teams. Continuous reskilling, she argued, is central to staying competitive.
The urgency is financial. Revenue fell 8.1 per cent to £13.55 billion in 2025, while profit after tax dropped 30.1 per cent to £738 million. Staff costs, including severance and incentives, declined by £576 million as permanent headcount shrank 8.7 per cent and freelance spending fell 14 per cent.
Wilson warned that net new business headwinds would likely persist into the first half of 2026, citing cautious client spending and volatile marketing budgets.
On Thursday, WPP formally launched ‘Elevate 28’ a strategic programme to integrate media, creative, production and enterprise services, lower the cost base and improve cash generation.
Rose said 2026 would be about stabilising net new business performance. By 2027, a revamped go-to-market model should be fully embedded, paving the way for a return to growth. From 2028 onwards, WPP hopes to operate as a leaner, AI-enabled outfit with fatter margins: smaller, sharper and more machine-driven.
