17564: WPP Metaphorically On Track.

Adweek spotlighted the WPP H1 2026 report, indicating the single White operating company experienced a 5.6% decline in revenue, yet saw its stock rise over 26% after beating analysts’ estimates.

During an earnings call, WPP CEO Cindy Rose declared, “We’re on track with where we said we would be,” referring to the fuzzy Eviscerate28. Meanwhile, regarding outcome-based remuneration—a key notion in the turnaround scheme—Digiday reported Rose said, “I suspect it will take a few years.”

Not officially stated about WPP: The runaway train is being built in breakneck flight—ditto the rickety track it’s careening along. And upon reaching the dismal destination, there will be far fewer passengers on board versus when the dizzying trip started.

WPP Is ‘On Track’ With Turnaround Plan, as Revenue Drops 5.6% in First Half of 2026

Six months into its 3-year turnaround plan, WPP’s revenue beat analysts’ estimates

By Brittaney Kiefer

WPP’s stock rose more than 26% in the early hours of trading, after the company’s first-half earnings beat analysts’ estimates. 

The numbers

• –5.6%: Year-over-year decline in revenue less pass-through costs for the first half of 2026 to $6.39 billion (£4.75 billion), down 4.7% on a like-for-like basis 

• –2.3%: YOY decline in revenue less pass-through costs for the second quarter to $3.34 billion (£2.48 billion), down 2.8% on a like-for-like basis 

• –8.4%: YOY decline in average headcount, from 106,000 in the first half of 2025 to 97,000 in the first half of this year

• –3.5%: Decline in WPP Creative’s net sales for Q2, versus a 6.3% decline in Q1

• –2.8%: Decline in WPP Media’s Q2 net sales, versus an 8.3% decline in Q1

Watercooler talk 

WPP is six months into its three-year turnaround plan, Elevate28, which is designed to stabilize the business and return it to growth, while delivering annual cost savings of $676 million (£500 million) by 2028. Chief executive Cindy Rose is nearly one year into her tenure.

“We’re on track with where we said we would be,” Rose said on an earnings call with journalists on Thursday (Aug. 6). 

Rose said WPP made progress on its four strategic objectives, which are to deliver growth for clients, become a simpler and more integrated company, unlock the advantages of its agentic marketing platform WPP Open, and to “create firm financial foundations for the future.”

Earlier this year, WPP restructured into four business units—WPP Media, WPP Creative, WPP Production, and WPP Enterprise Solutions—across four key regions—North America, Latin America, EMEA, and APAC. For the first time, its earnings report split its results into those units.

On the new business front, Rose cited “landmark wins” including Estée Lauder, Jaguar Land Rover, Avon, Airbnb, Wendy’s, SC Johnson, and Heineken. WPP topped J.P. Morgan’s net new business rankings as number one for the first half of 2026 and for the nine months to Q2 2026.

WPP also “completed more than 15 non-core asset disposals that will generate over £200 million [$269 million] of sales proceeds in 2026,” according to Rose. The company said it is on track to make $134.5 million (£100 million) in savings this year.

While WPP is reportedly planning to cut hundreds of jobs globally by the end of this year, Rose declined to share specific numbers, other than confirming that “some jobs will be impacted.”

“This isn’t just about cost savings per se. These actions will make us more agile and simpler to navigate, and that’s an important part of our new simplified operating model,” Rose said.

Rose touted the company’s technological advancements through WPP Open, which she said allows clients to “connect their data with signals from across WPP and our 350 data partners, giving them access to 5 billion consumers in over 100 markets, drawing on trillions of real-time signals.”

Key quote

“What excites me the most is to see how AI is fundamentally changing how we deliver growth for our clients,” Rose said. “In an environment where AI is rapidly transforming our industry and trust is in scarce supply, I believe that our commitment to client data ownership and control will become increasingly compelling.” 

17446: Previewing, Purging, And Pruning Problems At WPP.

 

Burson Is Not the Problem headlines a LinkedIn article commenting on the proposed pruning of PR from the global flaming dumpster known as WPP.

 

The commentator opined abandoning Burson makes sense. “Following their clients’ lead,” wrote the author, “WPP is doubling down on a model built around media, data and integration at global scale.”

 

The strategic maneuvers highlighted in the LinkedIn article seem to indicate WPP is embracing a media-first identity.

 

Okay, except WPP Media is hardly viewed as category leader.

 

Holding companies—as well as corporations purporting not to be holding companies—have fueled the commoditization of Adland, whereby all people, practices, processes, products, and platforms are repetitive, redundant, and replaceable.

 

WPP Media is a fish in a small sea of sameness.

 

What’s more, WPP Media is attached to mediocre network units:

 

• WPP Creative erased almost all the iconic creative mastheads—and it’s now run by the leader of VML. Nuff said.

 

• WPP Enterprise Solutions features everything historically labeled “below-the-line”—allegedly available at costs below the industry standards.

 

• WPP Production is the in-house studio on a global scale, providing cheap labor via offshore resources—exactly like the offerings of every holding company.

 

• WPP Open is the AI equivalent of Omni, Publicis Sapient, dentsu.Connect, AVA, and whatever Stagwell cobbles together.

 

In summation, Burson is not the problem. WPP is.

 

Burson Is Not the Problem.

 

By Arthur Fleischmann

 

It’s The Preview.

 

There’s a slightly unfashionable take on the proposed sale of #Burson. It probably makes sense.

 

Not because Burson is weak. Quite the opposite. It’s a near-billion-dollar global business, built by combining BCW and Hill & Knowlton, and still winning clients like Heineken, Levi’s and Google. It continues to invest in new capabilities — from AI-driven reputation tools to expanded influence and corporate strategy.

 

By any normal definition, it’s a strong, well-run business.

 

But #CindyRose has been very clear about #WPP’s direction. And if you look at where WPP is winning, the logic starts to reveal itself.

 

Over the past six months, the pattern is hard to ignore. The biggest wins are not coming from traditional creative. They are not coming from PR. They are overwhelmingly media-led, often global, and increasingly tied to data, commerce and AI-enabled operating models.

 

#JaguarLandRover is the obvious headline — a roughly $500M global mandate spanning media and creative. But it’s the exception that proves the rule. Most of the other meaningful wins are media at scale: #EstéeLauder’s global media consolidation, #Reckitt across Europe and India, #SCJohnson in North America, #IKEA in Malaysia. Even where creative is involved, it tends to sit inside a broader, integrated system.

 

And just as interesting is where these decisions are being made.

 

They’re not particularly U.S.-centric anymore.

 

That doesn’t mean the U.S. is necessarily declining. It does suggest something subtler: global brands are no longer organizing themselves around it. Coordination is moving. Singapore. London. Regional hubs. Multi-market systems. Growth coming from outside North America, and increasingly managed that way too.

 

Following their clients’ lead, WPP is doubling down on a model built around media, data and integration at global scale.

 

The issue is not whether Burson is good. It is. The issue is where value now sits.

 

Even the strongest PR firms do not control media budgets. They do not own the first-party data infrastructure that increasingly drives modern marketing. They do not sit at the centre of AI-enabled operating systems. And too often their revenues are still project-based rather than embedded in the day-to-day machinery of growth.

 

This calls into question other businesses in a similar predicament such as @Landor, @Ogilvy, @David, @Grey, @AKQA and other smaller networks within WPP.

 

Burson, and these other business units look less like a problem and more like a mismatch. They are largely narrative-led, market-by-market-relevant, and harder to plug into a global operating system in the same way as media and data. Sure, their services matter. They’re valuable. But it’s not at the centre of this particular strategy or clients’ focus at the moment.

 

I take an uncynical view of this sale. Rather than seeing it as a weakness or failure, I believe it is an act of focus. The bigger question is, who will buy Burson, and what does that say about the buyer’s strategy?

 

For WPP, this is an acknowledgement that the shape of the industry has changed — and not every strong business still sits at the centre of it.

17148: Pruning Prediction, Preparation & Production.

 

Campaign published content titled, “IPG cuts 2400 jobs in first half of 2025 ahead of Omnicom takeover”—along with a subhead that reads, “Cuts come on top of last year’s 4100 headcount reduction.”

 

The Omnicom deal might lead to a name change for the acquired White holding company; however, at this point, IPG stands for Intensive Pruning Group.

 

The revelation also indicates Adland’s amazing US employment surge in July is probably bullshit.

17047: McCann Worldgroup Shrinking Its World.

 

Advertising Age reported McCann Worldgroup “has been quietly trimming its workforce” in recent months—a RIF supplemented by key senior-level departures.

 

That’s a sharp contrast to loud layoffs and lunacy in recent years. Guess the White advertising agency is executing more preemptive pruning in advance of the impending Omnicom acquisition of IPG.

 

McCann’s “Truth Well Told” tagline clearly does not apply to staff communications.

 

McCann Worldgroup lays off staff while some leaders choose to exit

 

By Ewan Larkin and Brian Bonilla

 

McCann Worldgroup has been quietly trimming its workforce over the last few months and has parted ways with several senior executives ahead of Omnicom Group’s acquisition of Interpublic Group of Cos., Ad Age has learned.

 

Since February, the IPG agency network has been reducing its workforce in small waves, with one source estimating the cumulative number to be about 120 people. Those affected appear to be employees in duplicative or non-revenue-generating roles, including staffers in corporate communications, creative and social. Several high-level executives have also departed on their own amid these changes.

 

McCann did not comment on the number of job reductions and referred calls for comment to IPG, which provided this statement: “Earlier this year, Interpublic announced that we are embarking on a transformation process. On our recent earnings call, we shared that we are centralizing corporate functions and accelerating investment in central platform capabilities like production and analytics through greater consolidation into centers of excellence, while also streamlining across the organization.”

 

It continued, “While these actions enhance service delivery, the composition of our workforce and our agencies is also impacted. It’s never easy to take these kinds of actions, but they are due to the transformation and restructuring we announced in February, and not part of the proposed transaction with Omnicom.”

 

The reference is to an IPG restructuring announced by CEO Philippe Krakowsky in February, in which it promised to save $250 million through restructuring within its agencies this year.

 

The pending merger is anticipated to yield $750 million in annual cost savings, which are also widely expected to result in layoffs. Omnicom Chairman and CEO John Wren has repeatedly emphasized that roles tied to client service and revenue will be safe from cuts. “You’re gold,” Wren has previously said of such staffers.

 

High-level departures at IPG’s McCann Worldgroup

 

McCann Worldgroup said it has 12,000 employees, so the cuts would amount to about 1% of its total workforce. Agencies within the network include McCann, CRM agency MRM, production shop Craft and FutureBrand, whose specialties include design and brand architecture. McCann Worldgroup has a presence in more than 100 countries, according to its website.

 

Among the senior execs leaving or who have already left McCann are Stephanie Nerlich, McCann Worldgroup’s first global president, along with Pete Johnson and Cinzia Crociani, both global executive creative directors based in New York. Johnson and Nerlich could not be reached for comment and Crociani said she resigned to pursue another opportunity.

 

Other departures include Scott Berwitz, senior VP and global director of marketing communications; McCann New York Chief Creative Officer Shayne Millington, whose role is being eliminated; and New York Chief Growth Officer Suresh Raj, who said he recently resigned to join M+C Saatchi. Berwitz and Millington could not be reached for comment.

 

McCann Worldgroup has faced challenges in recent years, including the loss of longtime client Verizon, which shifted its consumer account to WPP’s Ogilvy in late 2023. The network took another hit last June when General Motors pulled significant business from Chevy-focused Commonwealth/McCann and MRM, prompting layoffs at both agencies.

 

McCann Worldgroup ultimately decided to do away with the Commonwealth/McCann brand name in October, parking those employees under McCann Detroit instead. That move followed the March 2024 closure of its San Francisco-based McCann 215 office, whose biggest client was Xbox. Xbox recently launched a campaign with Droga5.

 

Earlier this week, Ad Age reported that HomeGoods, a McCann client of seven years, is also looking for a new creative agency. (McCann New York remains the creative agency of record for TJ Maxx, another TJX Cos. brand.) McCann Worldgroup’s losses have been partly offset by wins such as Ikea’s global brand marketing account and creative duties for Kinder and Tic Tac across Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.

16614: WPP = Whistleblower Puffing Practice…?

More About Advertising reported WPP recorded a 64% increase from 2022 vs 2023 in complaints to the corporate whistleblower hotline—a sharp contrast to the White holding company seeing less than 1% growth in organic revenue.

 

The leading grievances involved “respect in the workplace” and “protection of WPP’s assets.”

 

Well, it’s hard to generate workplace dignity when White advertising agencies are being merged into revenue-reducing redundancy, making it impossible to protect one’s ass.

 

WPP sees rise in whistleblower complaints

 

By Stephen Foster

 

WPP received 64% more complaints to its whistleblower helpline in 2023 against 2022 (up to 612 from 372.) Most complaints were concerning “respect in the workplace” and “protection of WPP’s assets” (which might mean anything.)

 

Worth bearing in mind that WPP currently employs 114,000 people across the world so 612 isn’t that many and more publicity for the helpline has probably attracted more complaints. As the ad holding company navigates a rather uncertain future, with a number of big internal mergers already in place and very likely more to follow, it would be surprising in the number doesn’t keep rising. People will be worried about their jobs (and the impact of the dreaded AI.)

 

The company says “every report is tracked through to a conclusion” and “WPP is committed to providing a safe and confidential way for people with genuine concerns to raise them, and to do so without fear of reprisals.

 

“WPP does not tolerate any retaliatory behaviour against individuals reporting concerns and is equally committed to preserving the anonymity of an individual who makes a report and does not wish to have their identity revealed.”

 

WPP does seem to be taking such matters more seriously than some of its rivals. There have been a number of reports suggesting that DEI is in fairly full retreat with some high profile DEI leader hires quietly shuffling off to pastures new.

 

Agency land is always going to finds such issues a problem because of its inherent insecurity. As the great Sir Nigel Bogle observed, any agency is only three client phone calls from disaster.

 

WPP might be wishing it had made rather less – publicly at least – of its DEI initiatives.

16047: Will R/GA Distributed Creativity Lead To Distributing Pink Slips?

 

Adweek reported on the closing of R/GA office spaces in New York City and San Francisco, a move that underscores the dramatic workplace changes ignited by COVID-19.

 

R/GA CEO Sean Lyons declared the company’s newfangled remote structure “will be the standard for a post pandemic creative company. It embraces global talent across multiple time zones and mean we can be faster, better, and less expensive for clients.” Gee, that almost sounds more amazing than R/GA “throwing out the traditional playbook” for DE&I.

 

The shuttering of offices will probably be celebrated with global strippers via Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and FaceTime.

 

R/GA Is Closing Its Current New York and San Francisco Office Spaces as It Continues Restructuring

 

The NYC office opened in 2016 in Hudson Yards

 

By Kyle O’Brien & Jameson Fleming

 

R/GA is closing its current spacious Hudson Yards office space in New York City as well as its current office space in downtown San Francisco as part of a larger structuring under CEO Sean Lyons.

 

Multiple sources confirmed to Adweek that Lyons told the agency the news via email Tuesday night.

 

As part of the restructuring, R/GA is moving away from its city model in the U.S. and instead implementing a country model with five disciplines powering the business. With the emphasis away from cities, R/GA, in partnership with IPG, is opting out of its leases in New York and San Francisco, Lyons wrote in the email obtained by Adweek.

 

“Today, 45% of our US staff live far from our offices, and 80% of our project teams bring together talent from more than one location,” Lyons wrote in the email. “The ability to bring talent together from everywhere is the backbone of our Distributed Creativity model. Now we need the infrastructure that supports it.”

 

Lyons noted in the email that currently only about 40 employees a day, plus a few clients, use the “cavernous” office on a daily basis. Lyons said that the agency will eventually reopen a smaller hub in New York in 2023. With employees all over the country, the agency will consider other physical hubs in the U.S. where employees are concentrated or near clients.

 

“We are increasing our investment in travel so we can bring teams together in our physical locations, or wherever groups of R/GA people are based. (A bar bill in Atlanta is a better use of budget than an empty room in Hudson Yards.),” Lyons wrote.

 

The current New York and San Francisco offices will close on Dec. 23. The New York office, which first opened in 2016, was the subject of Workplace: The Connected Space Documentary. For the film, Gary Hustwit explored the spacious 10,000-square-foot office on 10th Avenue and 33rd Street that originally housed 800 employees.

 

R/GA’s transformation

 

The restructuring first rolled out in late October, according to Ad Age. It will cover staffing, creative practices, office structure and R/GA’s go-to-market strategy under the term “distributed creativity.” The restructuring was apparently planned before R/GA reported losses of up to $10 million this year from crypto and NFT-related work, according to the story.

 

Part of that restructuring means a reduction of staff. Multiple sources told Adweek the agency recently laid off a number of employees. A previous round of layoffs earlier this year reduced the New York staff by 5%.

 

Additionally, Robin Forbes took on the role of global chief client officer. Forbes will play a key role with the roll out of R/GA’s new distributed creativity model. He was previously managing director of the brand design and consulting practice.

 

“With R/GA rolling out its new model built on our creative practices, I’ve been looking for the right person to take on the global chief client officer role. I am lucky to have that person at R/GA. Robin has been instrumental in leading some of our largest and most successful client relationships,” said Lyons in a statement.

 

R/GA’s global CFO Tania Secor is also stepping down at the end of the year to pursue another opportunity.

 

The new country model includes a new structure that will encompass five practices: Products + Experiences, Connected Communications, Brand Design + Consulting, Media + Connections and Brand Relationship Design.

 

Lyons said the new structure will allow the agency to be more nimble and better serve its clients, adding that many employees’ roles will change as the client base changes, especially as the innovation client base in crypto and other areas have dwindled.

 

Lyons also noted the agency is still working through the remaining management changes and practice placements, and anticipated those changes will be complete by the end of the year.

 

“Over the last 45 years we’ve been known to change our model ahead of the industry but we know radical change is difficult and this means not everyone will fit into this model,” Lyons told Adweek earlier this month, during an earlier round of staff cuts. “Our Distributed Creativity model will be the standard for a post pandemic creative company. It embraces global talent across multiple time zones and mean we can be faster, better, and less expensive for clients.”

16031: Dentsu Denial, Dropping Dollars, Dumping Dead Weight.

 

The Drum reported that Dentsu announced a revenue tumble and leadership jumble—although they didn’t publicly connect the two. Soon-to-be-former Dentsu CEO Wendy Clark, however, will deny being part of either scenario.

 

Dentsu revenues tumble and new leadership team unveiled

 

By Sam Bradley

 

Q3 trading update introduces a new squad of international CEOs as the Japanese network reveals that revenues fell in all four of its regions.

 

The Japanese agency network at the core of holding company Dentsu’s business saw revenue growth fall over 15% in the third quarter of 2022, the firm has revealed.

 

The company’s activities in its home market typically account for around 40% of its turnover, but organic revenues fell 15.1% between July and September, meaning that revenues across the entire group decreased 4.7%.

 

Dentsu’s president and chief executive Hiroshi Igarashi also unveiled a 36-strong global leadership team, including top executives from across each of the company’s operating regions. Notably, Peter Hujiboom steps up to lead media across every international market, Norihiro Kuretani will lead Dentsu Japan and Dentsu Creative talisman Fred Levron will lead the company’s creative everywhere outside Japan as global chief creative officer.

 

The new setup marks a more closely integrated relationship between Dentsu International and its core Japanese holdings than under departing Dentsu International chief executive Wendy Clark.

 

Higarashi said: “Today marks an exciting moment for Dentsu Group as we look to bring all 65,000 dedicated talents together under our One Dentsu structure. Led by one global leadership team, One Dentsu will further simplify our Group, driving integration of our diverse capabilities across the Group to deliver top-line growth for our clients.”

 

What do the results show?

 

Dentsu’s overall operating profit for the last three months was ¥40.4bn, around $290m. That’s a 32.8% fall compared with last year. Its operating margin has tumbled from 23.5% to 14.7%, while net profits are down 27.6%.

 

In a trading update released today, Dentsu attributed this decrease to last year’s huge numbers, when the business was surfing a wave of digital spending in the wake of the pandemic. Igarashi chose to point to the nine-month view, emphasizing: “Despite results impacted by exceptional prior year comparables in Q3 2021... the nine month results delivered a strong performance across all service areas.”

 

Dentsu International also failed to keep up the momentum of last year. Its organic revenue in the Americas was down 15.6% compared with last year’s period, while organic revenue fell 3.7% in Europe, Africa and the Middle East and 8.7% across the Asia Pacific region. As a whole, Dentsu International revenues managed just 3.4% growth, itself a decrease of 14.6% on the same period last year. Organic growth in the Americas and APAC has been steadily decreasing since January.

 

The group still expects to see 4%-5% organic growth for the year overall, with an 18% operating margin; its margin for the nine months to September was 17.7%.

 

“While the macro-outlook may remain uncertain, our improved revenue mix, our deep client relationships, strong balance sheet underpinned by the transformation the group has undertaken over the past two years positions us well for the future,” commented Igarashi.

 

Revenues from customer transformation and technology, Dentsu’s in-house term for its digital transformation and CX business, have growth over 20% since the start of the year and now account for 32.6% of the group’s income. Dentsu hopes to draw half its revenue from that area in the future.

15350: Downsizing, DE&I And Downright Deception.

 

At More About Advertising, Stephen Foster pondered pandemic-related proceedings, with IPG and Omnicom quietly recording 10,000 job cuts in 2020. And yet, White advertising agencies continue to post job listings as if there’s a market boom—and Omnicom recently boasted about its DE&I hiring spree. Meanwhile, Advertising Age reported U.S. advertising saw a gain of 3,500 jobs; however, jobs at advertising agencies experienced a sharp decline in January, while Internet media employment is at a record high. Sure, everyone is bringing on social media directors at Mickey D’s salary levels—and that’s Mickey D’s crew versus corporate.

 

Oh, and check out the stock illustrations above and below that accurately symbolize the advertising industry. A boss angrily terminates a White employee—yet becomes more aggressive when firing a Black employee.

 

Pandemic job cuts another sign of reduced role for agencies

 

By Stephen Foster

 

Campaign has been doing some digging into the small print of Interpublic’s and Omnicom’s annual reports for 2020, to discover that the two ad holding companies have cut 10,000 roles over last year’s course of the pandemic.

 

The cost of such exits usually comes under “restructuring,” a handy euphemism.

 

This isn’t surprising (and there may be more to come) but it still comes as a bit of a shock — if that’s not a contradiction in terms. WPP, still to report, employs many more — around 100,000. Or did.

 

It’s not just the pandemic of course. The shift of media expenditure to Google, Facebook and, latterly, Amazon has driven a coach and horses through ad holding companies’ revenues and margins. Yet media buying is still where they make most of their money and most of their people work. Working in an agency of any ilk these days must be akin to lodging on the edge of a cliff.

 

Big ad holding creative agencies are, if anything, in an even worse state. WPP CEO Mark Read, who said recently that none of his big agencies had grown for five years, has sought to remedy this by merging them — Y&R with VML, JWT with Wunderman, Grey with AKQA — with the former digital elements firmly in the driving seat.

 

Clients are in-housing or demanding more for less — or both. Creative advertising has lost ground to ‘content,’ as former WPP CEO (and founder) Sir Martin Sorrell has realised with MediaMonks as the foundation of his new S4 Capital empire.

 

So is it all doom and gloom? Mostly. The latest wave of creative agencies may remind clients that to cut through you need more than technique. Facebook and Google may be reined in (don’t bank on it) but automation is certain to remain the driver of the media market with lots of small ads on zillions of websites (some of whom may even exist.)

 

The pandemic just made things happen sooner — and not in a good way.