A campaign celebrating America’s 250th anniversary includes the depicted promotion spotlighting Edward Rutledge, the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence.
The headline asks, “What Were You Doing When You Were 26?”
Um, not owning a plantation with slaves and likely engaging in the inhuman violations associated with such privileges.
MediaPost reported on the creation of WPP Brand & Design, yet another unit within the single White operating company.
So much for the goal of simplifying the flaming dumpster.
According to MediaPost, WPP Brand & Design will be run by White women, which might have been touted as a DEIBA+ victory a few years ago.
In today’s Adland, such performative PR no longer exists—although the WPP appointments underscore how White women continue to do waaaaay better than people of color in the global field.
WPP Brand & Design Appoints 2 To New Leadership Posts
By Fern Siegel
WPP Brand & Design, led by Global CEO Jane Geraghty, has appointed two executives to new global roles.
The WPP Brand & Design collective brings together growing specialist capabilities across leading brands, including Landor, Design Bridge and Partners, amp, ManvsMachine, Coley Porter Bell, BDG, CBA Design, and DeepLocal.
The new structure is designed to improve client experience and speed of impact. The appointments are:
Emma Beckmann, formerly Global Chief Growth Officer at Landor, has been appointed Global Chief Growth Officer, WPP Brand & Design. Beckmann said the new template “allows us to move more fluidly across capabilities and markets — connecting the right thinking around the client’s problem, rather than asking clients to navigate our structure.”
Ann Higgins spent over two decades at Ogilvy, most recently leading its consulting business in EMEA. She joins as Global Chief Client Officer, WPP Brand & Design & Design Bridge and Partners. “In today’s era of the algorithm, brands need to be optimized for machines, strategically positioned in fast-changing markets, and crafted for human connection to capture growth,” she said.
“Brand is moving back to the center of business strategy and branding is a top priority for major clients,” added Geraghty. “Our evolved WPP Brand & Design structure strikes a critical balance: the integration of common data, technology and consulting to intelligently scale the business of branding, enabling us to predict financial outcomes of brand decisions. At the same time, championing specialist design craft, delivering bespoke solutions that deeply connect with human emotion.”
Both London-based hires report to Geraghty.
Adweek reported WPP shareholders approved the pay plan whereby CEO Cindy Rose could collect up to $19.1 million, a figure that differs depending on which source is referenced—The Times or Financial Times.
Regardless, shareholders voted in favor despite rejection recommendations from two shareholder proxy advisory groups.
As it is, Rose faces a daunting task to meet the bonus incentive requirements, which include raising the single White operating company’s share price by 50 percent.
If successful, Rose should be voted Adland Magician of the Year. Or Messiah of the Millennium.
WPP Shareholders Approve CEO Cindy Rose’s Potential $14.8M Pay Package
The package significantly exceeds predecessor Mark Read’s salary and bonus compensation
By Rebecca Stewart
WPP shareholders have approved a proposal to pay CEO Cindy Rose a maximum of $14.8 million (£11.1 million) a year.
The pay package sets Rose’s base salary at $1.7 million (£1.25 million) with total compensation rising substantially if short- and long-term bonuses are paid in full.
This marks a significant increase on the maximum $10.8 million (£8.6 million) payout earmarked for Rose’s predecessor, Mark Read, before his exit in September 2025.
The vote took place during WPP’s annual general meeting, hosted in London. 75% of shareholders voted in favor of changes to the company’s executive director pay structure.
Read the full Adweek report here.
This Adweak post is hilarious—albeit probably unintentionally—for the depiction of an Agency Management Team.
One White guy accompanied by Blacks and Asian Americans?
The revision below would’ve been more accurate—and funnier too.
Here’s more evidence WPP restructuring lacks strategic and intentional execution—rather, it’s a flaming dumpster.
For starters, the single White operating company recently launched WPP Commerce, stating the integrated unit was designed to collaborate across WPP’s four main parts: WPP Media, WPP Creative, WPP Enterprise Solutions, and WPP Production.
Okay, except VML—which was recently folded under the WPP Creative banner—still offers commerce capabilities. In fact, the White advertising agency just posted the job listing depicted above for a Creative Director (Commerce).
WPP CEO Cindy Rose claims the company is embracing simplicity—with ambitions of being a trusted growth partner for clients in the era of AI.
Somebody should explain to Rose that trust comes from consistency, integrity, empathetic caring, and transparency. Internally and externally.
It’s that simple.
Adweek published a perspective from its resident marketing professor-fractional consultant-uninformed analyst—who, incidentally, seems open to selling his columns to any trade journal or business publication seeking pseudo thought leader content—speculating on the WPP never-ending story.
There’s even a disclosure-disclaimer indicating his wannabe MasterClass services are available—probably at subscription rates—to White advertising agencies.
The author declares the real WPP story is not about revenue decline; rather, it’s margin.
In recent months, WPP presumably won and retained business via low-balling tactics, but will clients eventually cough up mo’ money and pay standard costs?
Surely Eviscerate28 does not intend to position WPP as the bargain basement brand among competitive holding companies.
Yet the author—having zero real-life experience in Adland—appears to miss the true plot.
It’s not whether clients will pay more—indeed, it’s will clients pay at all?
As previously mentioned, WPP has led the commoditization of Adland.
Now, the single White operating company has nothing unique to provide—at any price tag.
The only people profiting from WPP are Monday morning marketing quarterbacks. And the most annoying are those who’ve never played in the ad game.
The Real WPP Story Is in the Margin, Not the Revenue
Despite promising around $675 million in savings, the only question that matters is whether clients will pay more
By Mark Ritson
Disclosure: Mark Ritson’s MiniMBA course has been offered to Omnicom Oceania staff. Omnicom is a competitor to WPP.
When WPP posted its first-quarter numbers last week, one line did all the talking. Net revenue down 6.7% like-for-like. Its key unit WPP Media is down 8.5%.
The company described this performance, with commendable composure, “ahead of expectations.” Which tells you everything about the expectations now governing the big end of advertising.
The more instructive story isn’t the revenue decline. It’s margin.
WPP’s full-year 2025 headline operating margin came in at 13%, down from 15% in 2024.
Two hundred basis points in 12 months—the kind of compression you associate with recessions or category collapse, not with a company that has a turnaround strategy in-market.
The Elevate28 strategy, unveiled in February, promises around $675 million in gross annual savings by 2028 at a cash cost of around $540 million to deliver. CFO Joanne Wilson told analysts that staff bonuses suppressed in 2025 will need to be rebuilt through 2026. That cuts both ways: employees get paid properly again, but the lever WPP used to protect margin last year is now spent.
On the Q1 call, Adrien de Saint Hilaire of Bank of America asked the question every CMO should be asking. Revenue with WPP’s top 25 clients was down low single digits even excluding losses.
What drove the decline? Reduced scope of work, fee pressure, or outright budget cuts?
The answer determines whether WPP has a cyclical problem or a structural one
Scope reductions are cyclical: clients buying less of the same thing. Budget cuts are cyclical: economies contract, marketing contracts with them.
Fee pressure is structural: clients paying less for the same thing. That is a different animal entirely. It doesn’t respond to patience or strategy decks.
The answer, given on the Q4 2025 call, from Cindy Rose herself, confirmed it was all three—and that WPP anticipates “some downward pricing pressure from AI productivity,” which it plans to offset through cross-selling and capturing more of clients’ addressable spend. Translation: fees are falling, and the plan is to win volume elsewhere in the client’s wallet to compensate.
The numbers make the case plainly. On a like-for-like basis, gross revenue declined 4.0%, while net revenue declined 6.7%.
Pass-through costs—the media and production money flowing through WPP’s books to third parties—are holding up better than the agency-fee line. Clients are still spending. WPP is just earning less per dollar of that spend.
WPP is winning business too: the U.K. government media account, Reckitt, Estee Lauder, Jaguar. Revenue is still falling. Winning accounts while revenue drops is the diagnostic signature of a business defending share by cutting price. Every account won on tighter terms resets the floor for the next pitch.
Volume losses are real. Wilson flagged a 500 to 600 basis-point drag from gross client losses in 2026, up from 300 to 400 last year. Major U.S. and U.K. accounts walked. CPG and telecom, media, and entertainment spend is genuinely weaker.
Fee pressure and volume loss are not separate stories
They are the same story told twice. Clients negotiate harder on price, and walk when WPP won’t move, for the same reason: the holding company proposition has lost its differentiation.
Accenture Song owns the top of the funnel with strategy and tech. In-housing has gutted the middle, capturing retainer budgets clients once handed over without a second thought. Meta will take the rest. AI is eating production and media planning from below. WPP, like every big agency peer, faces a decade of simultaneous price and volume compression because it is no longer the default answer to a question only it can answer.
Elevate28’s $675 million in savings is a margin-defense operation—buying time while structural pricing erodes the top line. It can absorb a year or two of compression. It cannot solve what is causing it.
The harder task, the one WPP’s leadership avoided for a decade, is rebuilding a reason for clients to pay full price. WPP Open and the Adobe partnership are moves in that direction. Whether they produce a defensible category-of-one position, or simply make the cost reduction on commodity work cheaper to execute, is the question the market is now asking every holding company. Quarter by quarter. Pitch by pitch. Margin point by margin point.
More About Advertising reported WPP received an early lump of coal in its Christmas stocking.
Studio.One—launched by the former founder of AKQA and longtime WPP executive via acquisition—snagged the Coca-Cola 2026 Christmas campaign assignment from the single White operating company.
In mid-2025, WPP Open X—the bespoke Coca-Cola unit—saw its CEO bail out for Publicis Groupe, the White holding company that earlier had yanked Coke’s media business from WPP.
WPP executives probably feel driven to drink.
Ajaz Ahmed’s Studio.One snatches Coca-Cola Christmas from WPP
By Stephen Foster
Revenge is sweet they say, some add that it’s best eaten cold. Ajaz Ahmed’s new outfit Studio.One has reportedly pipped WPP’s Open X to Coca-Cola’s prized 2026 Christmas campaign despite Open X supposedly enjoying possession of the entire Coke business (except media, of which more later.)
Ahmed (above) was the founder of AKQA, the digital agency that more or less rewrote the rule book for highly creative digital and which enjoyed a long and profitable relationship with WPP in the Sir Martin Sorrell era after he bought it for £300m. Things didn’t go so well when Mark Read took over, reaching crisis point when he merged AKQA with Grey, a truly bizarre shotgun marriage amid a series of them. Ahmed left among with a number of key executives although AKQA continues.
Bespoke agencies with supposedly exclusive relationships with big clients are catnip for some holding companies but tend not to last. WPP has had a succession of them over the years. Coke, to be charitable, seems to have deliberately built some elasticity into Open X but when you then award North American media to Publicis (as it has) and the Christmas campaign to what is in effect a breakaway then the elastic is being stretched a pretty long way. Just last week WPP’s Ogilvy announced that it had won Diet Coke in a pitch against Uncommon and Mother. No mean feat but should you need to jump through these hoops in such a client/agency relationship?
As for Ahmed and Studio.One one of the marketing world’s most successful and truly creative entrepreneurs is off and running.
Many White advertising agencies likely celebrated Cinco de Mayo in stereotypical fashion, with employees donning sombreros, dancing to mariachi music, and drinking margaritas.
Indeed, more time, intent, and resources were probably allocated for partying versus participating in multicultural marketing—or pursuing DEIBA+ initiatives and/or inclusive hiring practices.
Expect the systemic racism to formally resume on May 6.
MediaPost reported on more musical chairs at Omnicom, with a CEO departure activating a dominoes effect of succession for White executives.
So, now Omnicom is reeling with restructuring, redundancies, RIFs, resignations, and reassignments—creating an R-rated experience for worker drones.
Rising Omnicom Star Painter Out: Gambino, McCord Succeed Omni, Commerce Respectively
By Joe Mandese
Omnicom this morning announced long-time Flywheel Digital executive Christine Gambino has been named CEO of its homegrown artificial intelligence (AI) platform Omni, succeeding Duncan Painter, who is leaving Omnicom.
In a related move, Omnicom said long-time Flywheel CEO Alex McCord will now lead Omnicom Commerce, a unit that previously reported to Painter.
Gambino, who joined Omnicom when it acquired Flywheel from Ascential PLC for $825 million in January 2024, has been serving as COO of Omni since October 2025.
McCord had been with Flywheel since 2016, when he joined from related company Compass Marketing Inc.
Painter, who had been a rising star inside Omnicom since he joined after serving as CEO of Ascential and negotiating the sale of Flywheel to Omnicom, has focused on integrating Omnicom’s commerce, retail media, and proprietary data companies -- including Flywheel and more recently, Acxiom (acquired as part of Omnicom’s purchase of Interpublic) had been seen by some as being a potential successor to Omnicom CEO John Wren.
In recent months, Omnicom executives have touted the company’s proprietary data companies as contributing to Omni’s competitive advantage vs. competing holding companies.
“I’m proud of how swiftly we launched the next generation of Omni following the Interpublic acquisition, establishing it as a unified asset for the combined group,” Painter said in a statement adding, that he has “complete confidence” in Gambino and McCord “as I move into my next chapter in the U.K., where I’ll be closer to my family.”
Omni and Flywheel will continue to operate as a core part of Omnicom’s Integrated Media capabilities.
Adweek spotlighted the launch of WPP Commerce, an integrated team that will collaborate across the single White operating company’s four outhouses: WPP Media, WPP Creative, WPP Enterprise Solutions, and WPP Production.
The trade journal reported, “The creation of WPP Commerce is the first step in the holding company’s two-year turnaround plan”—aka Eviscerate28. Adweek apparently forgot the news it recently published stating WPP is no longer a holding company.
Whatever. It means drones handling commerce-related duties (e.g., shopper marketing and display design) won’t find themselves pruned like PR practitioners or others that don’t fit in the publicly undisclosed WPP strategic vision—pending identifying redundancies and restructuring RIFs.
WPP Commerce will be led by a White man who formerly ran a forgettable White retail marketing agency in the WPP network.
This poses the £14.2 million question for WPP CEO Cindy Rose: Does WPP Commerce—along with WPP Media, WPP Creative, WPP Enterprise Solutions, and WPP Production—offer distinct and better services versus competitive holding companies?
Sorry, but WPP Commerce is just another generic choice on a cluttered corporate commerce shelf.
Financial Times reported WPP CEO Cindy Rose might not earn up to £14.2 million (roughly $19.1 million USD) as previously reported by The Times, pending an investors vote scheduled to happen this week. Financial Times, incidentally, indicated the potential payout could reach £11 million versus The Times’ £14.2 million figure.
Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis—two prominent shareholder proxy advisory groups—recommended that investors vote against the proposed pay deal.
The ISS rejection recommendation stated the payment scheme “is considered out of proportion to the company’s market positioning and its financial performance,” and there is “no sufficient justification to set her total pay package at a premium to her predecessor.”
While former WPP CEO Mark Read’s 2024 salary was capped at £8.6 million, former WPP Overlord Sir Martin Sorrell once pocketed almost £30 million—so it’s tough to dispute or agree with the ISS position.
Glass Lewis stated investors should oppose pay proposals given “the significant salary on appointment for the CEO, the discrepancy between financial and non-financial metric outcomes under the annual bonus, and the lack of disclosure surrounding the decision to grant [long-term investment plan] awards at maximum level despite a significant fall in share price.”
Regarding the Rose pay package, WPP claimed it had “undertaken extensive consultation with our shareholders on the proposed changes to our remuneration policy, with strong support indicated from the vast majority.” Plus, the single White operating company stated the changes were “essential to align us with global peers, restore growth, and position WPP as a company fit for the future and built to win.”
The entire mess underscores three key points:
1. Rose should attend all earning calls, seizing such opportunities to justify her salary—whatever the actual amount might be.
2. Given the fuzzy pay figures, confusion surrounding organizational restructuring, and overall lack of transparency, WPP should consider keeping Burson, as there is great need for professional PR to hype the company’s progress.
3. WPP is a flaming dumpster.
