17465: Help Wanted At WPP…?

 

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.

17464: The Real WPP Story—From An Unreal Perspective.

 

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.

17463: Coke Adds Life—But Not For WPP.

 

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.

17462: On Cinco De Mayo In Adland.

 

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.

17461: OmnicoMusical Chairs.

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. 

17460: Introducing New & Improvised WPP Commerce.

 

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.

17459: WPP = Worldwide Problems Proliferating.

 

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.

 

17458: On Brand Investment, Interest, And Indifference For Black Consumers.

 

MediaPost published an almost stereotypical perspective on connecting with Black consumers.

 

From emphasizing Blacks shape culture to insisting Black audiences are swayed by authentic and accurate representation in advertising, the op-ed offers nothing new. The exposition mimics pitch decks of every past and present Black advertising agency.

 

The author delivers the standard declaration: “Brands that invest in authentic cultural representation have a larger, more responsive audience ready to engage and convert.”

 

Okay, except history has shown brand investment rarely exceeds crumbs—and brand interest is even crumbier. Indeed, the current anti-DEIBA+ vibe in Adland fuels brand indifference.

 

Cultural Trust As Currency: Why Black Consumers Shift Spending Due To Brand Values

 

By Charlene Polite Corley

 

Black consumers continue to shape culture that captures attention, but tokenism alone is not enough to earn loyalty. Increasingly, Black consumers are making intentional decisions about where they spend their money, and those decisions are directly tied to whether a brand demonstrates real cultural understanding and alignment. In times of economic uncertainty, that bar is only getting higher.

 

The data makes the stakes even clearer. According to Nielsen’s 2025 Attitudes on Representation Study, over half of Black consumers say a brand’s stance on social issues is a major factor in their purchasing decisions, and 70% say they will stop buying from brands perceived as devaluing their community, up from 66% in 2023. That upward trend signals that Black consumer expectations are growing, and brands that are not keeping up the pace are actively losing ground.

 

What drives this shift is visibility and relevance in practice. Black audiences are more than twice as likely to rank authentic and accurate representation of their race or ethnicity as the strongest motivation to engage with new content compared to respondents overall. Additionally, 67% of Black consumers say they pay more attention to brands that reflect their culture, compared to 46% overall.

 

For marketers, this gap represents both a risk and a clear opportunity. Brands that invest in authentic cultural representation have a larger, more responsive audience ready to engage and convert.

 

Where and how brands show up matters significantly. Fifty-six percent of Black consumers prefer to buy based on ads that appear in culturally relevant content, compared to 35% overall. This is not a preference to ignore. It means that media placement is a value signal, not solely a targeting decision. Showing up in the right cultural contexts communicates that a brand understands and respects the audience it is trying to reach.

 

Earning attention from Black consumers requires cultural fluency built over time, through community partnerships, creator collaborations and storytelling that reflects the full range of Black experiences. For example, Black suburban consumers are among the most likely to agree that a brand’s stance on social issues influences their purchasing decisions, at 59%, compared to 51% of the suburban total, according to Nielsen’s 2025 Advanced Audience Attitudes Study. Strategies that treat Black audiences as monolithic will miss this nuance entirely.

 

Ultimately, brands that earn lasting loyalty are the ones that approach cultural understanding as an ongoing commitment—and a competitive advantage. Black consumers watch to see how brands show up consistently, how they listen and how they invest the time to understand the communities they are trying to reach. When consumers feel genuinely seen, they respond with loyalty and advocacy. When they feel like an afterthought, they spend elsewhere.

 

In today’s marketplace, cultural trust is a business metric, and it is one that Black consumers are actively scoring every day.

17457: On The Fabrication Of Lola USA.

 

MediaPost reported Omnicom executed another erasure-mashup involving two White advertising agencies—180 US and adam&eveDDB NY—to launch Lola USA.

 

The Lola agency brand was already established globally, with Lola Madrid and Lola\TBWA in Brazil.

 

The Lola name derived from combining the Lo from Frank Lowe of Lowe & Partners and the La in Latino. Lowe & Partners was a White advertising agency that IPG merged with Mullen Advertising in 2015 to create MullenLowe—which was ultimately erased and absorbed by TBWA after Omnicom acquired IPG last year. Oh, and IPG is gone too.

 

Pity the drones who shuffle through constant merging, erasing, restructuring, redundancies, and RIFs—including endless revisions to org charts, business cards, email footers, and LinkedIn profiles.

 

An executive at the new Lola USA declared, “We’re unashamedly ambitious. From top to bottom, there’s something beautifully irrational about how driven this team is to solve hard problems for our clients. We’re hungry. We’re obsessed. And we won’t rest until our friends jealously text us about what we’ve created.”

 

But first, the team must figure out who, what, when, where, why, and how they are.

 

Lola USA Debuts, Combines 180 US And Adam&EveDDB New York

 

By Fern Siegel

 

Lola USA has debuted, combining 180 US and adam&eveDDB New York into a micro-network within Omnicom. Lola Madrid and Lola\TBWA in Brazil are also part of the company.

 

The new agency is led by CEO Agathe Guerrier and CCO JD Jurentkuff. Lola USA reports 50% of the agency is dedicated to creative roles.

 

“Many marketers are feeling the squeeze, with shrinking ambition driven by tighter budgets and uncertainty,” said Guerrier, the former 180 US CEO. “We’re here to position a new type of agency. One that combines the artisanal culture of an independent, with the depth of technology and connected capabilities only Omnicom can provide. An agency reimagined for the future, with consultative acumen and cultural edge.”

 

Clients include Porsche, adidas, Molson Coors, JetBlue and Disney. First work is expected in the coming months.

 

The agency specializes in brand and marketing strategy, creative campaigns, brand design, and social and editorial storytelling, supported by Omnicom’s AI capabilities.

 

“We’re unashamedly ambitious,” added Jurentkuff, a former 180 US TBWA\Worldwide and Apple agency executive. “From top to bottom, there’s something beautifully irrational about how driven this team is to solve hard problems for our clients. We’re hungry. We’re obsessed. And we won’t rest until our friends jealously text us about what we’ve created.”

 

Additional staff includes Kimmy Harvey as head of creative operations, with Mike Bokman and Jason Ashlock as ECDs. Mitch Horton leads as head of design. On the business side, Elliott Bastien is head of strategy, Laura Cona is Chief Growth Officer, Devon Hay is managing director, Caroline Jackson is Chief Client Officer and Margaret Coleman is head of account management.