Campaign published a perspective on WPP hiring McKinsey to handle the strategic review WPP CEO Cindy Rose announced would happen when she took the top job in September.
It’s not the first time a White advertising enterprise has enlisted consultants to survey the situation and propose plans for progress.
Yet, what’s the point? Adland firms have historically done a lousy job of self-promotion. The branding experts don’t know how to brand themselves.
A reputation was earned—and new business acquired—based on the produced work.
And that’s the challenge facing every place associated with a holding company today.
WPP is a key contributor to the commoditization of the global industry, whereby talent, services, and practices became generic, interchangeable, and replaceable.
No White holding company or White advertising agency presents essential, original, or unique offerings.
Anything McKinsey might contend to the contrary qualifies as old-school hucksterism.
That Rose doesn’t already realize this speaks volumes about her true qualifications.
WPP’s McKinsey moment might be its smartest decision in a decade
While
critics mock WPP for outsourcing its own transformation, marketing advisor Ivan
Fernandes argues it reframes the narrative from a company ‘lost in
transformation’ to openly rebuilding in full public view.
By Ivan Fernandes
When WPP confirmed it had hired McKinsey to advise on its next phase of transformation, the reaction was predictable.
Inside the industry, the move raised eyebrows. Outside it, people rolled them. “One of the world’s biggest marketing groups needs consultants to tell it how to market itself?”
The irony is irresistible, but the cynicism misses the point.
I don’t view WPP’s decision to bring in McKinsey as an act of desperation, but that of self-awareness. In a business that still treats vulnerability as weakness, that might be the boldest move the company has made in years.
For more than a decade, WPP’s story has been one of constant reinvention. It built the playbook on “integration” long before the word became fashionable, where it restructured and rebranded, often simultaneously. Yet, despite the effort, the narrative hasn’t kept up with the market. The holding company model built on acquisition and aggregation was designed for a pre-platform world, and now it's fighting to operate in one where clients move faster, margins are thinner, and differentiation is harder to see.
Transformation fatigue has set in and that's the simple truth. Rather than launching another internal programme of change, it has done the smarter thing of admitting that internal fixes are no longer enough. In my view, that’s maturity.
Choosing McKinsey was deliberate. The consultancy doesn’t do storytelling or slogans but deals in systems, processes and frameworks, and the kind that can bring order to sprawling and complex organisations. For WPP, that’s where the real work needs to happen. Not in creative output, but in how WPP runs.
And this move will signal to investors that WPP is serious about operational discipline and tell clients that the company recognises efficiency and integration are competitive necessities. It tells employees that leadership is ready to bring in external accountability, not just internal optimism.
It’s a clever, subtle and crucial way of reframing the narrative from ‘WPP is lost’ to ‘WPP is rebuilding.’
McKinsey wins time and credibility
Cindy Rose, who became CEO this year, faces the same structural pressures her predecessors did, such as shrinking margins and restless shareholders. She also needs to tackle growing competition from consultancies and PE-backed agency networks, in addition to collectives and independents.
Bringing in McKinsey buys her the one commodity she doesn’t have: time.
McKinsey’s methodology (diagnose, recommend and reform) will create a rhythm that calms markets where investors see activity, employees see a plan, and clients see leadership willing to evolve.
For me, what stands out is the announcement itself. Many companies would have buried this partnership under corporate euphemisms like ‘operational realignment,’ but WPP didn’t. And that transparency will also signal confidence. It suggests a leadership team willing to confront challenges in public, rather than hide them behind management language. And the ad industry is built on perception, so this openness can only add to their advantage.
Of course, McKinsey is only the start. The well-crafted McKinsey slides will not fix companies, and the real test will be execution. Everyone knows what the recommendations will say: simplify the structure, empower local teams, strengthen data and technology infrastructure, and align incentives to growth. The difference lies in whether WPP can make those recommendations stick.
If it can do that, this moment won’t be remembered as an outsourcing strategy, and it’ll be remembered as reclaiming direction.
WPP’s decision is bigger than one company. It mirrors where the entire industry stands. Every holding company faces the same tension between legacy and reinvention.
Every network is wrestling with structures that no longer align with how clients buy services or value creativity.
By publicly admitting that it needs outside help, WPP has done something rare: it’s told the truth. And in doing so, it’s permitted the rest of the industry to confront its own reality that the old model isn’t broken because of a lack of ideas but structural clarity.
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