17571: More Whistling On WPP Whistleblower Lawsuit.

 

Mediapost also reported on a new filing in the WPP whistleblower lawsuit.

The Mediapost report includes a standard vehement denial from WPP that states: “This amended complaint, filed just prior to the hearing, is an attempt to avoid its dismissal. Both complaints are baseless and without merit, and WPP will be re-filing an updated motion to dismiss. We have confidence that this matter will be resolved through due legal process.”

Can’t help but wonder how the outcome might impact Eviscerate 28. The Roserrection continues to constantly evolve—maybe WPP should be renamed WIP (Worsening In Progress).

WPP Whistleblower Amends Complaint, Says Sony Probe Backs His Claims

By Steve McClellan

Last November former GroupM executive Richard Foster filed suit against the company, alleging he had been wrongfully terminated for exposing what he said was an unlawful rebate scheme whereby the company was secretly pocketing millions in rebates that belonged to clients.  

Now Foster has filed an amended complaint that details a separate investigation by one of those clients—Sony Pictures. According to Foster that probe found that in 2023 in China and likely elsewhere, GroupM (now known as WPP Media) illicitly pocketed rebates belonging to clients. In the case of China, approximately $110 million was passed to the Clients, while $350 million was wrongfully retained by WPP.  

That probe followed an investigation by Chinese authorities that began in 2023 that alleged “rebate mismanagement” by several GroupM China employees.  

That Chinese government probe culminated last month when Di Fei, the former chief investment officer at the China operations of WPP Media received a life sentence after being convicted earlier this year for his part in a bribery/kickback scandal stemming from that probe. Several other employees were also convicted and received lighter sentences. Fei is said to be appealing and WPP stressed that the company itself was not a party to the investigation and had cooperated fully throughout it. 

The separate probe by Sony as detailed in the amended Foster complaint alleges that the rebates pocketed by WPP were hidden as part of an elaborate scheme that mixed principal trading funds with a rebate pool which were then sold back to clients.   

“Sony representatives identified Proprietary Media (referred to as “PM/Programmatic”) as a primary mechanism for Rebate distribution, wherein the purported ‘discount’ WPP offers Clients on Inventory is manipulated: WPP pays a fraction of the out-of-pocket cost to acquire the Inventory, subsidizes the remaining balance using funds from the Rebate pool, and pockets the resulting margin as near pure profit shielded from audits,” states Foster’s amended complaint.  

The complaint adds, “Although deployed in China, the scheme proliferated across other markets, serving as a lever to artificially inflate earnings at WPP.” 

According to Foster, “Sony supported its findings with contractual language regarding Rebate policies, transaction-level financial reporting, internal emails regarding Rebate amounts, and documentation of WPP tracking systems. This evidence demonstrates how WPP was able to retain the Rebate pool funds and distribute to WPP through these various mechanisms.”  

Foster’s complaint also asserts that “When Sony presented evidence that the 80% discounts offered on media are funded with the money from unpublished, ‘black box’ Rebates, the WPP representatives said they had no answer to give them, because they did not want to ‘know the answer.’”

The complaint alleges that executives within the company agreed with Foster that GroupM/WPP Media’s rebate policies were in some cases illegal and unsustainable. Those executives, per the complaint included Nicola McCormick, general counsel at WPP who previously was general counsel at GroupM. “When Foster asked McCormick directly about the risk posed by GroupM Trading’s Rebate practices, she characterized it as ‘existential,’ Foster’s amended complaint states.  

The amended complaint in New York State Supreme Court, comes shortly before a hearing is scheduled on WPP's motion to dismiss the case. Foster is seeking $100 million in damages.  

A WPP spokesperson issued a statement: “This amended complaint, filed just prior to the hearing, is an attempt to avoid its dismissal. Both complaints are baseless and without merit, and WPP will be re-filing an updated motion to dismiss. We have confidence that this matter will be resolved through due legal process.”

17565: On Outcome-Based Remuneration Regurgitation Rhetoric.

 

Digiday reported WPP CEO Cindy Rose said, “I suspect it will take a few years” for outcome-based remuneration to take hold in Adland.

Um, it’s not the first time White advertising agencies pressed to have compensation tied to results and revenue enjoyed by brands via marketing initiatives.

Based on historical data, it will take much more than a few years. Outcome-based payment is an outdated proposition, with failed attempts dating back to the 1990s.

White holding companies—including a single White operating company—fueled the commoditization of Adland. Adding an intent to leverage AI for offering faster and cheaper services makes pursuing outcome-based remuneration outrageous.

Hell, it’s a safer bet Rose will be out long before outcome-based remuneration becomes reality—especially if her employment is based on outcomes achieved at WPP.

‘It will take a few years’: WPP CEO Cindy Rose says outcome-based pay is still years away

By Sam Bradley

 

Loud as the chatter about outcome-based remuneration is across the holdco space, the reality of it is still some way off, according to one of its most vocal proponents, WPP CEO Cindy Rose.

 

It’s a notable admission given Rose has made outcome-based pay a core pillar of WPP’s turnaround plan, overhauling how global client leaders — the senior execs running the biggest accounts — get paid, tying it directly to client growth. Getting clients to pay the same way is another matter. So far, only one has: Jaguar Land Rover.

“If you look at the history of this industry, the commercial model has been evolving for the past 40 years, and I think we’re going to have to continue to adapt because the time and materials model is probably not sustainable in the long term because AI ultimately will enable us to do our work faster with fewer people,” Rose told Digiday today (August 6) as the agency giant published its first-half earnings report.

She added, however, that Jaguar was so far “unique” in embracing the approach. “It’s going to take time for this evolution to take place… I suspect it will take a few years,” she said.

WPP’s recovery, too, remains a work in progress. Eleven months into Rose’s tenure and six months after she unveiled her turnaround plan, there are early signs from its latest earnings update that the group’s core media and creative businesses are stabilizing. To keep the momentum going, Rose said WPP would embrace a “mixed economy of business models.”

WPP’s first half

H1 revenues less pass-through costs were £5 billion ($6.7 billion), down 4.7% from the same period last year. Its creative businesses, including VML and Ogilvy, saw a 3.5% decline in revenue less pass-through costs, though its production unit saw revenue increase 1.9%. WPP Media saw revenues fall 5.4% compared with the same period last year, but Rose said higher spending from new and existing clients had contributed to an “improving quarterly trend” within the network.

Rose, who was appointed CEO last September, said the business was on track to recovery according to key indicators: new business, client retention, tech partnerships and cost cutting. Evidence for the former, she said, was in the wins for Heineken and Honda’s accounts, and retentions such as Huawei and Reckitt.

“My priority, my north star, is to get WPP back to positive organic growth,” she told analysts during the company’s earnings call. “The priority in 2026 has been to stabilize the business, make the structural changes needed, and strengthen our execution. The next phase is to build on these foundations, returning the company to growth sometime during 2027.”

The market appears to agree with Rose’s diagnosis. WPP’s share price had risen 25% following the earnings release at the time of writing.

AI plans

The company’s turnaround plan is closely tied to its AI investment and development plans. CFO Joanne Wilson declined to provide details on WPP’s token costs (the firm committed in 2024 to invest £300 million annually), but said its Open platform was a key tool for “optimizing” AI-related costs.

“We are using AI and applying it across our business. So, as you would expect, with that comes token costs… we’re actively optimizing that cost. We’ve also been very thoughtful about how we use agents across the business,” she said.

“Open is widely deployed across our business now, and our clients. We use [Open Intelligence, WPP’s AI media targeting solution] in all of our pitches. It’s absolutely front and center of our proposition,” added Wilson. 

Wilson suggested that outcome-based commercial models might provide a means for WPP to operate without absorbing all AI-related costs. “In the past, our business and values really come almost entirely from people, now it’s people and tech costs. We’re evolving our commercial model so that we’re reflecting those inputs between people and tech,” she said.

What role WPP Open Pro, the self-service SME creative tool launched last autumn, will play in the holding company’s commercial model is less clear. Rose said 24 clients were now using the tool. “We’ve got a very healthy pipeline of active client opportunities, and we’re encouraged by the progress there too,” she said.

Token costs, outcome-based models and organic growth expectations weren’t the only subplots updated this morning:

WPP’s open to offers

By the end of this year, WPP will have clawed back £200 million ($269 million) through sales of “non-core” business units, to use Rose’s terminology, and what CFO Wilson referred to as the “long tail” of agencies, during the company’s investor call. It’s quite a turnaround for a company once defined by its aggressive approach to agency acquisition.

“We identified assets in the group which are great assets, but we felt that they were of more value to the outside of the group than inside. We have initiated processes on those assets earlier in the year, and those processes are ongoing,” said Wilson, who didn’t name the agencies in question. “I would expect some more in 2027.”

Staff cuts will continue

WPP isn’t the only major agency group shedding staff at the moment, but it’s shrunk its headcount by around 8.1% in the past year. The company now employs 97,400 staffers, versus 105,900 during the first half of 2025. Though most of those job cuts fell in the second half of 2025 Rose indicated this was an ongoing project, telling reporters that “some jobs will be impacted” as the company pursues £500 million ($673 million) in cost cuts over three years. “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,” she said.

Those cuts mean that WPP, once the industry’s largest employer, is now smaller by headcount than either Omnicom or Publicis Groupe, which both have over 100,000 employees. Rose argued that embracing alternative commercial models like outcome-based pricing would enable it to compete.

“Moving away from a time-and-materials model,” she said, “frees me up from staffing plans so that I can serve clients with a hybrid workforce of humans and agents, and that reduces my cost to serve, and ultimately becomes a source of expansion.”

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.” 

17537: WPP Reduces Staff, Increases Exclusivity.

 

Advertising Age reported WPP plans to eliminate hundreds more jobs in 2026 as the Roserrection advances.

 

Advertising icon Jay Chiat famously wondered, “How big can we get before we get bad?”

 

As this blog previously opined, WPP answered that question for holding companies decades ago. The global flaming dumpster continued answering the query for White advertising agencies, bundling and erasing iconic firms to create mediocre monstrosities like VML.

 

WPP CEO Cindy Rose now finds herself in the peculiar position of trying to answer, “How small can we get before we get bad?”

 

There’s something counterintuitive about improving WPP by firing thousands.

 

Rose can feel relieved DEIBA+ dedication disappeared before she joined, so Elevate28 need not be concerned with outdated imperatives such as fairness, equality, and justice.

 

Ad Age stated, “Cindy Rose has acknowledged that there will be job cuts and said that savings will come largely from eliminating duplicative finance and HR functions…” Um, Chief Diversity Officers and DEIBA+ teams were typically compartmentalized in the HR department.

 

It appears Elevate28 will elevate exclusivity, underrepresentation, and systemic racism—except for White women—potentially taking the industry back to 1928.

 

WPP plans to cut hundreds more jobs this year as its restructuring continues

 

By Ewan Larkin

 

WPP expects to cut jobs globally in the mid-to-high hundreds between now and the end of the year, according to a person familiar with the matter, as part of the company’s ongoing turnaround strategy.

 

Some employees were informed today of their roles being affected at WPP agencies including VML, though the scope of today’s cuts was not immediately clear. WPP and VML declined to comment for this story. WPP had 98,655 employees at the end of 2025, it previously reported.

 

The layoffs are part of WPP’s broader Elevate28 turnaround plan, under which the company is targeting £500 million ($678 million) in annual cost savings by 2028. CEO Cindy Rose has acknowledged that there will be job cuts and said that savings will come largely from eliminating duplicative finance and HR functions, cutting real estate costs and selling assets. The company has also reorganized into four core units: creative, production, media and enterprise solutions.

 

WPP’s workforce has contracted sharply in recent years. The British holding company ended 2025 with 8.7% fewer employees, accelerating from a 5.4% decline the year before. That left its workforce at the end of last year at about 1,200 employees below its 2020 level, when pandemic-era cuts reduced staffing by about 6.5%.

Contributing: Brian Bonilla and Jess Nagamoto

17529: On Trust, Distrust, And Mistrust At WPP.

More About Advertising spotlighted troubles at WPP Media, including:

 

• The former head of WPP’s media operation in China received a life imprisonment sentence for charges stemming from a $176 million scam—and two others were also hit with stiff sentences.

 

• The former head of a GroupM division in New York City filed a ‘whistleblower’ lawsuit, charging he was fired for raising red flags that WPP’s trading division illegally retained profits that should have been passed back to clients.

 

Additionally, there’s a class-action lawsuit filed by shareholders charging WPP with deceptively sugarcoating profits last year.

 

It all makes for bad optics, especially given the single White operating company is restructuring itself as a media-first enterprise.

 

WPP CEO Cindy Rose declared, “We want to be a trusted growth partner for our clients in the era of AI.”

 

The corporate website proclaims, “WPP Is The Trusted Growth Partner For The World’s Leading Brands.”

 

Okay, except WPP displays internal distrust. Media is globally viewed with suspicion and concern by clients. And Adland practitioners are consistently rated among the least-trusted professionals.

 

Trust is earned. So is distrust and mistrust.

 

WPP’s China crisis – why is the holding company so accident-prone?

 

By Stephen Foster

 

Any business handling millions, sometimes billions, of other people’s money on ultra-tight margins is open to fraud, indeed it may be tempted to try itself.

 

The former boss of WPP’s media operation (GroupM) in China has been sentenced to life imprisonment, accused of masterminding a $176m scam. Two others have also received stiff sentences. The Chinese judicial system is hardly famed for its transparency but WPP has been careful to distance itself from the three employees. Its business in China, hardly a surprise, has been hammered.

 

That isn’t the only cloud on the horizon though. Over in NYC there’s what’s being termed a $100m ‘whistleblower’ lawsuit from Richard Foster, one-time head of GroupM’s Motion Content Group (whatever that was) alleging that WPP fired him for raising concerns that WPP’s trading division used client spending power to secure cash rebates and volume-based discounts from media owners, illegally retaining profits rather than passing them back to clients. Ring a bell?

 

Also in NYC, there’s a class action by angry shareholders claiming the company failed to appraise them fully of the collapse in profits last summer which, ultimately, led to the departure of CEO Mark Read. Making overly-optimistic noises can be costly.

 

Finally (and there may of course be more) WPP is involved in a long-running dispute in Kenya with the founder and former CEO of WPP Scangroup Bharat Thakrar alleging that WPP, among other things, has been using Scangroup money to prop up the holding company, to the detriment of Scangroup. It’s redolent of other far-flung WPP disputes including its agencies in Australia.

 

Now WPP may deal with all these issues and emerge smelling of roses but they surely affect its ability to trade its way out of current problems. They must be especially galling for all those people at Ogilvy and VML who have just notched up a stellar Cannes Lions, seemingly doing a great job for their clients despite all the noise (and worse) around them.

 

WPP’s biggest problem – in a competitive field – is debt, around £3bn against a total company value of £2.64bn. New CEO Cindy Rose’s first job is to reverse these positions. But it’s hard to see what else she can sell to do it. It’s already sold out of research (Kantar) and PR (FGS Global) without making much of a dent in the debt. That in itself is something of a puzzle.

 

Then there’s what we might politely called proprietary media trading (or broking), the smokey activity behind many of the above issues, including China where media deals seem to have been carved up in a Shanghai poker game. Almost certainly more such cases will emerge, partly because no-one seems to know whether it’s legal or not. The US courts may help us out.

 

This Cannes Lions should be a turning point for WPP. But there’s still a lot of old baggage lurking in the undergrowth.

17524: All Day I Dream About Sacks.

MediaPost reported Omnicom won the estimated $560 million global media account for adidas, beating Publicis Groupe and incumbent WPP in a competitive shootout.

 

WPP CEO Cindy Rose should probably start looking for some running shoes. Ditto lots of WPP Media drones soon to be sacked.

 

Omnicom Wins $560 Million Adidas Media

 

By Steve McClellan

 

Last week Omnicom left Cannes with a total of 160 Lions. This week it collected an arguably more lucrative prize: the global media account for German athletic footwear and apparel giant adidas, sources confirm.  

 

Omnicom Media Group agency PHD will lead the account. 

 

Adidas’s annual media expenditures are estimated at $560 million by agency research firm COMvergence. 

 

For the last eight years adidas has worked with WPP agencies. Mediacom won the account in 2018 after a global consolidation review.  

 

WPP and Publicis are said to have pitched for the adidas business. 

 

Neither adidas nor Omnicom representatives returned queries seeking comment before this posting. 

17522: WPP CEO Delivers Award-Winning BS.

 

More About Advertising spotlighted WPP at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, reporting VML and Ogilvy—White advertising agencies within the global flaming dumpster—scored significant recognition and trophies.

 

MAA reckoned WPP would have earned a Creative Company of the Year/Holding Company of the Year threepeat if the dubious award hadn’t been nixed.

 

The hoopla prompted WPP CEO Cindy Rose to uncharacteristically comment on creativity, including the following bullshit:

 

“Creativity is our superpower—it’s what builds brand differentiation and trust for our clients. WPP is home to the world’s most iconic agency brands, and this year at Cannes Lions that showed: two creative networks in the top three, the number one PR agency, the most awarded media group for a second year, and so much exceptional work that came from our creative, media, production, and PR agencies working together.

 

“This is our integrated model in action, delivering growth for clients. I couldn’t be prouder of our talented people across the world, and I want to give a massive thank you to our extraordinary clients who partner with us to deliver brave, ambitious work.”

 

Interesting that Rose gushed about PR, as reports indicate the entire practice might be pruned from the worldwide network.

 

To declare, “WPP is home to the world’s most iconic agency brands…” constitutes propagandistic puffery at its finest. Hell, many of the most iconic agency brands were erased over the years by the White holding company—before it changed to a single White operating company.

 

Finally, to say, “This is our integrated model in action…” is revisionist rhetoric. The awarded work was produced before Rose arrived, far preceding the Roserrection integrated model—which, incidentally, looks like a Hindenburg being built in fire-filled flight.

 

If Cannes presented a Lion for CEO bullshit, Rose would be a serious contender—although she’d have tough competition from all others leading holding companies.

 

It’s WPP top again at Cannes

 

By Stephen Foster

 

Last year WPP won Creative Company of the Year at Cannes Lions – and the organisers promptly retired the award as it seemed to reflect entries as much as anything else and, anyway, the wheels were clearly coming off WPP. It was just about CEO Mark Read’s last public appearance in the role.

 

It [would] have won this year too had there been such an award with Ogilvy winning network of the year with 81 Lions including three Grand Prix. Publicis’ Le Pub was agency of the year, WPP’s VML also scoring strongly while Rethink Toronto was independent agency of the year and Heineken creative brand of brand of the year.

 

Britain’s Mother won the Film grand Prix, still the highlight of the festival for many, for Anthropic’s Claude.

 

Ogilvy CCO Liz Taylor says: “We come to Cannes with one goal in mind: to proudly take the stage each night with our clients and celebrate the power of creativity in every corner of the world. To affirm their belief in ideas to solve any problem, overcome any challenge, and drive the impact they aspire to create.

 

“I am incredibly proud of Ogilvy’s performance this week, but more than anything, I’m proud of how we continue to show up for and with the biggest and boldest brands. To shape culture, inspire communities, reimagine entire categories, and to chart the future that we’re all, always, stepping into.”

 

WPP CEO Cindy Rose says: “Creativity is our superpower – it’s what builds brand differentiation and trust for our clients. WPP is home to the world’s most iconic agency brands, and this year at Cannes Lions that showed: two creative networks in the top three, the number one PR agency, the most awarded media group for a second year, and so much exceptional work that came from our creative, media, production and PR agencies working together.

 

“This is our integrated model in action, delivering growth for clients. I couldn’t be prouder of our talented people across the world, and I want to give a massive thank you to our extraordinary clients who partner with us to deliver brave, ambitious work.”

 

Should have earned a few more years of quasi-independence for the big two creative brands anyway. VML, a mash-up of JWT, Y&R and Wunderman, has done remarkably well.

17519: On WPP Priorities At Cannes And Beyond.

 

Advertising Age reported how WPP CEO Cindy Rose is spending her time at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, prioritizing huddling with clients and investors over public events.

 

This semi-mirrors Rose’s global agenda; that is, she’s primarily focused on clients and shareholders versus employees—a worldwide community Wikipedia currently records as 100,000 humans. Losing clients and shareholders poses a big problem. Losing employees, not so much.

 

Besides, the single White operating company won’t threepeat as Holding Company of the Year/Creative Company of the Year—but only because the dubious award was nixed versus WPP is now recognized as a death-spiraling flaming dumpster.

 

Cindy Rose prioritizes clients and investors over public events during her first Cannes as WPP CEO

 

By Ewan Larkin and E.J. Schultz

 

Few executives have walked into Cannes Lions this year with quite as much baggage as Cindy Rose. Though the WPP CEO has helped orchestrate some momentum in the new business arena in her first nine months, she still helms a company working through a major restructuring, a string of client losses and a fall to fourth-ranked agency company.

 

Rose made her debut at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity as WPP’s CEO without much fanfare, opting for few public speaking appearances and spending more time tucked away meeting clients and investors while explaining her turnaround plan.

 

Perhaps her most important meeting was with Manuel Arroyo, the Coca-Cola Co. executive VP and global chief marketing officer, who also met with Arthur Sadoun, Publicis Groupe’s chairman and CEO, during the festival, according to a person familiar with the matter.

 

WPP is battling Publicis for the beverage giant’s media, data and technology business in most global markets outside of the U.S. The review, which is in its early stages, marks a high-stakes moment for Rose, as Coke incumbent WPP seeks to ward off further encroachment by Publicis, which took the North America media business from WPP in early 2025.

 

Arroyo did not tip his hand on which agency might have the advantage.

 

“We have a lot of confidence today in WPP,” he said in an interview at Cannes. “We also are seeing reasons why we should have a lot of confidence in Publicis based on the work in the U.S.” He credited Rose for bringing “a lot of new and great thinking” and “an increased focus on data, technology and AI.”

 

Coke’s marketing priorities moving forward include more emphasis on retail media and influencer marketing, he said.

 

Along with putting on an investor relations event atop the Hôtel Martinez, WPP’s home base for the week, Rose also hosted more than 30 consultants and intermediaries at a private terrace gathering. And she interviewed Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and Spotify co-CEO Gustav Söderström at WPP’s Stream event, Ad Age confirmed with WPP.

 

Her focus on clients—more than 50 of whom she met with privately—prompted her to opt out of a speech she had been scheduled to give at the Palais. Rose’s agenda also included a Thursday night client dinner.

 

A WPP spokesperson said Rose was not available for an interview during the festival.

 

On the heels of WPP announcing an agentic partnership with Amazon Web Services, Rose made a public appearance for a luncheon at Amazon Port, where she discussed a set of “trust principles” she released at the start of the festival. Asked about that timing on the panel, Rose said that “consumer trust in brands is at an all-time low, and trust in agencies isn’t much better,” so it felt like the right time to “put a stake in the ground” on how WPP operates.

 

One of WPP’s principles is about clients owning and controlling their data, a point Rose emphasized during her time in Cannes with AWS. “Your data and your insights as a brand is your biggest source of asymmetric competitive advantage, and I cannot, for the life of me, understand why CMOs would share that with anyone,” she said.

 

Rose later spoke about WPP’s marketing operating system, WPP Open, and said it is designed to give clients access to data insights and new technology without surrendering control. Her remarks come as research firms have warned that marketers risk becoming overly dependent on agency-owned AI platforms.

 

“It’s amazing to me how many of my CMO clients are willing to sign up to data solutions that lock them in,” Rose said. She added: “I want my clients to stay with me because we’re delivering superior growth, not because we’ve created some structural friction.”