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 Outcome-based payment is an outdated proposition, with failed attempts dating back to the 1990s.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.” 

17561: Shifting Geer At VML & WPP.

   

Advertising Age reported VML North America Chief Creative Officer of Innovation Walter Geer III is shifting gear, leaving the White advertising agency and single White operating company after six years of service.

Geer claimed his resignation is not a result of the redundancies, restructurings, and RIFs at WPP.

Yet given VML boasts dynamic DEIBA+ dedication and WPP hypes alleged technological advantages, Geer’s exit is bad optics.

Walter Geer III exits VML after six years

By Brian Bonilla

Walter T. Geer III is leaving VML after six years at the agency, departing his role as chief creative officer of innovation for North America as he considers a next chapter spanning creativity, technology, culture and business.

Geer joined WPP’s VML in 2020 as executive creative director of experience design and later held senior leadership positions across health, consumer marketing, experience design and innovation. Most recently, he led a team of nearly 20 people spanning New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and San Francisco, he said.

Geer said his decision to leave was not connected to WPP’s ongoing restructuring or recent layoffs and had been under consideration for some time. The move is effective immediately.

VML wasn’t immediately available for comment.

During his tenure, Geer worked with brands including Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Advil, Covered California, Progressive and Pfizer. Some of his most notable work at VML includes Advil’s “Believe My Pain,” which addressed racial disparities in how pain is recognized and treated and won a Gold Effie in 2025, as well as Covered California’s “For the Love of Californians” brand platform.

“I had an incredible six years at VML,” Geer said. “At the same time, I think I reached a point where I wanted to give myself the space to really kind of think bigger about what my next chapter could be.”

He said that he is not committed to a particular kind of company or role.

“I made the decision to leave because I wanted to be really thoughtful about what happens next … that could mean transforming an existing organization, creating a new model, absolutely joining an independent company or agency, working directly with a brand or building something entrepreneurial.”

Geer has been outspoken on industry issues either through social media or films such as Black Madison Ave, an open discussion among the few black creative leaders at the holding company level that was released in 2022. He is also a co-founder of Blackweek. VML will remain a strategic partner and primary sponsor of the conference moving forward, Geer confirmed.

Geer said the industry’s wave of holding company consolidation is understandable, describing it as “a necessary evil” as agencies look to combine resources and capabilities.

Discussing the broader agency market, Geer praised the scale, talent and client relationships that large networks offer; he argued the biggest opportunity lies in marrying those advantages with the speed and entrepreneurial mindset of independents.

“That combination could be incredibly powerful if organizations are truly willing and able to make that type of change,” he said.

Geer said that he plans to continue growing Blackweek while advising organizations and exploring opportunities across creativity, technology, entrepreneurship and business transformation.

“There is so much more to build, so much more to challenge and so much more impact to make,” he said. “I’m proud of what we accomplished at VML, grateful for the people who were part of that journey and genuinely excited about what comes next.”

17557: Glassdoor + Indeed = Fireworks + Firings.

 

Adland isn’t the only industry staging questionable M&A deals.

Better together: Glassdoor is part of Indeed…?

Glassdoor has been hyping its Glassdoor Recruiter services, designed to help job seekers by mimicking Indeed offerings.

Ironically, the acquisition will likely lead to redundancies, restructurings, and RIFs, resulting in Glassdoor and Indeed ex-employees needing Glassdoor and Indeed to find new livelihoods.

17550: On Ogilvy US CEO CUL8R TTFN.

 

Advertising Age reported on the Ogilvy US CEO, who is bailing out of the White advertising agency after roughly nine months in the role.

Maybe winning Network of the Year at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity signaled mission accomplished.

David Ogilvy articulated his core philosophy on hiring as follows: If you hire people smaller than you, the company becomes a company of dwarfs; hire people bigger than you, and it becomes a company of giants.

Wonder what the iconic adman would think about his company being in giant flaming dumpster WPP, where hiring creates a revolving door of dwarfs.

Ogilvy US CEO to depart after less than a year in the post

By Ewan Larkin

Ogilvy U.S. CEO Lyndsey Corona is set to leave her post after less than a year at the WPP agency and is expected to pursue a new opportunity adjacent to the ad industry, Ad Age has learned.

Laurent Ezekiel, Ogilvy’s global CEO, will serve as interim CEO for North America, an agency spokesperson said. However, the agency does not plan to name a permanent replacement, according to a person familiar with the matter.

“Ogilvy thanks Lyndsey for her leadership and contributions to our clients and teams, and wishes her the very best in her next chapter,” the Ogilvy spokesperson said in a statement.

Corona’s late 2025 appointment followed an executive reshuffle in Ogilvy’s top ranks. In September, Devika Bulchandani, then Ogilvy’s global CEO, moved upstairs to WPP as chief operating officer. Ezekiel succeeded her at Ogilvy and subsequently installed Corona in November, giving her oversight of the storied creative agency’s largest region.

Corona joined amid a turbulent stretch for Ogilvy, which cut roughly 5% of its workforce last year as part of a restructuring. One of her core focuses was to simplify complexity for marketers and better integrate the agency’s various disciplines. WPP itself is working through a multiyear turnaround, including layoffs and the formation of WPP Creative, a unit designed to house Ogilvy and VML, among other shops.

Before Ogilvy, Corona served as WPP’s global growth lead on Verizon. Earlier in her career, Corona worked as president and partner at independent creative boutique Slap Global. Her experience also spans agencies including Stagwell’s Forsman & Bodenfors and Omnicom’s McCann.

17539: WPP CPO WTF.

More About Advertising reported on impending layoffs at WPP, spotlighting the new WPP Media Chief People Officer, who will likely be among key players executing the latest RIF.

 

The content closed by asking: Is there a People job in [Adland] that doesn’t really mean less people?

 

That’s a good question, prompting a Google search to define the C-suite function. According to M&A Executive Search, CPO responsibilities include:

 

• Shaping organizational culture and employee experience

 

• Developing DE&I (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) programs

 

• Creating leadership development initiatives

 

• Driving employee engagement strategies

 

• Aligning the workforce with the company vision and values

 

• Building talent acquisition competitive advantages

 

• Fostering a sense of purpose and belonging

 

Okay, except no way can a new CPO shape organizational culture and employee experience at a global flaming dumpster that is burning out of control.

 

DEIBA+ programs have already been abandoned.

 

Leadership development cannot commence until after dealing with honcho redundancies, resignations, and restructurings.

 

Employee engagement strategies likely involve mandated rah-rah events.

 

Expressing the company vision and values won’t happen before WPP CEO Cindy Rose hatches and articulates the grand scheme. For now, it’s chirping crickets.

 

Talent acquisition competitive advantages are trumped by talent termination.

 

Sense of purpose and belonging? Nonsense of purpose and belonging would be a more appropriate term.

 

In short, given WPP’s current death-spiraling direction, the CPO role could be handled via AI—or eliminated entirely.

 

WPP sets sail for another round of job cuts

 

By Stephen Foster

 

WPP is reportedly embarking on another round of job cuts and newly-hired chief people officer at WPP Media Darren Minshall looks as though he’s been hired to lead the charge. Or maybe retreat. WPP Media employs about 40,000 people.

 

Like all such execs Minshall [above], who’s worked at numerous companies including, back in the day, Havas and MullenLowe, says the right things including “AI isn’t the hard part. Leading people through it is” and “AI should improve work, not blindly replace it” which may reassure some WPP Media folk although the embattled holding company, first under Mark Read and now under Cindy Rose, has made no secret that it sees AI as the secret sauce to put it back on the road to growth.

 

So will Minshall be the grim reaper, on the lines of George Clooney in the movie Up in the Air, where he plays corporate downsizer Ryan Bingham or someone to bring a little balance to the seemingly AI-obsessed holding company?

 

WPP is now divided into creative, media, production and commerce and most people expect its creative agencies to bear the brunt of tech-driven changes. When JWT, Y&R and Wunderman were lumped together with VML it was said to be the biggest creative agency in the world with about 30,000 people. WPP also has Ogilvy of course, which seems to be staying above the fray.

 

But the old GroupM media operation comprising EssenceMediacom, Mindshare and Wavemaker was pretty substantial and numerous too and, although its fortunes have recovered to a degree, it has still to return to winning ways for the world’s really big media accounts, most of which are at Publicis with some others at Omnicom.

 

Is there a People job in adland that doesn’t really mean less people?

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

17523: On Life—And Lifetime Achievement—In Adland.

MediaPost spotlighted Susan Credle, who the trade publication identified as Interpublic Global Creative Advisor—despite IPG’s erasure after being acquired by Omnicom.

 

Oddly enough, Credle’s LinkedIn profile displays her present experience as Interpublic Global Creative Advisor and Omnicom Creative Advisor.

 

Perhaps Credle is a fractional Planetary Creative Advisor. Or maybe she’s also in limbo, waiting for Omnicom to sort through restructurings, redundancies, and RIFs resulting from the acquisition.

 

Credle came to Cannes to collect the Lion of St. Mark lifetime achievement award.

 

Yet now Credle admits being uncertain about her next work-life stage.

 

That’s life in Adland today.

 

Credle At Cannes: ‘Fast And Cheap’ Equals Ad Pollution

 

By Steve McClellan

 

Ad agency veteran and current Interpublic global creative advisor Susan Credle told a Cannes Lions audience Monday morning that while there’s been much talk lately that consumers care less about brands these days, maybe it’s the industry that needs to care more about them. 

 

Credle, this year’s recipient of the Lion of St. Mark lifetime achievement award, said, “We’re in a slightly weird place right now,” where all the focus on AI and technology has led the industry to focus a bit less on brand building.  

 

“Fast and cheap,” she said, amounts to so much “ad pollution.” Refocusing on brand building, she added, is perhaps the best way to regain consumer trust. 

 

On stage with Paul Kemp, Cannes Lions Chief Content Officer, Credle talked about her formative years and passion for cheerleading and acting in high school. She was declared “biggest flirt” during her high school years, which she interpreted as “enjoying being around people.” Cheerleading, she added, may have been her first copywriting job because it involved writing cheers promoting a team and urging them to win.  

 

In college she learned quickly that journalism—at least the stick-to-facts kind—wasn't a passion of hers. She was steered to the advertising department where she could focus on a blend of “creativity and outcomes.” 

 

In 1985 she headed to New York City “with a suitcase and a dream.” She landed an entry level job at BBDO (filling in for receptionists who were on bathroom breaks), and ended up staying for more than two decades. 

 

At BBDO she landed on the Mars account where she had the audacious idea of killing off the M&M characters because she believed they were boring. That idea didn’t fly and she (and her art director partner Steve Rutter) then proposed developing the characters into a comedic ensemble with distinct and funny personalities. The problem there—no budget to do that for TV, at least at first. Instead the characters were merchandised and their personalities began to blossom via quips on T shirts.  

 

The characters’ popularity took off, and they were developed and integrated into TV campaigns led by Credle and Rutter. At one point NBC wanted to have the characters introduce its Thursday night lineup. It was at that point, Credle realized that the characters had entered the cultural zeitgeist. “Hollywood came calling us,” she noted, not the other way around.  

 

Later this year Credle will be leaving Interpublic for a new chapter. For now, Credle said she’s not sure what’s next. Stay tuned.  

17512: On Juneteenth In Adland 2026.

In Adland 2026, Juneteenth has been impacted by restructurings, redundancies, and RIFs—like White holding companies and White advertising agencies throughout the global industry.

 

The anti-DEIBA+ vibe in Adland means Juneteenth further loses its performative priority, plummeting far below organizational rejiggering, shareholder appeasing, and AI capabilities overhyping.

 

Juneteenth is seemingly deemed redundant to celebratory events such as Black History Month and MLK Day—both of which are also ignored and/or viewed with indifference.

 

In recent years, White holding companies and White advertising agencies have quietly diminished ERGs, downsized DEIBA+ teams, and dismissed Chief Diversity Officers. So, delegating diversity duties for Juneteenth is disregarded.

 

Will Adland ever experience freedom from systemic racism?