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Large agency combinations are well-trod territory in advertising, but WPP’s merger of VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson into VML has still sparked a lot of industry chatter. The move, first announced last fall and put into effect in January, is viewed by some as a sign of the further dilution of individual agency brands — VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson were the products of past mergers — but by others as an important way for WPP to further streamline its creative offerings, which have struggled with growth.
While WPP is still fighting for a turnaround, with revenue less pass-through costs dropping 3.6% in 2024’s first half and the company downgrading its full-year forecast, VML has some wind in its sails and has quickly picked up new accounts, such as Krispy Kreme. Losses stemming from WPP’s creative segment shrunk in the most recent financial period, a gap-closing driven by VML, executives said. Today, the creative agency, communications firm Burson and media-buying giant GroupM cover 70% of WPP’s overall business.
VML Global CEO Jon Cook
Permission granted by VML
VML has also reeled in accolades during a challenging period for creativity, scoring 57 Lions awards at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in June, including a Grand Prix. While VML has been through myriad changes over the decades, some of its leadership has stayed consistent: Global CEO Jon Cook acted as chief executive of the original VML in the ‘90s before spearheading VMLY&R and now the new entity that’s complemented by tech-forward Wunderman Thompson.
Marketing Dive spoke with Cook about his perceptions of the merger nearly one year on, along with services he sees as important for future agency success, including customer relationship management (CRM) and artificial intelligence (AI).
The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
MARKETING DIVE: We’re in the thick of H2 and approaching a year since WPP announced the VML combination. How are you thinking about keeping up momentum you’ve had coming out of events like Cannes Lions?
JON COOK: The thing about Cannes or any big industry thing is you start to realize how soon the next one comes up. To answer your question about momentum, it’s actually easier as a new company because Cannes — which is just one of many good industry moments — serves as an indicator that you can do it. It was motivational Kool-Aid at just the right time. Cannes came literally six months into the new company. Things like Cannes force you to have your world together and be able to present great work. It’s easy to use as a motivator because it’s instant validation of what can be done.
You referred to VML as a “new company.” I’m curious why you think about it in those terms.
Interestingly, we probably have more history than any other agency that’s ever walked the Earth. You have 100 years of J. Walter Thompson, 100 years of Young & Rubicam and the history of Wunderman, kind of the baby of VML. I’ve just chosen to call it new. The work that we did to launch VML was the kind of work you would do if you had a new company. The difference was you’re doing that at some scale. What agency does the world need in these years that are to come?
We got to make choices about capability, positioning, talent and where we would show up in the world. All of the decisions you’d make if you were launching a company, we got to make. Given that, we earned the right to call this a new company. The difference between us and a startup is we got to do it with tens of thousands of people at the same time. But we certainly needed to introduce ourselves to the world and to clients, even though there’s familiarity.
I imagine a lot of thought went into combining Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R to round each others’ capabilities out. Was there anything from integrating the two brands that you found surprising?
One thing that I knew would be great was the complementary nature of commerce. That was something I knew would be a great accent to the brand creativity. I have been pleasantly surprised about how big of a thirst and an ask there has been for CRM and loyalty and how strong we are in that. I have to complement what Wunderman Thompson was doing. From a CRM platform, they had a global product and part of the company called Marketing Automation Platform, or MAP. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much attention that’s gotten and its relevance to clients right now. It’s been one of the bigger things that’s been requested of us in the first months [of VML]. It’s not a surprise that it would be good, but a surprise at how prominent that’s been in terms of the ask and the benefit.
That’s something that Wunderman brought over. Was there any learning curve in getting everyone else aligned with that CRM function?
There’s a learning curve. I think general creative agencies or brand agencies probably lump all things called loyalty or CRM into formal loyalty programs. The thing that’s been really eye-opening is how broad the definition of loyalty really is in terms of the activity, even in the absence of a former loyalty and rewards program. The act of getting somebody to demonstrate allegiance to the brand through transactions, whether they be purchases or commitments, that expanse of the terminology has been a good education that the overall company has really learned from.
In the marketing industry, different terminologies and phases come into your vernacular. Sometimes, that makes you feel like one thing replaces the other. I remember when CRM was a new term. It was all the rage, it was like AI. It’s not like [any of] that went away. It’s building blocks on era after era, not one era replacing the other. People think of us being in this AI era. AI is not replacing those other eras. It’s harnessing and accelerating the eras we’ve been through.
AI is, for the broader WPP network, a big investment focus [the network has committed over $300 million annually in the technology]. From the individual agency perspective, how have you seen it most concretely impact your work? Because I do know there are companies that are repositioning old tools as AI.
The investment wouldn’t have to be that great if it was simply a matter of taking the existing tools and putting them in a portal for people to use. The actual spend starts to be in bespoke walled garden AI programs for our clients’ knowledge [and] building and learning within that walled garden about a specific set of clients or a client’s industry.
We could easily, for a very low investment, harness ChatGPT and learn everything about a generic automotive company. If we want to do that for a specific automotive company — [use] a combination of confidential knowledge mixed with publicly available knowledge — that alone takes investment. Then to have the public information meet the private information and to learn from that and have the AI built to make itself smarter about the industry and the audiences, that’s a level of investment. A whole other level of investment is to have that information create the work or react to the work that we create. That’s when it gets really specific and most powerful. It’s like a brain for a brand that is getting hyper-smart just based on that information.
There’s a level of investment to then make an operating system for every agency and every client that touches that work. And then, there is the level of training needed for everybody involved in harnessing that new weaponry. That’s where the money actually starts to get spent. I’m using a generic example, but that’s a good view into how WPP is using that.
Has AI affected your hiring priorities or training programs at all?
We are training on AI and how to use all of the WPP Open [operating system] toolset and any available tools from our partners. So at one level, yes. We’ve hired individuals for AI-particular roles that are specific to using or building the toolset. Has it affected the general hiring at the company? I would say yes in the sense that you’re always looking for someone who’s relevant, forward-thinking and innovative in any position. Somebody doesn’t have to have blind allegiance to an AI future to be hired at VML, but you have to be somebody who is open to learning and trying new things. There are some highly talented and awarded people who are not those things.
Do you have to be an AI expert or disciple that walks the Earth evangelizing AI? No. But the behavior of being open to change and having a sense of humor about technology, balanced with a respect for it — those would be traits that would help you find your way into VML right now.
A recent WPP earnings call discussed VML as an example of simpler and stronger business within WPP, but that’s not the case for every agency within the network. How do you share what’s working as WPP tries to raise all ships?
We have a lot forums for that. There’s a WPP executive team that I’m a part of. The spirit of collaboration is very high right now. I don’t just say that to be Pollyanna. When you get simpler and you have fewer agencies and you have better people leading those agencies, the fellowship and the sharing is very positive and open right now. That’s accelerated because there are fewer agencies and every agency has loaded themselves with fantastic leadership. You couldn’t always say that about WPP.
The scale and capability that’s been entrusted to us, and probably most importantly, the simplicity of the way that we’ve brought capabilities together, it’s on [VML] to become an agency representation of all that WPP has to offer. That does not mean that VML does everything. We can go to market as VML and be a very simple and very complete A to Z offering. But we can also go to market as the portal to the best of WPP. Sometimes it’s easier for a client to experience that coming through one agency or culture. The relationships in WPP right now are such that there’s a selflessness.
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