What does WPP’s media course change actually mean for brands?

But beyond the sizzle reel, question marks remain over what’s actually changed — and whether this is the end of WPP’s long-running quest to turn the ship around, or just the latest chapter.

In particular, there are queries around the company’s AI ambitions; how close they are to becoming reality; what that reality means for its own employees; and how they help it put clear blue water between itself and rival heavyweight media holdcos Publicis Groupe and Omnicom (soon to include IPG).

What’s actually happened at WPP, and why does it matter for advertisers?

GroupM is gone, and WPP Media has been set up in its place. Going forward under its new captain Brian Lesser (who is also its old captain), the network will operate with a single P&L model in each country, while the global CEO positions of its constituent agencies have been abolished. Former Wavemaker CEO Toby Jenner has been instead named global chief business officer, while Mindshare’s Adam Gerhart has taken on a brief as chief client officer, for example.

“Advertisers don’t like disruption. They don’t like not knowing what’s going to happen with their team. They don’t like when they start spending more time thinking about their own business than their clients,” said Tom Denford, CEO and co-founder of media consultancy ID Comms.

This isn’t just about tidying up the org chart, but a significant shakeup in the engine room of WPP. Execs are keen to push the benefits of the bespoke cross-disciplinary teams it’s built for clients like Amazon, Unilever and Coca-Cola. In each case, the custom units combine media, creative and data capabilities, and are built with WPP’s data businesses Choreograph and Infosum (acquired just two months ago) as connective tissue. Lauren Wetzel, CEO of InfoSum, referred to this approach as “showing up as one company.”

WPP Media’s leaders believe more clients want the white glove treatment – and a simplified organization structure makes those teams easier to assemble and easier to run. “Clients want us to come together and have an integrated offering,” said Wetzel.

Behind the scenes, the changes have already led to significant job cuts at the network, though a WPP spokesperson declined to say exactly how many of its 40,000 staffers were made redundant. Layoffs will continue until at least June, per Ad Age.

Incumbent clients, however, are keen to be reassured their own account teams remain in place. They want both continuity of service, and to be reassured they won’t be forgotten when WPP Media goes hunting for new custom in its fresh costume.

Perhaps that explains why, despite retiring the 20-year old GroupM moniker (originally intended to manage WPP’s sprawling media agency domains, rather than a market vehicle in its own right) the Mindshare, Wavemaker, and EssenceMediacom agency brands remain intact. Digiday understands that the agency brands will aid WPP Media in navigating potential client conflicts, while also pitching for new work in their own right.

According to Jay Pattisall, vp and senior agency analyst at Forrester, the remaining firewalls, combined with the addition of Infosum, will also help reassure clients that other advertisers won’t have access to their data. The new structure will “wall off their clients’ first-party data from any losses in data fidelity, or security or privacy concerns,” said Pattisall.

WPP Media’s leadership aren’t using the “a” word to describe the new entity. Not that one, anyway. No longer a network of media agencies, WPP Media will instead function as an “AI-driven media company”, per the spiel of a B2B ad campaign it’s launched to float the rebrand.

In plain English, that refers to the way its teams use WPP Open, the company’s AI operating system, as well as other AI tools and automation.

According to Evan Hanlon, global CEO at WPP data business Choreograph, every team within the business is already using Open to plan and invest media on behalf of clients. This will supposedly free them from the “drudgery” of manual media planning and enable them to pursue more creative solutions.

“It’s something that our people are not only in every day, but that our clients are seeing and experiencing and having work delivered for them,” said Hanlon. 

Even if clients choose only to work with EssenceMediacom or Wavemaker, rather than the cross-border packages WPP Media is prioritizing, they’ll still be customers of teams using Open. “Every client that we onboard now is being onboarded into that end-to-end, AI-powered ecosystem,” said Hanlon. “Through the end of the year, we’re looking to bring 100% of WPP Media onto that workflow as well.”

Teams aren’t limited to using WPP’s proprietary toolbox, but can integrate tech that clients have built in-house as well. “We are not putting our clients in a position in which they have to lock into a fixed, inflexible, closed system,” he said.

WPP Media isn’t the only media network to have switched to a single P&L, or to remodel its interior around a data business. And it’s far from the only way advertisers can access AI tech. However, Hanlon said WPP Media’s approach to audience data would be the element that helps it stand out from the crowd.

Rather than sell access to audience datasets it owns – and compete directly with Meta or Google – WPP Media aims, through InfoSum’s clean room tech, to help clients leverage the first part data they do have, and provide probabilistic audience targeting. It’s a solution clients can’t easily build in-house or get from the tech giants, and one that should keep advertisers above the water line on privacy compliance. 

“Every one of our competitors is pursuing a strategy that is focused around owning large-scale audience datasets as the focal point for how they extract more value from the marketplace,” said Hanlon. Deterministic approaches, he said, are just “one of many” ways to target media. “We think that is one place that we are fundamentally different to our competitors.”

If its leaders can articulate that offer in the pitch room, it could be compelling for clients, according to Sam Tomlinson, chief client officer at media consultancy MediaSense.

“WPP Media will need to work through this integration quickly so they can then focus on a clear articulation of the benefits of their data strategy, building on InfoSum and explaining how it is different to their competitors,” he said.

Ultimately, Forrester’s Pattisall believes WPP Media as described has a strong chance to improve its fortunes, regardless of whether it keeps any clients that might be in play (such as Mars, which is currently in review and which WPP CEO Mark Read acknowledged is in play back at the end of April).

“They’ve made massive acquisitions, they’ve consolidated their operations and they’re providing end-to-end services rather than point solutions,” said Pattisall. “It’s certainly working for Publicis Media, it’s working for Omnicom Media Group … I think it would work for WPP Media as well.”

— Michael Bürgi contributed to this report.

Color by numbers

As influencers and creators capture more attention (and ad dollars) from marketers and agencies looking to break through with prospective customers, Advertiser Perceptions looked into how they’re being used and evaluated, as well as how dollars are being allocated. Some highlights from the study, which surveyed 305 marketing and agency folk:

• Advertisers distributed their ad dollars somewhat evenly across creators of varying sizes: nano (up to 10,000 followers) got 14% of budgets; mid-tier (50-500K) and macro (500K-1 million) generated the highest percentages, at 26% and 23% respectively;
• When asked if “AI makes it easier for brands to identify the right types of creators to work with,” 33% completely agreed, 37% somewhat agreed, while only 7% disagreed;
• 77% either completely or somewhat agreed that paid creator/influencer programs are the most effective way to reach younger audiences;
• Finally, 54% of respondents said they plan to increase creator/influencer spend, 45% plan to stay at current budgets, and only 1% plan to decrease spend.

Takeoff & landing

• Starcom won McDonald’s media AOR duties in India’s South and West regions following an RFP, with Madison Media losing the business. OMD continues to handle the QSR’s North and East regions in the country.
• Omnicom’s PHD landed media AOR duties in Australia for hardware chain Bunnings, beating out GroupM (now WPP Media), Publicis and IPG Mediabrands, according to local reports.
• Personnel moves: Dentsu Americas hired three executives to join its media practice team: Grant Ogburn was named chief growth officer, coming over from IPG where he most recently was global CGO at UM Worldwide; Solange Claudio was named COO, coming over from Formerly Known As, where she was president; and Jason Kodish was named chief data and analytics officer, coming over from Syndesis Health in a similar post … Assembly Europe promoted two managing partners: Alex Boniface becomes head of client experience & leadership, while Bridget Hopkins becomes head of client operations … M+C Saatchi named Dani Bassil to be CEO in Australia and New Zealand, coming over from the same role at Clemenger BBDO Australia.

Direct quote

“I would not at all be surprised that sooner than later, influencer [as a] channel will be much bigger than television. I don’t know if it will be in three years or five years, but that’s something which is going to happen.”

— Raja Rajamannar, CMO of Mastercard, talking about the rise of creators and influencers.

Speed reading

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