WPP is rebuilding while revenue falls
- WPP is trying to replace its old agency holding-company setup with one integrated company.
- The 2028 plan targets £500M of gross annual cost savings and better cross-selling across clients.
- The hard part is timing: old client losses are expected to drag 2026 revenue by 500 to 600 basis points.
- WPP ranked #1 in JPMorgan's Q4 2025 net new business rankings, helped by wins such as UK Gov, Reckitt, and JLR.
- AI is central to the plan through WPP Open, but it also adds client adoption, error, and copyright risks.
A big reset with a weak bridge year
WPP is in the middle of a deep reset. Management says the company will stop acting like a group of stand-alone agencies and move to a single company model. The goal is simple: make it easier for one client to buy media, creative, data, production, and technology from the same WPP team.
The bull case is that this fixes a real problem. Big advertisers want fewer handoffs, faster content, better data, and lower cost. WPP says its 2028 plan can deliver £500M of gross annual cost savings by 2028. New business is also improving, with WPP ranked #1 in JPMorgan's net new business rankings in Q4 2025.
The bear case is that the reset is happening while revenue is still under pressure. Management expects old client losses to create a 500 to 600 basis point drag in 2026, and guided to a mid-to-high single-digit like-for-like revenue decline in the first half of 2026. That means the first proof point is not the strategy deck. It is whether recent wins turn into revenue in the second half of 2026 and growth in 2027.
Selling one WPP to big clients
WPP makes money by helping companies and governments market their products and messages. It plans and buys ads, creates campaigns, builds customer experience systems, runs content studios, and manages public relations. Some work is long-term account work. Some is project work, which can be cut quickly when clients get nervous.
The new model is built around WPP Open, an AI-driven marketing system. WPP Open brings together data, creative tools, media insights, and workflow software. The April 2025 InfoSum deal adds privacy-safe data collaboration, which helps clients use their own customer data without freely sharing it across the ad market.
The weak spot is execution. WPP has to change incentives, reporting lines, technology use, and client behavior at the same time. If clients still buy from separate agency brands, or if employees protect old silos, the cost savings may arrive but the revenue benefit may not.
Four parts of the new WPP
WPP Media
This is the renamed GroupM media business. It plans and buys ads, uses data to target audiences, and is central to WPP's largest client relationships.
WPP Creative
This unit brings together brands such as VML, Ogilvy, AKQA, Burson, Landor, and Design Bridge and Partners under one leadership setup. The aim is to reduce agency friction and sell broader work to the same client.
WPP Production
This unit runs content production and high-speed studios. It is meant to help clients make more ads, in more formats, at lower cost.
WPP Enterprise Solutions
This business covers consulting, customer experience, commerce, CRM, content transformation, and technology platforms. Management says it is about 13% of group net revenue, or $1.8B.
WPP Open
WPP Open is the AI system that links the company together. It can improve pitches and speed up work, but it also creates risk if clients do not adopt it or if AI tools produce bad outputs.
The old segment mix still reports
For 2025 reporting, WPP still disclosed Global Integrated Agencies at 88% of revenue and Public Relations plus Specialist Agencies at 12%. WPP said the new four-unit structure was announced in February 2026 and that separate financial information for all four new units was not yet available.
What could break the reset
Old client losses keep dragging revenue
High impact · High oddsWPP has already warned that old client assignment losses should be a 500 to 600 basis point drag in 2026. That is bigger than the 300 to 400 basis point drag in 2025. If new wins do not ramp fast enough, the turnaround stays stuck in shrinking revenue.
The single company model stalls inside WPP
High impact · Medium oddsWPP is trying to change how a very large agency group sells, staffs work, and rewards people. That is hard because agency brands have their own cultures and client ties. If the new incentives do not change behavior, WPP may cut costs without winning more work.
WPP Open does not win client trust
Medium impact · Medium oddsWPP Open is meant to be the operating system for the new model. The filing warns that failure to adapt to AI and deploy WPP Open with clients could hurt the business. Client adoption matters because the platform is supposed to help WPP pitch, build, and measure work faster.
AI errors and copyright claims hit client work
Medium impact · Medium oddsWPP's 20-F names risks from AI agents in client-facing or decision-making roles, including wrong outputs and lack of transparency. Generative AI also brings copyright and data-set risk. A major client error or legal claim could slow adoption and damage trust.
Clients cut project spending
Medium impact · Medium oddsParts of WPP depend on discretionary project work, which clients can delay when budgets tighten. China and project-based work have already been pressure points. A weaker ad market would make the bridge from 2026 to 2027 harder.
In one breath
What does WPP actually do?
WPP helps clients advertise and communicate. It buys media, makes campaigns, runs content production, builds marketing technology, and provides public relations and consulting services.
Why is WPP changing its structure?
WPP wants to act like one company instead of a collection of separate agencies. The goal is to cut friction, cross-sell more services, and save £500M in gross annual costs by 2028.
What is WPP Open?
WPP Open is WPP's AI-driven marketing platform. It connects data, creative tools, media planning, and workflows so teams can build and manage client work faster.
What is the key thing to watch in 2026?
The key issue is whether recent client wins turn into revenue fast enough to offset old client losses. Management expects H1 2026 to be weak, so H2 2026 and the 2027 growth target matter most.