Mark Read calls WPP Media restructure ‘disruptive but necessary’

Mark Read, the outgoing chief executive of WPP, has said this year’s restructure of WPP Media, which has included dropping the Group M brand, “may have been disruptive, but it’s been necessary work”. 

He added: “WPP Media is a much stronger organisation to deliver to clients in future.”

Read was speaking on the investor call on 7 August following WPP’s H1 financial results, which led to the company slashing staff bonuses and halving its dividend, after a 5.8% slump in Q2 revenues.

Brian Lesser, chief executive of WPP Media, announced his strategy for the media investment arm in March 2025, which included a push to simplify operations. He followed up with a memo to staff in May, stating that media agencies Mindshare, EssenceMediacom and Wavemaker would be moving to a single P&L. Included in this shake-up was a pledge to “sunset” agency-specific job titles. 

Lesser, who was appointed in July 2024, said of the changes he made: “I'm pleased with the collective progress we've made in the first half of this year, from launching Open Media Studio in our largest markets to debuting Open Intelligence, restructuring our teams and centralising leadership for laying the foundation for a stronger, more agile organisation.”

WPP Open is WPP’s AI platform used by all the networks’ agencies; Open Media Studio is the branch of the platform used by its media agencies. According to Lesser, WPP Open has “more data” than its competitors. 

He said: “We now have more data than any of our competition, reaching five billion consumers connecting intelligence of all forms, including IDs, across a vast federated ecosystem. It’s live, it's adopted, and it's already delivering measurable value for our clients.” 

According to Read, “over 80%” of people in client-facing roles across WPP now use WPP Open.

As one analyst noted, however, WPP has prioritised the US and the UK – its two largest markets – with the rollout of WPP Open, which is yet to be adopted in other markets. When asked to give an updated timeline on completion, Lesser said that the rollout of Open Media Studio “will be substantially done” by the end of 2025.

During the call, analysts also asked about which clients have used WPP Open so far. Lesser confirmed the group was “in the process of deploying Open Media Studio” for the Mars pitch, which WPP lost to Publicis in June.

He added: “We have seen success already on some of our long-standing clients in terms of outperforming traditional identity-based approaches to performance.”