Mark Read’s handover notes: here’s what’s awaiting Cindy Rose as WPP CEO

Offering the market and shareholders a glimmer of optimism for the remainder of the year, WPP announced incoming CEO Cindy Rose would imminently embark on a strategic review in the hopes of turning things around.

“I’m not going to set the strategy for Cindy or ever comment on it in any way either,” said Read. “You know, there are all directions I’m sure that she will look at as she takes over the company.”

Spelling out the task facing his successor, he added: “It’s a continuing, challenging environment out there; we’re under no illusions about that. We have made some difficult decisions, some of which are being made today, but I am positive about the future. I look forward to seeing what comes next.”

In this final update from Read, we learned what will likely be some of the key areas Rose will have to urgently consider for future success.

New business woes

In February, Read told analysts that it had suffered due to the loss of major accounts (Pfizer, Starbucks, L’Oréal, Uber, Walgreens), and those would be most acutely felt in the first half of the year. Back then, Read assured that “the new business pipeline was strong” and that lagging client spending in its biggest sectors would turn around.

In April, its Q2 update, he once again reassured investors that it was taking part in more reviews than he “would like to imagine,” saying it had been involved in as many as 7,000 behind the scenes.

Yet, its performance has remained particularly poor. In the first half of the year, it lost more big hitters like Mars's $1.7bn media account, Coca-Cola’s $700m US media business and resigning PayPal’s global media (all went to Publicis), which it has struggled to offset despite wins like Hero MotoCorp’s media, L’Oreal’s influencer spend, and TJ Maxx’s PR duties.

“New business has been a source of relative disappointment. Now, to be clear, we have had some significant wins, but there have been setbacks, and overall it has been a much slower new business environment,” conceded Read.

“It’s running at less than half the typical rate at this point in the year. My view is that clients have been dealing with a lot of short-term issues, whether that’s pressure on consumer spend, the impact of tariffs or commodity prices, and these are delayed pictures and prolonged decision making.”

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CPG, WPP’s largest sector, was down 8.3% in Q2 due to cuts to client spending and the loss of Mars in North America. Performance in the tech client sector – which makes up 18% of WPP’s business – was also down 1.2% and it was a similar story for Automotive (down 4.5%), Retail (down 3.9%) and Healthcare & Pharma (down 0.5%).

Intermediary AAR's research corroborated Read’s assessment of a slow new business environment. It found a 28% decline in completed new business pitches across the first half of 2025 compared with the same period last year.

“Right now, clients are primarily focused on incumbent agency cost-optimization rather than searching for new agencies," said Gartner’s agency analyst Jay Wilson. "However, the failures of some of those cost optimization efforts will eventually lead to another uptick in agency reviews. This will happen especially if there is more stability in the macro-environment – a big if, given the continuing geopolitical and economic uncertainty.”

So Read’s continued assurances to the market that the pipeline will turn around at any moment may prove true. But until then, Rose’s strategic review will have to focus on how WPP grows at a time when new business opportunities are, for now, harder to come by. She will have to double down on client retention and maximize the opportunities with existing clients. And more importantly, use this ‘downtime’ to solidify WPP’s go-to-market strategy and operations to be best prepared when new business is on the table again.

Getting staff on side

Over the past year, WPP’s headcount has reduced from 111,000 to 104,000. A wave of redundancies caused by the consolidation of its media agencies to create WPP Media has been a major contributor to that, alongside Ogilvy’s 5% reduction in staff numbers.

It’s been widely reported that the handling of WPP Media’s restructure frustrated the remaining staff, not just those who were shown the door. As WPP talks up the opportunities and efficiencies it can deliver with AI capabilities, more assurances will need to be given to those remaining that their jobs are safe.

WPP’s decision to cut staff incentives adds salt to the wound. The company said that being a “performance-based business,” the move reflects its poor figures, but it is “sensitive to the importance of motivating and retaining our top talent.”

The talent pipeline needs to remain a top priority, according to Gartner’s Wilson. He said: “While [Read] did not initially discuss the reduction in the context of Gen AI, when Ogilvy announced the 5% headcount reduction in June 2025, they directly tied those reductions to Gen AI technologies. We’d expect to see further reductions in staff across most holding companies in the coming year as more junior-level work becomes augmented or automated.”

“The key challenge here for any agency will be maintaining the talent pipeline to more senior roles as client teams become more top-heavy, with downward price pressure on those more senior level rate cards continuing. One aspect of the solution here is a move towards outcomes or project-based pricing vs. traditional time and materials (rate card) pricing.”

As one analyst on the call noted, WPP has lost several key executives in the first half of the year. They voiced concern that many of these figures have long-established relationships with vital clients, and there is a risk that, when contracts end, these accounts could move with the leaders who managed them. Take Laurent Ezekiel, for example. The orchestrator of WPP Open X, the dedicated division to run the $4bn Coca-Cola account, left the holding company for Publicis Groupe. It’s already lost the US media portion of that account to Publicis, and the exit of Ezekiel might raise fresh fears that more could eventually follow.

Finance chief Joanne Wilson dispelled this suggestion. “There’s been some staff turnover, yes, but also we have attracted very senior, strong talent into the business as well. I mean, the short answer is no, it’s not driving client losses,” she said. “We have a very strong team of client leaders, but our client relationships are not really based on any one individual. These are very long-standing and deep partnerships that we have across many parts of the business.”

Selling WPP Media to clients

For the past six months, WPP has heavily focused on integrating its media agencies into WPP Media. The division’s CEO, Brian Lesser, told analysts that after a relatively quick consolidation process, it was now moving from “strategizing to operating, from talking to leading.”

However, its revenue was down 4.7% due to tough trading conditions in the US and UK. It continued to be impacted by prior-year client losses. Echoing Read, Lesser said media pitch volumes are “a third of what they were” a year prior.

“Anytime you transform a business as dramatically as we have, you’re going to experience some disruption. And we did see that in the first half, we are substantially through that transformation, and I don’t expect any lingering effect in the second half,” said Lesser. “We’ve restructured the company, put new leadership in place and are consolidating on to one platform. So, I feel very good about going into pitches in the second half of 2025.”

But there’s more work to be done.

It has rolled out its hyped Open Intelligence offering in the UK and US. It’s an AI identity solution that offers clients more precise, privacy-conscious targeting, pulling in data everywhere from retail media networks and CTV providers to consumer panels. In short, it’s the Publicis Epsilon or Omnicom Acxiom-rivalling platform that will underpin every media strategy WPP develops.

It used Cannes Lions’ draw to embark on a major educational push aimed at current and potential clients. But the market wants more evidence that WPP has moved beyond just talking about it and that it’s being deployed successfully to win business.

“I wish there were more pitches,” remarked Lesser. “But it is being successfully used, and we’re at the tail end of some now. I expect success. I can’t control how many pitches are in the market. But with incumbent clients, we’re seeing gains.”

But, as Gartner’s Wilson says, disconnected global teams continue to be a pain point for CMOs working with any global agency holding company. And so the true test of the model, and thus a key priority for Rose, will be the successful integration of WPP Media’s teams.

“If the macro environment (tariffs, geopolitics) stabilizes, we’d expect to see client interest in further media consolidation and an uptick in media pitches,” added Wilson.

When Cindy Rose joins on September 1, she will have to hit the ground running. WPP’s third-quarter trading update will be in October, and given the continued decline of its share price, she will have to come to her first briefing armed with answers to some very pressing questions.