Mark Read, now just a few weeks away from ending his 30 year career at WPP, had a few words when addressing his last earnings call with market analysts.
The close of a seven year tenure as CEO, which ends September 1 when Cindy Rose takes over, has been marked with a weak share price, revenue in negative territory, new business shrinking and pushback from staff on Read’s back to the office mandate.
Read, admitting he enjoyed the calls with analysts from investment banks, was upbeat about the future, describing WPP as an “incredible” organisation.
“While I know well that we have immediate challenges, we also have tremendous assets, not least our people and our clients,” he said.
“And I thought it'd be helpful for me to end my last call, of many, with my reflections on where we are as an industry and as WPP and why I'm positive about the outlook, both for our industry and for WPP.
“Taking a step back and looking at industry, I firmly believe that what we do collectively is critical to our clients, the world's largest companies, and in WPP case, four of the world's five most valuable businesses, these global organisations, rely on us to help them build their brands, manage their reputation, sell their product, get high rankings and search engines selling retail channels, design their packaging identities and produce their work,” he said.
They also increasingly seek advice on how to adapt to an AI world and how to take advantage of it in their marketing to drive higher returns and reduce costs.
“We said for more than two years that AI is no doubt going to fundamentally change what we do and how we do it. It's also going to give us new opportunities, as technology has always done in the past,” he said.
“I'd say that at least half of the jobs in WPP today were not in the company 10 years ago, and that will be increasingly true in the future.
“But I still believe our clients will need the creativity, the strategic judgment and objectivity and insights that we and our industry bring them if they're going to successfully differentiate themselves from competition and navigate an increasingly complex media and technology landscape.
“That's what our industry does, what I believe it will continue to do in the future, even if it is in a very different form and with much more data and technology.
“And just as we've adapted in the past, we will adapt in the future.
“So yes, AI will change how we work, but if we embrace it fully and use it to enhance our people and human expertise, then I believe, will make us stronger, bring new business opportunities and create more values for our clients, and in the long run, more value for our shareholders as well.
“I believe the critical question is, how ready is WPP for this AI powered future, and they're the answers. I believe we are very well prepared, and certainly as well, if not better prepared, as anyone in our industry.”
Read said WPP was a simpler company today with six brands, no longer organised in analog and digital silos, making up close to 95% of the business
“A simpler company allows us to move faster, to take out structural costs, to focus our resources on clients, and to deploy technology much more quickly across the business,” he said.
He described the work at WPP Media unit, run by Brian Lesser, as disruptive but necessary, leading to a stronger organisation and to deliver to clients in future.
Despite its challenges this year, WPP media remains the world's leading media player.
“With new leadership, a new AI led approach to data aimed to lead for legacy systems, I firmly believe that when a new business environment picks up, they will convert strongly,” he said.
Read also talked about VML, Hogarth, Burson and influencer marketing.
However, he described AI as his “most important” piece of being positive.
"There's no doubt in my mind … that AI will be fundamental to WPP success in the future,” he said.
“We consider the impact of AI on the end to end marketing process and over time the comprehensiveness of our approach will be a source of increasing competitive advantage.
“We built into WPP Open, a single AI powered marketing platform that spans the whole of WPP, something we struggled to do for many years.”
About 69,000 staff use AI in their work. “I don't believe there's many companies of our size or scale that have deployed it at that size.”
“Clients need to see the power of our new data approach and how we can use it to drive stronger returns.
“We have to improve our new business conversion so that new clients can see the strength of our offer quality of work and our ability to work across WPP to deliver integrated solutions that our existing clients see that is reflected in our client satisfaction.
“We have to embrace the opportunities and challenges of AI, but I firmly believe that we come at this challenge with an extremely strong set of capabilities, a well balanced offer that's creative productions and media.
“We're a leader in AI and technology. Have a unique global footprint.
“We have an extremely strong bench of talent and culture that takes us into the future.
“I'd like to end by thanking our people. You are … what I will miss most in the next chapter, and I wish you all the best.
“I know that the past six months has been challenging, but we approach future with the same determinations we did in COVID and then many other challenges we face, then we will succeed.
“I would say, a privilege to lead this great company and the successes that we have are all down to you.”
Read was paid £3.8 million in 2024, down 15% on the previous 12 months. The makeup of his final pay isn't known.
Read's pitch to the analysts:
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