Cindy Rose.
Cannes Lions 2026 day one has begun with WPP CEO Cindy Rose publishing a set of trust principles that outline how the company intends to operate in an AI-led marketing environment.
The framework builds on the Elevate28 strategy unveiled earlier this year, which positions WPP as a “trusted growth partner” to global brands, with trust and growth at the centre of its proposition.
"Growth is the number one requirement our clients are asking us to help deliver as their partner," said Rose.
"This approach to partnership goes beyond just being a traditional supplier of marketing services, we are committed to helping our clients deliver real business impact: stronger brands, deeper customer relationships, better return on marketing investment and new sources of demand and sales conversion.
"But sustainable growth is built on trust. Clients are entrusting us with some of their most strategic assets: their brands, their data insights and their customer relationships."
The first principle, clients own and control their data and it cannot be used to benefit third parties.
"This is how we've operated for over a decade, underpinned by our Data Code of Conduct, rigorous controls, data protection agreements and regular independent audits," said Rose.
"Open Intelligence, our foundational intelligence layer, powers WPP Open and uses our patented data bunkers to connect client data to live data from over 350 partners and WPP in a private data network.
"It resides within the client’s environment, turning real-world behaviour into predictive intelligence while preserving privacy, control and trust."
The second principle, WPP is open by design, built to keep pace with AI innovation and interoperate with client and partner solutions, "not lock clients into a singular, closed ecosystem."
Rose also emphasised that consumers are people, not ID's, AI augments human creativity and does not replace it, and that WPP will take accountability for client growth.
"In a world where trust is increasingly precious and scarce, our licence to operate depends on us earning it – day in and day out. Our clients look to us for bolder creative work, braver media investments and cutting-edge innovation," she said.
"They look to us for transformational partnership that delivers sustainable growth for their business. WPP is their trusted growth partner. And everything we do is in service of this mission."
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