WPP, the world’s largest advertising group, is focusing on creativity, technology, culture and operations as the industry comes out of the pandemic lockdown.
CEO Mark Read sees a renewed purpose in the strength and culture across WPP.
“Crisis often calls for people to reach deeply and I think that our people have demonstrated how they can do that,” he told the company’s annual general meeting in London earlier this month.
“We’ve seen more innovation in the last 10-12 weeks than perhaps we’ve seen in the last 10 years.
“And I believe at WPP, in particular because of the changes we have made over the last 18 months, is well prepared for that.”
Read says creativity is important but it needs to be blended with the understanding of technology that is increasingly changing the world.
“We need to continue to work in agile ways, and to simplify our structure,” he says.
“We need to ensure that the company is operational effective, and we look for cost savings within our back-office operations.
“And finally, culture and purpose has perhaps never been more important.”
WPP has been cutting overheads and reducing debt to deal with the business fallout from the coronavirus crisis.
Net debt at the year-end was £1.5 billion (AUD2.7 billion), the lowest in a decade, down £2.3 billion (AUD4.15 billion) from the beginning of 2019.
The company has identified variable cost savings of £700 million (AUD1.26 billion) to £800 million (AUD1.44 billion) this year. More than 3,000 senior executives across WPP have taken a salary sacrifice. Dividends to shareholders have been suspended.
Read says there’s a renewed purpose in the strength and culture across WPP.
He says the company has made significant progress on simplification with fewer, but stronger, agency brands.
“The establishment of VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson have both been successful with both companies improving their performance throughout the year, and VMLY&R in particular growing in the second half of the year,” he says.
“We made investments in Technology, HR, client teams and new business and improved our growth performance.
“In terms of how we are doing with our leading clients, we have improved performance with good client retention and important new business wins.”
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