WPP boss Mark Read: Our problem wasn’t size, but lack of central management
WPP is through the worst of its agency mergers but still needs to improve its creative output, boss Mark Read has told an industry conference.
Speaking at the Advertising Week Europe gathering in London, WPP’s global CEO Read – who took the organisation’s helm in September after the acrimonious departure of founder Sir Martin Sorrell – was unapologetic about the string of recent mergers which characterised his first few months in charge of the challenged conglomerate.
WPP is among the world’s biggest communications groups, although its market capitalisation has halved over the last two years to around $20bn.
These global mergers included bringing together JWT and Wunderman to create Wunderman Thompson; MEC and Maxus to create Wavemaker; and merging Young & Rubicam with VML to create VMLY&R. Locally The White Agency and Grey merged to create WhiteGrey.
Interesting comment about clients getting ‘sucked into execution and not the strategy’. I somewhat agree with that but what use is a strategy if nobody notices the ads? They may not be the most talented agencies in the world, but it is the rigid systems and processes which primarily hold WPP agencies back, not the creative people.