- WPP is rebranding its media properties – previously known as GroupM – as WPP Media to higher reflect the company’s deal with overall integration and AI capabilities, in response to an announcement.
- WPP’s media corporations, Mindstar, Wavemaker and EssenceMediacom, will proceed to operate under WPP Media, and all the division will probably be connected to the holding company’s larger AI-enabled marketing system, WPP Open. WPP Media manages greater than $60 billion in media and represents greater than 75% of the world’s leading advertisers across 80 global markets.
- The rebranding, first reported last month, is anticipated to affect about 40% to 45% of the media company’s 40,000-strong workforce.
With the mega-merger of rival holding corporations IPG and Omnicom looming, WPP’s rebranding of GroupM is as much about demonstrating cohesiveness and heft as it’s about establishing its artificial intelligence (AI) bona fides. WPP CEO Mark Read noted that the industry didn’t need “holding corporations inside holding corporations” and that there was a symbolic message in changing the name to WPP Media to higher reflect all the network as “a company and never a gaggle,” the manager said in an interview with Ad Age.
WPP’s media agencies Mindshare, Wavemaker and EssenceMediacom will operate more as “teams” than as individual agencies — though they’ll retain their brand names — and WPP Media will report its financials as a combined entity by market, reasonably than through individual agencies, per Ad Age.
“We imagine that WPP is the strongest marketing partner for the world’s leading brands within the AI era, where technology and talent converge. The move to WPP Media continues our technique to simplify and integrate our offer for clients,” Read said in a press release. “Our vision for the future is evident – marketing that’s informed by data, led by seamlessly connected teams of good people, and filled with recent opportunities for our clients.”
Nevertheless, the shift does help the company capitalize on its ongoing investments in AI and its WPP Open capabilities. An explanatory video notes that, in an AI-powered world, “media will probably be in every single place, and in every little thing” and that “this recent era demands recent considering.” Using AI, WPP Media will harness “trillions of information points” to “unlock signals others miss” to drive client growth, per the video.
“Consumers already expect promoting to be relevant and interesting and buying experiences to be seamless; those expectations are only going to speed up within the age of AI,” said Brian Lesser, CEO of WPP Media, in a press release. “By investing in our AI-powered product, integrating our offer with data and technology, and equipping our individuals with future-facing skills, we’re helping our clients to remain ahead of rapidly changing consumer behavior and unlock the limitless opportunities for growth that AI will create.”
WPP’s revenue, less pass-through costs, dropped 2.7% on a like-for-like basis (about $3.2 billion) for the primary quarter of 2025. GroupM’s earnings declined 0.9% over the period, while the holding company’s other integrated agencies were down 4.4%. Those results were according to expectations. The layoffs and restructuring related to the rebrand of GroupM could help bring costs according to revenue.
The announcement comes as WPP launches a brand new B2B marketing campaign highlighting the holding company’s investments in AI — to the tune of greater than $300 million annually — as it positions itself for the future. The campaign, themed “Transforming How We Create,” included print placements in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
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