Chief executive officer of WPP, Cindy Rose acknowledged the network’s poor performance as Q3 revenue dropped YoY and like-for-like (LFL), with revenue less pass-through costs also down.
Chief executive officer of WPP, Cindy Rose, has acknowledged the network’s poor performance as Q3 revenue dropped by 8.4% YoY (Image source: © The Drum
The Drum)
“My ambition is for WPP to lead our industry in terms of innovation, client delivery and organic growth. However, I acknowledge that our recent performance is unacceptable and we are taking action to address this,” says Rose.
An exciting platform to build on
In her statement she says the network has the strong foundations and the ingredients needed to succeed.
“We have amazing long-standing clients that represent the largest, most well-known brands in the world, strong capabilities and world-class talent that spans media, production and creative, some of the most consequential agency brands in the market, unrivalled global scale and reach, and market-leading technology and technology partnerships that give us a real competitive edge. This is an exciting platform to build on.”
Rose also says that to deliver performance improvements, they will position their offering to be much simpler, more integrated, powered by data and AI, efficiently priced and designed to deliver growth and business outcomes for their clients.
“We will significantly improve our execution, strengthening our go-to-market and dramatically simplifying how we organise ourselves internally, as well as building a high-performance team culture.”
She also says they will expand their addressable market by pushing harder into enterprise and technology solutions.
“And finally, we will take a disciplined approach to capital allocation with a focus on cost efficiency and maintaining a strong balance sheet while prioritising the parts of our business where we can deliver the greatest shareholder value.”
A lot to do
She adds that there is a lot to do.
“It will take time to see the impact, but in my first 60 days, we are already moving at pace with some initiatives already announced and more to come.
“We know what it takes to win: we are optimistic, energised and confident that we’re building the right plan and the right culture to secure a bright future for WPP, our people, our clients, and our shareholders. We look forward to sharing more details early in the new year.”
Q3 2025 performance
- Revenue
Q3 2025 revenue of £3,259m was down 8.4%, a LFL decline of 3.5%. Revenue less pass-through costs of £2,459m was down 11.1% reported and 5.9% LFL. YTD revenue of £9,922m was down 8.0%, a LFL decline of 2.8%. YTD revenue less pass-through costs of £7,485m was down 10.5% reported and down 4.8% LFL.
- Business segment and regions
Performance in the quarter was driven by a step down in WPP Media vs. the second quarter.
Global Integrated Agencies Q3 LFL revenue less pass-through costs was down 6.2%, with WPP Media down 5.7%, a sequential deterioration compared to Q2, and other Global Integrated Agencies declining 6.5%.
Public Relations saw Q3 LFL revenue less pass-through costs down 5.9% while Specialist Agencies declined by 2.2%.
By geography, North America was down 6.0% and the UK was -8.9%. Western Continental Europe at -4.4% also deteriorated quarter on quarter (excluding the impact of one-off factors in Q2) while Rest of World at -5.0% saw an improvement, with growth of 6.7% in India and a decline of 10.6% in China.
- Clients
WPP’s top 25 clients are down 2.0% year to date vs. Group LFL down 4.8%. This includes the impact of client assignment losses as well as pressure on CPG, Automotive and Government.
Tech & Digital Services saw a step down in the third quarter following a positive first half, while Healthcare has returned to strong growth.
Key strategic initiatives
- Key leadership changes
Cindy Rose assumed the role of CEO from 1 September. On 5 September she appointed Devika Bulchandani as chief operating officer of WPP and Laurent Ezekiel as global CEO of Ogilvy Group.
- Extended partnership with Google/Launch of WPP Open Pro
In October, WPP announced a five-year extension of our partnership with Google dedicated to advancing cloud and AI technology. This will drive efficiencies across its enterprise tech spend and the ROI from our AI investments, supporting innovation and product development to fuel client growth.
WPP also announced the launch of WPP Open Pro, a new edition of its AI platform for marketing, WPP Open. WPP Open Pro streamlines the entire marketing lifecycle, allowing clients to plan, create and activate campaigns and is designed to broaden our addressable market.
- Strategy review
Its strategic review is underway and focused on four core principles:
(1) simplifying and integrating its client offer and harnessing its AI advantage to deliver growth and business outcomes for its clients.
(2) significantly improving its execution and building a high-performance culture.
(3) expanding our addressable market through enterprise and technology solutions.
(4) strengthening our financial foundations and performance through operational efficiency and a disciplined approach to capital allocation.
Full details will be shared early in the new year.
Financial outlook for 2025
Based on trading year to date and the outlook for the fourth quarter, it expects LFL growth in revenue less pass-through costs of -5.5% to -6.0% (vs. -3% to -5% previously).
Similarly, it expects headline operating profit margin to be around 13% (vs. previous guidance of down 50 to 175 bps year on year excluding the impact of FX). Its guidance of adjusted operating cash flow pre working capital is unchanged at £1.1bn to £1.2bn.
