WPP Moves PR, Creative, Design under one umbrella: WPP Creative

WPP’s "Elevate28" Overhaul: A Simple Breakdown

WPP, one of the world’s biggest media marketing group, is moving away from being a collection of independent agencies. Instead, it is becoming a single, unified business. This shift is a response to a tough 2025 where profits and revenues dropped significantly.

Commenting on the new structure, Cindy Rose, CEO of WPP stated," Our intention is to stabilise the business, return to organic growth, create capacity to invest in the future and deliver attractive returns for our shareholders. WPP will become a single company, streamlined into four operating units across four regions, all unified by our pioneering agentic marketing platform, WPP Open.

“Our recent underperformance has been driven by excessive organisational complexity, a lack of an integrated operating model and inconsistent strategic execution. While disappointing, I see huge potential as these issues are all within our power to fix and we’re already making great progress."

• Business segment and regions – Global Integrated Agencies 2025 LFL revenue less pass-through costs fell 5.7% (Q4: -7.6%) with WPP Media declining 5.9% (Q4: -10.8%) and other integrated creative agencies declining 5.6% (Q4: -4.3%).
• By geography, North America declined 4.6% (Q4: -7.3%), UK -7.6% (Q4: -9.2%), Western Continental Europe -4.7% (Q4: -3.5%) and Rest of World -5.9% (Q4: -7.5%), with India increasing 3.8% (Q4: +8.6%) offset by a decline in China of -14.3% (Q4: -13.6%).

Just last week, former WPP chief, Sir Martin Sorrell told PRmoment India that, "The traditional holding company model isn't just under pressure; it is fundamentally challenged. What we are seeing with the recent OI (veh!?) mega-merger is two companies huddling together, when the cold wind blows. It is a consolidation of legacy-orientated over-capacity in order to reduce costs, not a strategy for growth. We are looking at an advertising revenue market where $900 billion in digital spend is heading north, while the $300 billion traditional spend is heading south, particularly when you don't have live sports to defend your legacy position."

• The Core Changes

• The Big Merge: WPP is folding its many agencies into four main units: Media, Creative, Production, and Enterprise Solutions.
• PR’s New Home: Public Relations (PR) will now live inside the "WPP Creative" unit, alongside advertising and design.
• Data First: Marketing decisions will be led by data and AI platforms (like WPP Open) rather than just creative intuition.
• Cost Cutting: WPP aims to save £500 million by 2028, which likely means significant staff restructuring and job cuts.

The Balancing Act: Pros and Cons

The Potential Upside (The "Pro")	The Potential Downside (The "Con")
Better Collaboration: PR teams can use data from the media and creative departments to make their campaigns more effective.	Loss of Independence: PR may become a "support service" for big ad campaigns rather than a strategic advisor to CEOs.
AI Efficiency: New tools could automate boring tasks, letting PR pros focus on high-level strategy and relationships.	Measurement Struggles: It is hard to prove the value of "earned media" (mentions/reputation) in a system designed for "paid media" (clicks/ads).
New Opportunities: PR experts can now offer advice on AI and digital transformation, opening up new ways to make money.	Cultural Shift: The culture of famous PR agencies like Burson may be swallowed by a corporate, metrics-driven machine.

Why the change?

This shift is a direct response to 2025 financial underperformance, characterized by an 8.1% decline in reported revenue and a significant 71.2% drop in reported operating profit.

What This Means for WPP PR firms globally 

Measurement and Independence of PR 

The implications for PR are layered. First, there is the structural question. Under the new model, PR sits inside WPP Creative alongside advertising, design and other creative disciplines. The go-to-market strategy will be led by media and data, with a group of “Client Solution Architects” tasked with orchestrating integrated campaigns.

PR will no longer be sold as a standalone discipline to clients but as a component within a broader, data-driven offering. For senior PR leaders accustomed to owning the client relationship, this represents a significant shift in influence and autonomy.

Second, there is the question of measurement. WPP’s strategy leans heavily on its proprietary technology platform, WPP Open, and its data layer, Open Intelligence, which uses InfoSum’s privacy-first data collaboration technology to connect client, partner and WPP data. The promise is real-time optimisation of marketing investment. 

But earned media — the traditional currency of PR — is notoriously difficult to measure with the precision that programmatic advertising or CRM can offer. In a world where every rupee of client spend is expected to be justified through a data dashboard, PR risks being deprioritised in favour of channels with clearer attribution.

What it means for talent in PR

Third, there is the talent dimension. WPP’s plan includes £500 million in gross annualised cost savings by 2028, at a restructuring cost of approximately £400 million. A “new talent framework” will align incentives to client outcomes and overall WPP performance. In practice, this means a period of significant headcount reduction and reorganisation. PR professionals who have built careers within the relative independence of agencies like Burson or Hill & Knowlton will find themselves operating within a more centralised, metrics-driven culture.

Not all of the implications are negative. Integration can unlock genuine advantages. PR campaigns that are informed by media buying data and creative insights from the outset tend to be more effective. The formation of WPP Enterprise Solutions — a new unit focused on customer experience, commerce, CRM and AI transformation — could open new revenue streams for communications professionals who can position themselves as strategic advisors on reputation during periods of digital transformation. And the emphasis on AI-enabled workflows may, over time, free PR practitioners from lower-value tasks and allow them to focus on the counsel, creativity and relationship-building that remain distinctly human.

 When PR is embedded within a larger, media-led operating model, there is a structural tendency for it to become a service function rather than a strategic one. The discipline’s value has always been rooted in its understanding of stakeholder dynamics and its ability to shape narrative. If that capability is subordinated to data-optimised campaign delivery, the PR industry loses something important — not just within WPP, but across the sector, given WPP’s influence on industry norms.

Three Phases of Delivery 

Central to this transformation is the "WPP Open" agentic marketing platform and the "Open Intelligence" data layer. The plan targets £500m in annual cost savings by 2028, with a three-phased delivery timeline: stabilizing the business in 2026, returning to organic growth in 2027, and achieving accelerated, high-quality growth by 2028.

Phase 1: Stabilise (2026) The immediate priority is to stabilise net new business performance. We are encouraged by an improved new business performance in Q4 2025 (see Q4 2025 highlights below for detail) and will build on actions at WPP Media to improve competitiveness (specifically in the US and UK). We will also execute cost saving initiatives, and take portfolio actions to improve balance sheet flexibility.

• Financial goal: Deliver positive net new business, achieve gross run-rate savings of £250m by year-end (equivalent to around £100m in-year gross savings) and progress portfolio actions.

Phase 2: Build (2027) We will fully implement and start to benefit from our revised go-to-market strategy and continue to deliver benefits of the new operating model via improved execution and further reductions in costs.

• Financial goal: Return to organic growth during 2027, rebuild margins and reduce leverage.

Phase 3: Accelerate (2028 and beyond) WPP will emerge as a simpler, lower-cost, AI-enabled business. Revenue growth will be driven by the full integration of media, creative, production and enterprise solutions, as well as the global scaling of agentic workflows.

• Financial goal: Accelerate organic growth, expand margins, deliver strong cash conversion.