Where it began: What WPP CEO Cindy Rose said about pitchless agency wins

The public exchange between WPP and Publicis Groupe began during WPP’s third-quarter earnings call on October 29, when CEO Cindy Rose was questioned about the growing practice of agencies securing major advertising mandates without competitive pitches and WPP’s decision not to participate in Coca-Cola’s North American media review.

The questions came from Bank of America analyst Adrien de Saint Hilaire, who asked why WPP had opted out of the US Coca-Cola pitch and whether Rose was observing competitors winning assignments without pitching.

Rose defended WPP’s decision, saying the group was satisfied with the outcome of Coca-Cola’s global review, having retained the business in every market where it competed. She described the process as rigorous and highly competitive.

According to the official transcript of WPP’s Q3 2026 earnings call, published on the company’s investor relations website, WPP chose not to participate in the North American review because its teams were already preparing to deliver the business secured across other markets. Rose said staff had spent several weeks pitching over the summer, including in London, Shanghai and Mexico City.

The decision, she explained, involved choosing between another six weeks of pitching for North America and focusing on delivering the mandates WPP had already won. She described it as a difficult judgement call that she had personally made.

Responding to the broader question about agencies winning business without formal pitches, Rose referred to the discussion as the “pitch-less, CEO handshake thing”.

She acknowledged that traditional agency pitches were becoming increasingly demanding and expensive, but maintained that major appointments required careful consideration because of their potential commercial implications.

Rose said, “These are really high-stakes decisions with material business consequences, and they deserve careful consideration.”

She also cautioned against encouraging clients to bypass proper due diligence, arguing that agency appointments involved decisions with significant business consequences.

Rose did not specifically name Publicis Groupe, PepsiCo or LVMH in her response. However, her remarks came amid growing industry attention on large global advertising accounts being awarded without conventional competitive reviews.

The exchange also came as WPP reported a 0.5% year-on-year increase in third-quarter revenue to £3.27 billion, while revenue less pass-through costs declined 2.1% on a like-for-like basis. WPP Media returned to marginal growth of 0.3%, its first quarterly growth since 2024.

The company highlighted the retention of Coca-Cola’s media business in all the markets where WPP competed as an important new-business achievement under its ongoing Elevate28 transformation programme.

Rose’s comments subsequently drew a public response from Publicis Groupe, which shared an open letter addressed to the WPP CEO on its official Instagram account. The French holding company challenged the implication that winning business without a conventional pitch meant avoiding proper client scrutiny and also questioned WPP’s decision to sit out Coca-Cola’s North American media review.