WPP restructure ‘disruptive but necessary’, says outgoing CEO Mark Read

Thanks to WPP’s investment in AI, the agency can look at the future with confidence, Read has noted

by e4m Staff
Published: Aug 11, 2025 1:24 PM | 2 min read

WPP Media's restructuring this year, which included phasing out the GroupM brand, “may have been disruptive, but it's been necessary work”, according to departing CEO Mark Read. “WPP Media is a much stronger organisation to deliver to clients in future,” he continued.

Following WPP's H1 financial results, which saw the business cut staff bonuses and halve its dividend following a 5.8% decline in Q2 revenues, Read appeared on the investor call on August 7.

"WPP is a company with enormous strengths in creativity and media, technology and AI, talented people, deep client relationships and unmatched global reach," Read said as part of the earnings call. "...I believe that thanks to our investment in AI we can look at the future with confidence."

WPP Media CEO Brian Lesser announced his simplification plan in March 2025. In May, a message was sent out indicating that Mindshare, EssenceMediacom, and Wavemaker would "sunset" agency-specific job designations and switch to a single P&L.

Lesser stated, "I'm pleased with the collective progress we've made in the first half of this year, from launching Open Media Studio in our largest markets to debuting Open Intelligence, restructuring our teams and centralising leadership for laying the foundation for a stronger, more agile organisation.”

"We now have more data than any of our competition, reaching five billion consumers connecting intelligence of all forms, including IDs, across a vast federated ecosystem," Lesser said of WPP Open, the group's AI platform. It has been adopted, is operational, and is already providing our clients with quantifiable value.

Although analysts observed WPP Open's limited adoption outside of the US and UK, Read said that "over 80%" of staff members who interact with clients currently use it. Lesser stated that Open Media Studio's distribution "will be substantially done" by the end of 2025 and that it is being used with quantifiable success for "long-standing clients" and the Mars pitch.