We're moving at the speed of light: Rob Reilly on WPP's transformation under Cindy Rose

WPP entered Cannes Lions 2026 against a backdrop of significant change. The holding company reported a 6.6% decline in Q1, even as India emerged as one of its brighter markets. At the same time, Cannes itself witnessed fewer entries following stricter rules introduced after last year's controversies, while agency groups across the world continued to grapple with consolidation, AI disruption and changing client expectations.

In a conversation with Neeta Nair, Editor, IMPACT Magazine, Rob Reilly, Global Chief Creative Officer at WPP, discusses the company's recent performance, the future of creativity in an AI-driven world and why he believes the industry's commercial model needs to evolve. He also shares his views on Cannes Lions' changing role, the pressure created by awards culture, WPP's growing focus on collaboration and why he remains optimistic about VML's prospects in a market long dominated by Ogilvy.

Edited excerpts:

You are best known for the ‘Fearless Girl’ campaign. Now, with five years into WPP, is there a campaign that has become as significant for you?

I was in a much different role during ‘Fearless Girl’. I was Creative Chairman, the CCO of McCann Worldgroup. I spent a lot of time in New York and worked closely with Devika Bulchandani, then President of McCann New York and North America. The campaign was for State Street Global Advisors, and Stephen Tisdalle, CMO behind it, was an incredible partner. I was very involved in bringing that idea to life and making sure it was executed perfectly. Because there were so many ways it could have gone wrong.

In this role, I do help with things, but I don't want to take credit for the work. That's down to the agency CCOs, the teams and the people behind the ideas. Even this year, there has been so much fantastic work, whether it's ‘Vaseline Verified or Grey Peru's ‘POS SOS’. There are so many pieces I'm proud of, but I'm proud because we've created the environment for those ideas to come to life, not because I was part of creating them. Everything is done by our people. I'm proud of all of it, especially the work that has gone on to make an impact around the world. And yes, the work that wins here at Cannes is important. But the work that wins in the world is even more important to me. That's the impact we're looking for.

Which are the top campaigns from India you're betting on?

I don't know. I try not to talk about my favourite pieces of work much. But in reality, we bet on India every year. There's something unique about India. You have some of the smartest people in the world, but also some of the most driven people. I'm not saying that because Devika is my partner. We're counting on India every year to bring magical work. And they do. Some years are better than others. Some years are more challenging because of economic conditions, mergers or whatever that might be. But we count on India for creative firepower every year. I love work from other companies too, not just WPP. There are a lot of great agencies, big and small. Network agencies are still some of the strongest creative companies in India. When I think about markets that really believe in the power of networks like Ogilvy and VML to bring the best ideas to life, India is one of them.

Ogilvy India has repeatedly won for established brands such as Mondelez. From an agency perspective, is it more important to win with established brands or with newer brands that are looking for their breakthrough moment?

It's a great question. The obvious answer is both. It's incredibly impressive when a brand like Mondelez delivers great work year after year off a consistent platform. In a world, where so much content is being put out, brands like Mondelez and Adobe have continued to produce brilliant work while staying true to what they stand for. That kind of brand-building doesn't happen overnight. At the same time, it's exciting to work with newer brands that want to partner with experienced companies like us to build something from the ground up. Whether it's through a different financial model or helping them establish a creative reputation, those partnerships are equally important.

If you don't have both, you're probably going to fail. You need to be willing to partner with younger brands while continuing to take care of your existing clients. We need to be seen as fast and nimble for both established and new brands. Speed and efficiency may be the industry's buzzwords today, but they have to be combined with high-quality creativity. Everybody is going to be able to make work that looks pretty good, but it might lack an idea. The need for premium ideas and breakthrough ideas that come from human creativity has never been greater.

Ogilvy and VML are your two biggest creative networks. VML seems to be firing globally and at Cannes, but in India, Ogilvy remains the undisputed creative leader. Why do you think VML hasn't earned the same level of client confidence or creative reputation in India despite the mergers and scale?

VML's reputation globally is fantastic, and it's only getting stronger. They're killing it here at Cannes. Frankly, we're having an incredible Cannes two days in. VML is doing well, Ogilvy is doing well and Grey, which is part of Ogilvy, is doing well too. Sometimes a company has such a strong reputation that it's harder for others to break through. Ogilvy has built an incredibly strong reputation in India, and it's probably the only market where it feels this pronounced. At the end of the day, results are what people look at. The more swings we take, the more work we put out into the world and the more work that wins here, even if it's not from India, the more people will start paying attention to VML. It's the largest network in the world for us. To be that size and to be that good is pretty remarkable.

It's only a matter of time before VML has the level of creative success in India that it has globally. The desire is there. The talent is there. We have great clients. We just need a few more pieces of work each year that get people talking, get the press writing about them and get people sharing them. It's not a question of if. It's a question of when.

Grey has now moved under Ogilvy, and we've seen several mergers across the industry. How important is agency consolidation at this point?

We're looking for every way to be efficient. When margins are so thin, you have to ask: how many people do we need doing this job? How many people do we need doing that job? That's what led to the creation of the WPP Creative operating model. It made sense to move Grey out of the AKQA Group and bring it together with Ogilvy because they're very similar businesses. They both excel at big brand ideas, social and influencer marketing, and innovation.

At the same time, AKQA is a very special company in its own right. It's a truly future-facing company. Now you have Grey and Ogilvy together, which is incredibly powerful. VML can do everything from A to Z, and it's the largest network. Then you have Burson. All of these businesses are part of the same ecosystem. Not to go too deep into the financial side of it, we've removed a lot of the financial barriers that didn't allow these companies to collaborate and work together. A company like Grey now has access to every capability inside WPP. Whether it's commerce, PR or other specialist services, it used to be a question of, "How do I get these people?" or "How do I pay for it?" Now we've figured that out. It's all one P&L. To me, that's the real unlock. It's not the merging itself. It's making sure we're not spending money on duplicated functions and instead putting that investment back into the talent that's in front of clients.

You spoke about one P&L. Does that affect competition between agencies? At the end of the day, the revenue is still calculated overall.

There are different models across the business, and Jonathan can probably explain that better than I can. But within WPP Creative, there's always competition because people are people, and creative people are competitive. At the same time, there's a real camaraderie among the creative leadership across WPP. We all get along. It's not because someone is demanding that we do. It just happens naturally. Maybe five years ago there was more competitiveness between VML and Ogilvy. Today, VML Global CEO Debbi Vandeven and Ogilvy Global CEO Liz Taylor are best pals. When you have two of the greatest creative leaders, who also happen to be leading our two largest creative companies, that's a pretty special thing. Then you have leaders like Gavin Schmidt at Grey, Peter Lund at AKQA and Taj Reid at Burson. Tim Irwin, Greg Hahn and Emma Barratt are leading our design practice. It's a murderer's row of creative talent, if you will.

We have the best people, and below that level we've worked very hard to attract new talent as well. We're a creative company that genuinely believes creativity is a force multiplier for growth. That's what attracts people. It's really not that complicated. Creative people are simple. Pay us fairly. Believe in creativity as a growth driver. And don't lie to us. That's why we have great people. Those are the three principles.

Everybody is talking about artificial intelligence. To what extent is it really guiding campaigns today?

I don't know if it's guiding our campaigns at all. We're certainly using it. Planners and researchers have been using data and insights since the beginning of this business. AI simply makes it easier to find information and uncover insights. The real difference lies in what you do with those insights. That's where the talent comes in. It's not just creative talent. It's our planners, strategists and solutions architects. When they have these tools at their fingertips, the question becomes: how do you turn that intelligence into an inspiring brief? Our creative people are using AI too. We all use agents now. I used to describe AI as a tool, but I've changed my mind. I recently came across the idea that AI isn't a tool at all. It's an instrument. Take a guitar. A guitar in Rob Reilly's hands? Not very good. A guitar in Prince's hands? It's magic. When you combine the talent we have with the instrument of AI, that's when you get the magic.

GroupM, now WPP Media, has long been the backbone of WPP's revenue machine. What could become the next major growth driver for the company?

Production is always a real opportunity. That's where clients are increasingly looking for efficiencies. But the bigger challenge isn't necessarily where the next revenue stream comes from. It's how we get paid. We're suffering from a pretty antiquated commercial model. Everybody is looking for new ways to be compensated and new ways to share success or challenges, whether that's through outcome-based models or evolving the traditional time-and-materials approach. That said, production is definitely an area of growth. We're also seeing enterprise solutions as a giant opportunity.

What's important is that creativity is part of all of it. We tend to treat creativity as a separate vertical, but it shouldn't be. It doesn't matter if we have great enterprise solutions or great media capabilities. If what's going through those systems isn't great, you've missed the opportunity. Yes, it may work. But it could work so much better if the quality of the content and the ideas were stronger. That's what people don't always understand. Why settle for something that simply works when it can be great? That's where human creativity comes in. Not just humans, but the best humans. That's what we have.

WPP reported a 6.6% decline in Q1, while markets such as China and the Middle East saw double-digit declines. India, however, posted growth. What is India doing right?

That's why we love India. We have a very strong media practice there. I don't know the exact percentage, but we're part of a huge portion of the market. When you have that level of buying power, that level of influence and some of the best talent in the world on the media side, combined with incredible creative talent, it's a winning model. If we had thIS model everywhere in the world, things might look a little different.

At the same time, numbers can be misleading. We've led new business wins over the last couple of quarters on the media side, and we've also won creative pitches such as Henkel. There's a lot of momentum in the business. The focus can be on negative numbers, but I prefer to look at what we've achieved. We've been number one for two quarters in a row when it comes to business, not just creatively but on the media side as well. Cindy Rose has been in the role for less than a year, and the impact she's had has been phenomenal. She's made some difficult decisions around people, agencies, structure, enterprise solutions and production, and she's done it very quickly. We're moving at the speed of light to some degree. She's done an incredible job. We're all rowing in the same direction. It sounds obvious, but it's incredibly powerful. And she's cool.

Cannes Lions has reportedly seen a 25% decline in entries this year. Has WPP also entered fewer campaigns, and what do you make of that decline?

Yes, we have. It's easy to take shots at Cannes. A lot of people say it's become too much about tech and media, but I don't see it that way. It's still the centre of culture. Within a mile, you have marketers, technologists, creatives, production people, artists and musicians all in one place. If you care about creativity, Cannes is still an incredible experience.

That said, there were mistakes made last year. I do think Holding Company of the Year and Network of the Year awards have caused some bad behaviour because the pressure to win is so high. What we should be celebrating are the brands brave enough to back bold ideas and the people who make the work. The holding company doesn't need the recognition. Cannes has responded with stricter entry rules. Some of it may have gone a little too far initially, but they're trying to fix things. If people use AI to doctor campaigns again, hopefully it's a lifetime ban.

We're not chasing Network of the Year. We're chasing our brands winning and our people winning, especially young people. We've won Holding Company of the Year four out of the last five years, but the bigger goal is for the industry to win. If fewer entries help make the show better, everybody benefits.