Jul 11, 2025

Shreyas Kulkarni When in Rome, do as the Romans do. WPP took it to heart. The advertising business, once driven by cigarette-smoking creatives of Madison Avenue, is now run by spreadsheet-savvy technologists. The British agency group's new chief executive, Cindy Rose, hails not from the world of Cannes Lions and jingles, but from Microsoft, where she served as chief operating officer for global enterprise sales. She is not, as the industry may put it, “one of us.” That may well be the point. “She brings deep experience of technology and AI and its transformational impact on business, and has successfully run large global organisations with talent at their core,” said outgoing CEO Mark Read in a press statement announcing the handover. “It's good for any agency if you have somebody at the top who understands technology,” says Ashish Bhasin, founder of The Bhasin Consulting Group and former chair and CEO of Dentsu South Asia, because “digital significantly drives advertising today.” “The best creative minds already see AI and data as enablers of more relevant, more personalised storytelling. But WPP must be careful not to become so tech-first that it loses sight of its creative soul.” Rohit Ohri The industry is going through an upheaval. Agencies are racing to embed artificial intelligence in everything from media planning to ad creation. For holding companies, the opportunities may seem endless, but so are the risks: job displacement, margin pressure, and clients re-evaluating the need for an agency in the first place. “The appointment certainly reflects how critical orchestrating brand ecosystems has become – integrating technology, data and creativity to drive business growth,” says Rohit Ohri, founder of Ohriginal, a culture-focused business consultancy, and former chair and CEO of FCB Group India. He adds that clients expect agencies to deliver creativity alongside scalable technological solutions, such as commerce platforms, AI-powered content, and precision-targeted media that convert ideas into tangible outcomes. WPP's slide and Rose's challenge WPP's board may be acting less out of strategy and more out of necessity. The group had a torrid start to 2025. This week, it slashed its profit forecast after reporting slower client spending and disappointing new business wins. Major losses include Mars's $1.7bn global media account and Coca-Cola's $700m North American media duties, both snatched up by French rival Publicis. Paramount, a longtime client, walked away from the company after 20 years. “When you have been number one in the market for so long and then suddenly lose your supremacy, it is not one action. You have to take several,” observes Bhasin. Stabilising staff morale may be the first order of business. “The people who matter the most are your own employees, and they will be feeling very uncertain right now,” Bhasin adds. But he warns against turning WPP into something it is not. "The worst way to handle this would be saying, ‘We are becoming a consultancy' or ‘We are now becoming a tech company.'" Better to build a clear vision – difficult, but achievable – and then rally everyone behind it. Creativity in the shadow of code Rose, who has sat on WPP's board as a non-executive director, is no stranger to its inner workings. But her appointment may raise eyebrows among the group's more creatively inclined professionals, who might feel that technology is being prioritised at the expense of storytelling. “This is an inflection point,” says Ohri. “The best creative minds already see AI and data as enablers of more relevant, more personalised storytelling. But WPP must be careful not to become so tech-first that it loses sight of its creative soul.” He is not alone in his unease. Pops KV Sridhar, global chief creative officer at Nihilent, draws a sharp contrast between today's holding group chiefs and their Mad Men-era ancestors. “There is no passion for advertising and creativity anymore. It is a numbers game,” he says. Holding company leaders, he argues, are increasingly chosen for their ability to drive profit, not big ideas. “They can survive in WPP, Microsoft or Citibank because their core competency is P&L, not storytelling.” He believes this shift explains the rise of independent agencies. “Nobody wants to be in an environment where talent is ignored, ideas are undervalued, and only the business matters.” The new ruling class Whether Rose can restore WPP's fortunes and morale remains to be seen. Her challenge is not just to digitise WPP, but to ensure the group remains relevant in an age where clients can increasingly do it all themselves, courtesy of AI. Rome, after all, did not fall overnight. But nor did it survive by clinging to old glories.