WPP—Ad Age Agency Report 2024

WPP is the world’s largest agency company based on 2023 revenue. WPP had worldwide revenue of $18.5 billion in 2023. See WPP’s financial reports. More from Ad Age Agency Report 2024 Big picture: State of the agency business World’s biggest agency companies Agency listings Agency revenue growth Agency company revenue by client sector WPP in recent years has simplified its agency network structure through mergers. Among those moves: WPP effective in July 2024 merged two large public relations agencies, Hill & Knowlton and BCW, to form Burson. WPP effective in January 2024 merged two integrated agencies, VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson, to form VML. This came after WPP in 2018 merged Y&R and VML, forming VMLY&R; and J. Walter Thompson Worldwide and Wunderman, forming Wunderman Thompson. The company in 2023 launched EssenceMediacom, a media agency, by merging Essence and MediaCom. WPP in 2023 formed Design Bridge and Partners, a brand strategy and design agency, by merging Superunion and Design Bridge. WPP’s Finsbury Glover Hering merged with Sard Verbinnen & Co. in 2021. The combined PR agency rebranded as FGS Global in 2022. Buyout firm KKR in 2023 bought a stake in FGS, but WPP remained majority owner. WPP as of year-end 2023 owned a 50.4% stake in the agency. The company in 2020 brought together AKQA and Grey to form AKQA Group. The company in 2019 merged branding consultancies Landor Associates and Fitch as Landor & Fitch. Landor & Fitch in 2023 shortened its name to Landor. In its financial disclosures for year ended December 2023, WPP said it worked for 303 companies in the Fortune Global 500, all 30 of the Dow Jones 30 (Dow Jones Industrial Average) and 60 of the FTSE 100. WPP told Ad Age its three largest clients in revenue in 2022, 2021 and 2020 were Ford, Google (part of Alphabet) and Unilever. On an October 2022 earnings call, CEO Mark Read said WPP’s “top four clients” were Ford, Google, Unilever and Coca-Cola Co. On that call, Read said: “Ford is our largest client.” WPP, in a November 2019 press release about the planned opening of a WPP office campus in Detroit, said Ford Motor Co. was “WPP’s largest client.” WPP’s 20-F annual filing for year ended December 2023 said: “The company’s 10 largest clients accounted for 16% of the company’s revenues in the year ended 31 December 2023. No client of the company represented more than 5% of the company’s aggregate revenues in 2023. The group’s companies have maintained long-standing relationships with many of their clients, with an average length of relationship for the top 10 clients of approximately 46 years.” Ad Age Datacenter has ranked WPP as the world’s largest agency company since Agency Report 2009 (based on worldwide revenue in 2008). WPP surpassed Omnicom Group as the largest agency company based on 2008 worldwide revenue. Key acquisitions and strategic moves include: 1987: WPP acquired J. Walter Thompson Group for $566 million. The deal included ad agency JWT (now integrated into VML); PR firm Hill & Knowlton (now integrated into Burson); and market research network MRB Group. 1989: WPP acquired The Ogilvy Group for $864 million. The deal included ad agency Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide (now Ogilvy); marketing-services unit Ogilvy Direct; and Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. 2000: WPP bought Young & Rubicam. The deal included Burson-Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe (PR; now Burson), Landor (branding), Sudler & Hennessey (health care), Wunderman (marketing services; now folded into VML) and Y&R (advertising; now folded into VML). WPP’s May 2000 press release announcement of its agreement to buy Y&R termed the all-stock deal “a $4.7 billion transaction” based on the WPP share price at that point. WPP later valued the deal at 2.979 billion pounds ($4.369 billion) based on the opening price of WPP shares Oct. 4, 2000, the day the deal closed. 2001: WPP bought VML. The agency opened as Valentine-McCormick-Ligibel in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1992. 2001: WPP purchased Tempus Group. WPP merged Tempus Group’s media agency, CIA, with The Media Edge (acquired in the 2000 Young & Rubicam deal) to form Mediaedge:cia (now Wavemaker). 2003: WPP acquired Cordiant Communications Group. The deal included Bates, Fitch, HealthWorld and 141 Worldwide. 2003: WPP created GroupM to oversee its media agencies. 2005: WPP bought Grey Global Group (now folded into AKQA Group) for $1.75 billion in cash and stock. 2007: WPP bought 24/7 Real Media for $649 million. The unit later shortened its name to 24/7 Media. In January 2014, WPP merged 24/7 Media into Xaxis, GroupM’s programmatic media and technology platform. Xaxis is now part of GroupM Nexus. 2008: WPP acquired U.K.-based research firm Taylor Nelson Sofres, which became part of Kantar Group, WPP’s research operation. WPP in 2009 said: “The cost of the acquisition of TNS was 1.6 billion pounds," or $2.5 billion, including money paid for TNS stock plus debt inherited from TNS. WPP in December 2019 sold a majority stake in Kantar to Bain Capital. 2012: WPP purchased AKQA Holdings, a U.S.-based digital network, in a deal with an enterprise value of $540 million. WPP worldwide employment at year-end: 2023: 114,173. The average number of employees in North America (U.S. and Canada) was 23,562. 2022: 115,473 people worldwide. The average number of employees in North America was 23,740. 2021: 109,382 people worldwide, including 20,000 staffers in the U.S. The average number of employees in North America was 21,764. 2020: 99,830 people worldwide, including 19,000 staffers in the U.S. The average number of employees in North America was 21,524. 2019: 106,786 people (excluding employees at units, notably Kantar, that WPP divested), including (according to WPP’s calendar-2019 earnings slides) 20,000 staffers in the U.S. The average number of employees in North America was 25,008. WPP worldwide employment at year end in earlier years: 2018: 134,2812017: 134,4132016: 134,341 2015: 128,123 2014: 123,621 2013: 119,116 2012: 115,711 2011: 113,6152010: 104,052 2009: 99,5652008: 112,663 Martin Sorrell, WPP’s chief executive since 1986, abruptly stepped down as CEO April 14, 2018, in the wake of a board investigation. WPP’s board April 3, 2018, announced it had “appointed independent counsel to conduct an investigation in response to an allegation of personal misconduct against Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive Officer of WPP. The investigation is ongoing. The allegations do not involve amounts which are material to WPP.” Following WPP's statement about the investigation, Sorrell said he rejected the allegations “unreservedly.” In announcing April 14, 2018, that Sorrell had “stepped down … with immediate effect,” WPP said: “The previously announced investigation into an allegation of misconduct against Sir Martin has concluded. The allegation did not involve amounts that are material.” WPP named Mark Read as CEO in September 2018. Read, a longtime WPP executive, had served as joint chief operating officer following Sorrell’s departure. After leaving WPP, Sorrell became executive chairman of, and began to build out, S4 Capital, another publicly traded advertising and marketing services venture. WPP’s primary stock listing is on the London Stock Exchange. WPP’s ticker: WPP WPP in 1988 listed shares on Nasdaq as American Depositary Shares. WPP in November 2017 moved its ADS listing to the New York Stock Exchange from the Nasdaq Global Market. Martin Sorrell in 1985 took a stake in Wire and Plastic Products, a British maker of baskets and household wares, following his search for a public company through which to build a worldwide marketing services company. The company adopted the name WPP Group, later shortened to WPP. WPP sold Wire and Plastic Products, the basket business, in 2019. Ad Age Agency Report 2024 Revenue and analysis for agency companies Click here

WPP—Ad Age Agency Report 2024

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