Dive Brief:

• WPP saw like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs, an indicator of organic agency growth, decline 1% year over year in 2024, per a trading statement from the ad-holding group. The declines were steeper than analysts anticipated.
• The like-for-like measure was down 2.3% YoY in Q4, a period affected by particularly strong pullbacks in China, where revenue plunged 21.2%. WPP has also recently been battered by the loss of some large accounts, such as Starbucks. 
• The company said it expects 2025 revenue to land somewhere between flat to down 2%, with performance improvements expected in the second half. The cloudy outlook sends a warning sign to an agency space that is facing down higher macroeconomic volatility. 

Dive Insight:

WPP closed 2024 on a down note, with steep declines in markets like China and some punishing client losses. In a statement attached to the earnings report, CEO Mark Read acknowledged a degree of caution given the current macroeconomic environment, which has been rattled by President Donald Trump’s trade war maneuvering and broader global uncertainty.

Weaker ad spending can be a bellwether of a larger economic downturn. Read still emphasized confidence in WPP hitting its medium-term growth targets, along with further simplifying its client-facing structure and making advances in areas like artificial intelligence.    

“We're excited about the prospect of AI augmenting human creativity, carefully and systematically ... and we believe it will be an opportunity for us as a company. It's going to impact and augment our people's creative talent and make them more efficient and is going to deliver greater integration and grow the value of data that we have within the business,” Read said on an earnings call.

Still, the new year has already delivered some unwelcome setbacks for WPP. Starbucks U.S. shifted its creative to Stagwell’s Anomaly in January, a surprise change given that WPP was only on the business for a few months and was in the process of building out a bespoke unit for the coffee chain. Starbucks is in the midst of a creative overhaul as it vies to reverse its own sales slump and fading relevance. 

WPP notched some notable wins on the media front in the second half of 2024, bringing on deep-pocketed accounts from Amazon, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark and Unilever that could provide a boost in the months ahead. WPP has been busy restructuring its media-buying behemoth GroupM.

“2025 marks a defining year for GroupM. Our strategic priorities, AI-driven data strategy and commitment to innovation will position us as the industry leader. With our unparalleled global capabilities and relentless focus on simplification, efficiency and growth, we will drive results for our clients as true business partners,” said GroupM CEO Brian Lesser, who returned to the WPP fold last year, on the earnings call.

While creative shop VML just won the account of Italian insurance giant Generali, the overall picture for WPP remains patchy in 2025 as the group faces a year of flat or negative growth. The performance gulf between the world’s largest agency network and rivals like Publicis Groupe has widened while the broader category is primed for consolidation as Omnicom moves to integrate Interpublic Group as part of a planned $13 billion acquisition in H2.