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In a business sector that has seen the emergence of Deloitte and Accenture into the advertising sector, WPP’s merger of two of its flagship agencies—VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson—to form an entity of 30,000 people across 64 markets is, in some ways, a response to that competition.
Mark Read, CEO of WPP, told Adweek he has been developing the move with the leadership of VML since the summer, when he first proposed the concept of bringing the agencies together to the new entity’s global CEO Jon Cook and global president Mel Edwards.
“You only have to look at what’s going on with AI and technology to understand that scale matters,” Read told Adweek. “Clients need great creative ideas. They need the application of technology, increasing AI, to their business and their processes, and they need a global scale and consistency around the world, and bringing these two agencies together can deliver that. They are very complementary in terms of geographic strengths and their expertise in commerce and marketing technology.”
Another fundamental reason for the merger is to create what WPP claims to be “the industry’s largest creative company,” while eradicating duplication of services and skills.
The process of the merger began with a discussion about how to make WPP a stronger company and better serve clients while attracting top-tier talent.
The two agencies are both themselves the result of previous mega mergers from the last five years. In November 2018, Wunderman and J Walter Thompson were combined under Edwards’ leadership just two months after VML and Y&R merged under Cook. Since then, they have partnered together over the years, working with clients such as Colgate-Palmolive, Dell, Ford, Microsoft, Nestlé and The Coca-Cola Company.
The world does move on, and these brands have to move on as well.
Mark Read, chief executive, WPP
With the announcement made and the formation of VML set to be completed by Jan. 1, the work begins to integrate them. An internal source has already informed Adweek the merger will see greater investment in the creative, strategy and technology sides of the business, with non-client-facing resources likely to be reviewed around duplicated resources.
“VML will be the world’s largest creative company and probably the leading agency in seven or eight of the world’s top 10 economies,” Read said of his ambitions for the new agency. “For clients looking to have a partner that can help them seed around the world and for people looking to build a great career, I think it’ll be a powerhouse. It’s committed both to creativity and to innovation and technology.”
He also cited the rising application of AI as “a once-in-a-lifetime shift” for the business, which he added wouldn’t have been “easy to do 25 times within one company.”
Meanwhile, in one fell swoop, with the return to the VML brand comes the loss of three major legacy agency brands—Wunderman, JWT and Y&R. And while Read has worked with all three and was CEO of Wunderman prior to his rise to lead WPP, he doesn’t believe there is room for sentiment as a barrier to progress.
“They’re great brands, and I can have nostalgia for them as much as anybody else,” he said. “But I think the world does move on, and these brands have to move on as well.”
Other leadership roles announced following the formation of VML include Debbi Vandeven as global chief creative officer; Eric Campbell as global chief client officer; Juan Pablo Jurado as CEO for LATAM; Ewen Sturgeon as CEO EMEA; and Audrey Kuah and Yi-Chung Tay, co-CEOs for APAC.
