WPP Media 2025: A Media Giant Forged For Today and Tomorrow

Describing 2025 as 'a transformative year' for WPP's media business - now known as WPP Media - would probably be a major understatement.

Formed as part of parent network WPP’s drive to simplify its offer to clients, while bringing together its collective group of agencies beyond the former GroupM umbrella, it's become arguably the network's crown jewel.

Formed by global CEO Brian Lesser in the early days of summer, WPP Media has been built to seamlessly connect with WPP’s global agency networks and capabilities through its internal AI platform WPP Open. 

The structure combines agency brands EssenceMediacom, Mindshare, T&P, and Wavemaker, and is led in the UK by CEO Kate Rowlinson with the brief to unite media, data and production capabilities and deliver creative personalisation at scale for advertisers.

“Our ambition is clear: to have our strongest talent working directly with clients - entirely focused on driving growth and opportunity for them in new and innovative ways. We will remove as much bureaucracy and operational burden as we possibly can, so our teams, powered by AI, can deliver for clients,” outlined Rowlinson. 

The rebuilding of the media operation is one of the cornerstones of new WPP CEO Cindy Rose’s turnaround strategy, and already there are signs that the tide could be turning as new wins begin to roll in during the second half of the year. 

Its insights and ambitions were underlined during NextM, an ambitious London-based conference held at Outernet on Oxford Street that focused on the development of AI and its near-term impact over the next three years. 

Creative Salon on WPP Media's 2025

“Consumers already expect advertising to be relevant and engaging and buying experiences to be seamless; those expectations are only going to accelerate in the age of AI,” outlined Lesser upon the launch of WPP Media. 

He went on to describe it as being “built for a world in which media is everywhere and in everything. By investing in our AI-powered product, integrating our offer with data and technology, and equipping our people with future-facing skills, we’re helping our clients to stay ahead of rapidly changing consumer behavior and unlock the limitless opportunities for growth that AI will create.”

In the dawning AI era, WPP Media is moving at speed to keep ahead of the curve, knowing that not only will it be the expectation of its clients that use such technology, but that it will also make the business move faster to respond, especially through WPP Open, the network’s bespoke platform. 

It continues to aspire for growth across the US market, and the win of Mastercard’s global media business in September, spanning more than 70 markets, was a huge shot in the arm. Through that appointment, WPP Media will work alongside Ogilvy “to help drive growth and innovation”. 

“WPP’s powerful global reach and advanced AI and data capabilities - along with their connected approach across paid media, social engagement and business enablement - will help us drive greater impact across our entire marketing ecosystem,” was the quotation issued by Mastercard when outlining the reason for choosing WPP Media. 

Other major account wins since the rebrand have included Henkel’s European digital media business, which sees it work with brand names Persil, Perwoll, Bref, Schwarzkopf and Syoss across 30 markets. In November, it also saw the consolidation of Reckitt’s media planning and buying across 21 European markets, beginning on 1 January 2026. 

Ryan Dullea, chief category growth officer for Reckitt, said: “This is a major milestone in simplifying the way we market and ensuring our strategy and media execution works as one. This decision reflects our ambition to drive greater consistency, efficiency and scale across markets, enabling us to deliver more unified, data driven campaigns that accelerate growth for our brands. We’re excited to embark on this next chapter together with WPP and look forward to building a strong, collaborative partnership that brings Reckitt’s purpose to life.”

The network has also recently been tasked to handle media planning and buying for major UK train operators Avanti West Coast and Great Western Railway. 

To closely align with Rose’s emerging vision for the agency holding company and Lesser’s five-year ‘Vision 30’ strategy launched in May, Rowlingson restructured WPP Media’s UK leadership team with the aim of delivering a greater focus on clients’ business and drive more effective and efficient media solutions to propel brand growth.

Vision 30 will be built across five priorities: Data & Technology; People; Innovation; Collaboration; and Organisational Design.

Taking on the newly-created president roles were Natalie Cummins, leading EssenceMediacom clients, Jon Stevens, leading Wavemaker clients, Victoria Appleby, continuing to lead T&P across media and creative, and Jem Lloyd Williams with the dual role of president of Mindshare and chief strategy officer for WPP Media' He will work alongside Mindshare executive vice president Fleur Stoppani and her leadership team.

Meanwhile, network veteran Stuart Bowden was promoted to president of strategy and capabilities for global clients having spent 15 years in varying exec roles across WPP’s  agency stable.

Among Bowden’s most recent work was a study he co-authored alongside Professor Felipe Thomaz from the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. ‘How Humans Decide’ examined over 1.2 million purchase journeys from WPP’s database, exploring the specific factors that drive consumer choices, in turn, suggesting how brands can act to influence those decisions, particularly in three specific areas.

And awards have not been in short supply either. At Cannes Lions, Mindshare received the joint highest points tally in Media Network of the Year as its AI-powered  ‘Real Beauty Redefined For The AI Era’ for Dove won the Grand Prix for Media. 

Meanwhile, social campaign ‘Vaseline Vefified’ created by Ogilvy Singapore, with support from Ogilvy UK, Edelman, Mindshare and VaynerMedia, was another huge success story at various awards festivals, including Cannes Lions.

At the M&M awards it was one of 12 WPP Media campaigns from nine markets across nine different brands to win, with Dove’s ‘Real Beauty Redefined for the AI Era’ being another.

Over at the World Media Awards, WPP Media clients won three major prizes including the Grand Prix, which was picked up for Cartier’s ‘Linked by Love’ from EssenceMediacom. 

An impressive project from Wavemaker, trialled near the end of the year for The Royal Navy, was the AI-powered recruitment platform, Atlas. It has been designed to guide potential recruits through the joining process, with a particular focus on the Submarine Service.

The potential of the tool is important as Atlas will offer younger candidates a more accessible way to explore roles and understand life as a submariner - part of its broader test-and-learn approach to recruitment innovation.

And as part of the multi-agency team behind EE’s first Christmas campaign, its brand and marketing communication director Kelly Engstrom was full of praise for WPP Media’s involvement with ‘The Christmas Double’. 

“A lot of the work that we're doing is leaning on the insights that we can get from WPP to make sure that we're optimising and that we're as efficient and effective as we possibly can be throughout the campaign, not just when we plan the campaigns,” she explained.

That wasn’t the only complex Christmas campaign WPP Media was involved in, as the fragmented media environment adds varying new complexities. The Tesco campaign, ‘That’s What Makes It Christmas’, involving EssenceMediacom, featured a series of vignettes from familiar festive moments creative an array of content to run across multiple platforms. 

Elsewhere, EssenceMediacom collaborated with production house Dragonfly (part of Banijay UK) to deliver a brand-funded observational documentary series exploring the pioneering research that could transform the future of cancer detection, treatment and prevention.

Created for Channel 4 in collaboration with Cancer Research UK, 'Super Scientists: Curing Cancer' began to air at the end of November.

The partnership was brokered by EssenceMediacom and saw the agency leverage audience insight and content mapping to identify Channel 4 as the optimal platform for engaging socially conscious viewers. It then led a multi-channel amplification campaign supporting the series, including a cross-platform partnership with News UK featuring high-impact placements and integrations across its media portfolio.

Creative Salon says... It was an incredibly busy summer for WPP Media following its restructure, something that both Omnicom and Interpublic Group also endured later in the year. Its response to the challenges of change across the media and advertising landscapes is proving decisive and will stand it in good stead for 2026, which it will aim to be a pivotal year. With AI and the growth of personalised content alone the world of media will evolve further still, and WPP Media will remain one of its most important players.