Two signs this week remind us that the ad industry’s largest businesses are getting out of advertising as we know it.
Firstly, there’s the news that WPP is set to embark on yet another restructure of its creative agencies, this time on the advice of McKinsey consultants, per the Financial Times. The second came from the Super Bowl, which has come to serve as creative agencies’ annual shopfront — and which featured more spots made by indies than by the industry’s largest employers.
WPP’s creative agencies have underperformed financially for years, with revenues from VML, Ogilvy and AKQA falling 5.8% in the first half of 2025, according to the parent company’s own financials. From the point of view of WPP’s leadership, there’s a clear argument in favor of this next remodel. Holding companies (or operating companies) are attempting to meet the needs of advertisers that spend in the billions across dozens of channels, requiring generative AI to produce thousands of creative assets and millions of data points.
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