WPP issued its second profit warning this year on Thursday after reporting worse-than-expected Q3 results.
Following her first earnings call at the helm of the advertising giant, new CEO Cindy Rose said WPP’s financial performance “is certainly not where it needs to be” on a call with press Thursday—and she promised a plan to fix it.
“My ambition for WPP is sky-high, and we are committed to doing the hard work it will take to turn this business around,” she said.
Key pillars of her roadmap include simplification, competitive pricing, and, of course, AI.
“We haven’t gone far enough or fast enough in adapting to the evolving needs of our clients,” Rose told reporters. “They want our offer to be simpler, more integrated, powered by media, data, and AI, efficiently priced and designed to deliver growth and business outcomes. You can expect us, in our effort to improve our execution, to be focused in those areas.”
To revamp the business to meet these demands, focus areas in the coming months will include client acquisition and retention, strengthening the go-to-market strategy, and optimizing WPP’s org chart while “building a high performance team culture,” Rose said.
The company is also evaluating ways to expand its addressable market through the potential integration or development of additional enterprise tech solutions, though Rose declined to go into specifics.
The former Microsoft exec took the reins at the British advertising behemoth last month, with Mark Read exiting after a tumultuous seven-year stint in the role.
WPP has suffered hit after hit this year, with investors losing confidence amid a messy reorg of its media division, AI acceleration challenges, and a spate of high-profile client departures—with both Coca-Cola and Mars migrating their media accounts to French rival Publicis.