WPP’s ‘Obituary’ may be premature as Hogarth CTO sees Publicis-style comeback in making

New Delhi: As industry chatter intensifies over WPP’s future, Justin Ricketts, Global Chief Transformation Officer at Hogarth, has drawn a striking parallel with Publicis’ trajectory, suggesting that market pessimism may be overlooking a potential rebound story.

In a LinkedIn post, Ricketts noted that “everyone seems to be writing WPP’s obituary” but questioned whether critics are “making the same mistake they made with Publicis.”

He pointed out that between 2015 and 2020, Publicis Groupe’s stock plunged 63% while the company poured resources into its transformation. At the time, its AI-powered internal platform, Marcel, was dismissed by analysts as a “publicity stunt.” 

The turnaround, however, was emphatic: a 45% stock surge in 2023 and global market leadership by 2024.

According to Ricketts, the industry’s scepticism towards WPP may be overlooking key differences in timing and approach. “Publicis transformed in the pre-AI, pre-privacy era. They bet $4.4 billion on identity-based targeting just as cookies started dying. WPP is building behavioural intelligence for a privacy-first world,” he said.

He argued that WPP is following “the same playbook, better timing.” While Publicis connected workflows, “WPP Open is orchestrating AI-augmented processes,” Ricketts explained.

Highlighting what he called “the HI + AI advantage,” he countered the common narrative that AI will replace creativity: “WPP is fusing Human Intelligence with Artificial Intelligence; the moat pure AI can’t cross.” 

He also stressed the importance of WPP’s workforce: “100,000+ people who get it. While markets obsess over metrics, we have exceptional talent who understand both heritage and future potential.”

He pointed to new CEO Cindy Rose’s “proven transformation experience,” adding that the “structural foundations are laid” and “the AI orchestration layer is operational.”

He concluded by reminding observers that “market punishment during infrastructure investment and structural transformation often signals future dominance, not terminal decline,” before acknowledging, “Could be wrong. But the parallels are striking.”

WPP, which unveiled its new structure in May this year, has been integrating its agencies under a unified WPP Media and expanding WPP Open as its AI-enabled operating system.

OpenAI uses a decentralised data collaboration model powered by InfoSum, ensuring brand data is never moved or exposed, while its Large Marketing Model (LMM) processes trillions of behavioural signals from over 350 partners across 75 markets. 

WPP claims this delivers an always-on, behavioural view of up to five billion individuals, without cookies, PII, or email-based targeting.

Cindy Rose, formerly Microsoft’s Chief Operating Officer for Global Enterprise, will take over as CEO on September 1, 2025.

Announcing its latest results, WPP said, “AI, data, and technology remain central to how we serve clients, driving expanded scopes of work with existing partners and supporting new business growth. Usage of WPP Open continues to rise, with approximately 85% of client-facing staff using the platform in June, up from around 60% in March.”