WPP set to drop GroupM brand during its ‘year of transition”

Leading industry trades are reporting that agency giant WPP is set to shut down its GroupM brand, home to its network of media agencies. WPP is yet to comment officially, but reports suggest Group M will become WPP Media.

WPP CEO Mark Read. Photo: WPP

GroupM employs 40,000 people, around a third of WPP’s total workforce. It acts as the umbrella for media agencies Mindshare, Wavemaker and EssenceMediacom, as well as specialist divisions GroupM Nexus and GroupM Motion Entertainment.

According to WPP’s own figures, GroupM manages $63bn of media budgets, with clients including Amazon, Unilever, L’Oreal and Coca-Cola.

WPP CEO Mark Read has a track record of merging and re-organising divisions in order to unlock efficiencies. He brought together VML, Y&R and Wunderman Thomson under the VML brand, and also merged several branding and design agencies. Having recently referred to 2025 as “a year of transition” for WPP, speculation is mounting that Read may also consolidate WPP’s creative agencies further.

The news about Group M comes on the heels of WPP’s Q1 2025 results, with revenues of £3,243m down 5.0% YoY. WPP said this performance was “consistent with expectations and guidance given at the preliminary results in February”.

Read said: “We continue to make solid progress on our strategic priorities. With the internal focus of integration behind them, VML and Burson are seeing renewed momentum in new business with Generali, Heineken and Levi Strauss & Co important wins during the quarter. The acquisition of InfoSum and its integration into GroupM’s data offer accelerates our AI-driven data approach.”

Read used the results to comment on US tariffs: “While WPP is not itself directly affected by tariffs, they will impact a number of our clients as well as the broader economy. At this point we have not seen any significant change in client spending and we reiterate our full-year guidance which already reflected a challenging environment.”