The headline from WPP’s third-quarter call is not a collapse. It is a slower climb back.
The quarter in numbers
CFO Joanne Wilson told analysts on October 30, 2026 that clients lost in earlier periods will cut growth by roughly 600 basis points this year. New business is coming in faster than the 250 basis points WPP recorded in 2025, but not fast enough to erase the deficit. Net new business will remain a drag in Q4, the group’s biggest quarter.
The underlying picture is mixed: revenue less pass-through costs fell 2.1% like-for-like, while reported and like-for-like revenue rose 0.5%. WPP Media returned to growth at 0.3%, Production grew 2.5%, and Creative fell 5.1%.
- Gross client losses: about 600 basis points of 2026 growth
- Gross wins in 2025: 250 basis points
- Top 25 clients: -2.7% like-for-like in Q3, but back to low-to-mid single-digit growth excluding losses
Why better pitch wins are not showing up yet
Wilson described an industry-wide timing problem. New accounts often carry costs before day one, then take three, six or nine months to ramp up to full revenue. That lag sits inside WPP’s margin guidance, and it means this year’s pitch victories will land gradually rather than all at once.
CEO Cindy Rose says the win rate is improving because WPP now pitches as one integrated company instead of hundreds of agencies. The proof points are broad: Coca-Cola retained global media, data, tech and creator work in every market WPP pitched; DoorDash expanded to more than 40 markets; and Waymo named WPP its media partner across North America and EMEA, including its Super Bowl debut.
What marketers should take from the call
The update is not just a WPP story. It is a signal about agency economics.
Rose pushed back on the idea of skipping formal reviews. “The cost and burden of the process seems to be increasing,” she said, but argued that high-stakes decisions deserve careful due diligence. That matters if you are a brand deciding between a pitch and a direct deal.
WPP also spent the call on AI and data. It opened Devon’s Point, an AI-powered production facility in East London, in September, and expanded WPP Open Intelligence to roughly 400 data partners. When asked about Apple’s Safari block on third-party identity resolution, Rose said WPP does not rely solely on identity matching because of its InfoSum clean-room platform, so the impact is minimal.
For growth teams, the lesson is simple: new business wins need a ramp-up assumption, and integrated pitches plus data proof points are becoming the difference-maker.
Source: PPC Land
