WPP makes big leadership change at troubled media giant GroupM
It’s been obvious for a while now that WPP’s once-all conquering GroupM media empire has been struggling and now global CEO Christian Juhl has been replaced by veteran GroupM hand Brian Lesser.
Lesser (below) was GroupM CEO in North America from 2015-17 and then went on to found Xaxis, WPP’s programmatic media buying platform in 2011. He then joined AT&T as CEO of AT&T Advertising & Analytics, now Xandr. He is currently CEO and chairman of data company InfoSum. Juhl becomes WPP president, corporate development.
GroupM includes a number of media agencies but its main driver is EssenceMediacom, a merger between Juhl’s tech specialist Essence and Mediacom, the long-term driver of Group M’s growth with its formidable bargaining power and new business record. It seemed a strange decision by WPP CEO Mark Read to put the much smaller Essence, highly dependent on tech giants, on top of the mighty Mediacom in 2022. The media business has changed to a degree since then but most observers still think Mediacom should have been the senior partner and provided the leader in that arrangement.
New CEO Lesser says: “WPP and GroupM are special organizations to me. I have experienced first-hand the culture of innovation and collaboration that leads to exceptional work for advertisers. I am thrilled to be rejoining GroupM as Chief Executive Officer. I look forward to building with my talented colleagues, collaborating with our industry partners, and investing with our fantastic roster of global clients.”
Juhl says: “It has been a privilege to lead this amazing business, to work alongside its incredibly talented people, and to partner with our wonderful clients around the world. We’ve achieved a huge amount together and I’m really proud of the progress GroupM has made towards its mission of making advertising work better for people. After five years the time is right for a fresh challenge, and I’m excited to get started in my new role with WPP. Brian is an exceptional leader and I’m happy he is rejoining the GroupM family.”
Which is all fine and hunky dory, and WPP handles these matters courteously, but GroupM is well and truly under the cosh as rivals Publicis and Omnicom eat its lunch.
Omnicom today poster Q2 organic revenue growth of 5.2% while WPP, set to report in early August, is looking at flatlining or no growth. It’s surely no coincidence that this big change at GroupM seems to anticipate that.
It’s obvious Christian was ousted for his poor performance at GroupM, it was a HUGE mistake to merge Essence and Mediacom into a single agency. It’s also another huge mistake to restructure all it’s agency tech staff into Choreograph, it’s an act of desperation that will hinder the uniqueness of it’s client data app offerings, particularly in local markets.
Mark has redefined the businesses to obfuscate, delegating targets to leaders that comprehend nothing about global revenue recognition, regulated headcount allocations, or cost management. They should simply rename WPP to Quagmire.