WPP’s Agency Restructuring Continues: Grey Moves to Ogilvy, AKQA Regains Independence
The restructures continue at the UK's largest advertising network.
In a personal LinkedIn post last week, I reflected on WPP’s consolidation of some of its most iconic creative agencies. I was at WPP (working at Cognifide) during the integration of the Adobe AEM consultancy into Wunderman, which later merged with Young & Rubicam and JWT, two of the most renowned names in advertising to form Wunderman Thompson. That brand was also sunsetted last year, with Wunderman Thompson being folded into VML, at the time creating the world’s largest advertising group by headcount.
These changes were not limited to creative agencies. WPP recently announced that its media division, GroupM, will be rebranded as WPP Media. This new structure will bring together Mindshare, Wavemaker, and EssenceMediacom into a more streamlined and client-centric operation and most importantly under a single P&L which will reduce costs and headcount across all the media agencies.
This week WPP announced another significant development: Grey will now become part of the Ogilvy Group, while AKQA will re-emerge as a standalone entity. This move reverses the de facto merger of Grey and AKQA under the AKQA Group banner which happened just before the pandemic in 2020 however Grey will continue to retain it’s brand with the Ogilvy Group.
A spokesperson explained: “AKQA and Grey have each built strong individual momentum. As we prepare to welcome a new global CEO for AKQA, it is an opportune time to reassess the structure to better serve our clients.”
The strategic logic is clear. Grey, with its strong creative heritage, and AKQA, known for its innovation in design and technology, will each be better positioned to focus on their distinct strengths.
Grey’s relationship with Ogilvy is not new. When the AKQA Group was established in 2020, a “strategic alliance” was also formed between Ogilvy Paris and Grey Paris. While Grey retained its branding, the team moved into Ogilvy’s offices in Paris, gaining increased access to Ogilvy’s resources.
Under the new structure, Laura Maness, Global CEO of Grey, will report to Devika Bulchandani, Global CEO of Ogilvy. This alignment follows the resignation of Ajaz Ahmed, former Group CEO of AKQA, in October 2024. A new global CEO for AKQA is expected to be announced this summer. Maness remarked that the timing was right to “review the reporting structure”.
From a financial perspective, WPP’s Q1 2025 results revealed a disappointing 4.4% year-on-year decline in revenues for its Global Integrated Agencies division that included Ogilvy, Grey, and AKQA. The group cited continued pressure on project-based work as a contributing factor, noting that AKQA was particularly affected during the quarter. Ogilvy also faced challenging comparisons with a strong Q1 2024.
Grey (founded in 1917) and Ogilvy (1948) remain two of WPP’s most enduring agency brands following multiple waves of consolidation. With the recent internal merger forming VML, WPP now operates across six primary verticals: WPP Media, VML, AKQA, Ogilvy Group, Burson, and Hogarth.
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