WPP's Data + Technology Offering

I have had copy of WPP's 2019 annual report on my bedside table for a few months, folded open to the "Data + Technology" section waiting for me to read it.

Now that I have, the strategy both makes sense to me and is already well in-motion.

As you may know, in 2018 when Mark Read was appointed CEO, WPP repositioned as a “creative transformation company” and simplified its offering to include communications, experience, commerce and technology.

The aim of the technology strategy is to harness the collective intelligence and ingenuity of the group for the benefit of all clients.

How?

Through partnerships, open access, distributed innovation and deep specialization.

How?

In terms of partnerships, the focus has been on developing joint offerings with the best tech brands in the world - Adobe, Amazon, Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce.

In terms of open access, the CTO’s office launched and drove adoption of WPP Open, a cross-group platform to enable technology and data innovations developed across the agencies. An internal marketplace for our home-built tech.

In terms of distributed innovation, WPP rationalized its internal product development through a cross-agency Technology Council to increase alignment and decrease duplication.

And in terms of deep specialization, increasing focus on a few transformative technologies, especially on the intersection of AI, data-driven marketing and creative technology.

Stephan Pretorius, WPP’s global technology chief is responsible for making all of the above happen, and so far he looks poised to do it. With a little help from his friends.

The group needs this to work as WPP seeks to return to growth and greatness in a very different marketplace from where it started.

Let’s do this.

More here:

https://www.wpp.com/investors/annual-report-2019#ournewstrategy