• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, November 26, 2019

WPP is on a campus-creating roll.

It’s latest: a new facility in the historic Marquette Building in downtown Detroit, an area that has been undergoing a widely reported renaissance in recent years.

Word of the holding company’s new effort in Detroit follows word earlier this month of a similar effort being undertaken in Madrid. In the past couple of months it has announced campus initiatives for San Francisco and two facilities in India.

Other holding companies are creating similar outlets, in part to streamline operations and to foster greater collaboration between business units.

WPP’s Detroit Campus will accommodate up to 1,000 of WPP’s people, bringing together its agencies in the city including GTB, VMLY&R, Burrows, Hudson Rouge, Iconmobile, Xaxis and Zubi. The agencies  work with WPP’s largest client, Ford Motor Company, and other clients.

WPP’s new operation will be near Ford’s own planned campus in the Corktown district of Detroit. WPP will also retain a presence in Dearborn, MI, when the Detroit Campus opens in late 2020.

The holding company said it is leasing 150,000 square feet, encompassing nine floors, in the refurbished Marquette Building. It was built in 1905 and named after Jacques Marquette, the French explorer who led an expedition to map the Mississippi River in 1673. It’s these little bits of historical information that really make items like this sing, don’t you think?

WPP CEO Mark Read stated: “As the renewal of Detroit accelerates, we hope to become a destination for creative thinkers and innovators, contributing to job growth and diversification in the market while advancing the goals of our clients.”

WPP-owned BDG architecture + design will design the interior office space, which will be WPP’s tenth campus in North America and the fifth to be unveiled in the last two years. By 2023, WPP plans to have 85,000 people in 40 campus locations worldwide.