When WPP bought a majority stake in digital agency AKQA in 2012 digital advertising was growing exponentially and so were pioneering digital shops. 

But in the last couple of years some of those agencies have struggled to keep up, including IPG’s Huge and R/GA and WPP’s AKQA.  

IPG’s solution was to sell—Huge late last year and R/GA in March. 

Is AKQA next? 

According to WPP CEO Mark Read the answer is no. At least not yet. Speaking to analysts on its Q1 conference call on Friday, where the question came up, Read replied, “I don’t think we want to do what IPG did with Huge and R/GA ... The reason we get paid is to fix businesses in our portfolio.” 

AKQA, which had a management change last year, is a robust agency and brand, Read said. “We have a strong asset, and our focus is on improving it,” he added. “We’re not ready to surrender yet.” 

Analysts also zeroed in on GroupM’s ongoing rehabilitation, new business and the increasingly uncertain macroeconomic economic picture fueled in large part by Trump’s tariff war.   

Read acknowledged that losing Coca-Cola Co.’s North American media business last month was “difficult” and that the Pfizer media loss from last year still had an impact in the first quarter of this year. 

“We’re not expecting a massive recovery in the second half, said Read, while noting some positive indicators. For one, “we’re not without our [media] successes in new business,” he said citing the retention and expansion of the Unilever business, a Johnson & Johnson win in the U.S. and an Amazon win for regions outside the U.S. 

Also, the acquisition of data clean room InfoSum earlier this month will “drive a step change” in GroupM’s performance, particularly in competitive pitches, Read asserted. He explained that GroupM’s data offering had been “missing a little bit” and that InfoSum will strengthen that proposition “significantly.” For clients, he added, the integration is “practically seamless” and can take place within days or weeks. 

He also asserted that while many focus on a few big losses, the company has done “six or seven thousand new business pitches" of one sort or another this year very few of which make the headlines. So the picture is “more balanced” than the common perception. 

One analyst on the call noted that the first quarter of the year was the worst performing quarter for the big four holding companies combined since Q1 2021 (about .5% growth) and wondered why. 

Read replied, “that’s the economy...we saw some of that in the fourth quarter,” where some discretionary spending dried up, particularly among smaller clients. 

Read also said the pitch pipeline generally might be a little smaller given the growing uncertainty. 

Pressed on the firm’s decision to stick with its current growth outlook for the full year (flat to down 2%) given growing macro worries Read replied there were a “range of outcomes” in coming quarters that could result in a change.