By Sam Bradley  •  February 26, 2026  •

Ivy Liu

“It’s a part of our business, and it’s a growing part of our business, and I expect it to continue to grow over time,” WPP Media boss Brian Lesser told analysts.

The comments will inevitably draw scrutiny. Lesser is currently named in a $100 million whistleblower lawsuit alleging WPP’s principal trading practices amounted to an undisclosed profit center built on client spend. An internal GroupM document submitted in court filings describes GroupM generating nearly $1 billion annually from what it internally called ‘non-product related income.” WPP disputes the characterization.

Principal media — agencies buying inventory for themselves and reselling it to clients, often at a markup — has long divided the industry. Skeptics say the moment an agency acts as a principal it stops being a pure broker and becomes a seller with its own commercial interest to protect. Yet holdcos have pushed into it aggressively as fee compression has squeezed traditional revenue streams; client demand, however conflicted, has followed. 

“We’re not trying to sell assets that we acquired for billions of dollars. We’re trying to work with technology companies, data companies, media companies, to connect these things to build products that drive better performance,” Lesser continued. “In many ways we are more impartial, more objective in how we construct our principal based media products, and therefore they’re more compelling to our clients. And I expect they’ll buy more of them over time.”

That growing appetite, however, is coming alongside a sharper understanding of how these arrangements actually work. Clients are increasingly demanding visibility into how much of their spend is growing through principal inventory, under what conditions, and on what terms, pushing for contractual protections that didn’t exist a few years ago. 

“Principal media is a very powerful mechanism for many of our clients and the industry. Today, we have a very strong process around it in certain markets. It’s a very important part of the media program,” Wilson told Digiday. “Clients have the option to opt in or not to principal media, and we’re very much aligned with our clients in the areas where we use it.”

Lesser and Wilson’s comments come as CEO Cindy Rose unveiled an extensive plan she promised would reverse the London-headquartered firm’s fortunes.

The four stage plan hinges on WPP’s ability to effectively unify the collective creative firepower of its agencies, its collective data and tech chops — and the purchasing power in the media market, as the demands of big ticket clients shift.

“What we’re doing is pulling [WPP] together in a much more integrated way, and putting the right resource in front of the right client at the right time, without the historical constraints of our agency silos,” she told Digiday.

“We’re also putting media and our trusted data solutions at the core of our business, and we’re leveraging WPP Open, our agentic marketing platform, in every single client pitch.”

Top of the CEO’s list is an effort to “stabilize” the company’s new business operation. A run of form in the pitch room has seen WPP pick up media briefs for Estée Lauder, the U.K. government and Jaguar Land Rover; Rose said net sales in the first months of 2026 had already exceeded those notched up throughout 2025.

But the material reality facing WPP means it still faces an uphill struggle. Fewer clients stuck with WPP in 2025, and those that did spent less, contributing to a 5.4% fall in revenue less pass through costs according to the company’s preliminary fourth quarter and full year results, also published today. Total net revenue for 2025 was £10.1 billion ($13.6 billion), down from £11.35 billion ($15.37 billion) in 2024.

“What’s become very clear is that what’s made us successful in the past will not make us successful in the future,” said Rose. “Our performance is not where it needs to be.”

She told Digiday the structural remedies included in the “Elevate28” plan — which she said will shift WPP from a holding company into a “single company” — would put WPP on a more offensive footing for new business.

Her turnaround plan involves a sweeping restructure of the company, organizing it into a single firm with four pillars: WPP Media, WPP Creative (confirmed, following last month’s rumored move), WPP Production and the newly announced WPP Enterprise Solutions.

“We have all the ingredients we need to win in terms of talent, capability, technology, partnerships, scale,” said the CEO, who was appointed almost six months ago.

Along the way, the company expects to find £500 million ($677 million) in cost savings; Rose declined to say how much would be derived from staff cuts.