Businessweek

WPP plc provides communications services on a national, multinational, and global basis. The company operates from approximately 3,000 offices in 110 countries, including associates. Segments The company operates through four segments: Advertising and Media Investment Management; Consumer Insight; Public Relations & Public Affairs; and Branding & Identity, Healthcare, and Specialist Communications (including direct, digital, promotion, and relationship marketing). Advertising and Media Investment Management This segment includes advertising and media investment management. Advertising: The primary functions of an advertising agency are the planning and creation of marketing and branding campaigns, and the design and production of advertisements for various types of media, such as television, cable, the Internet, radio, magazines, newspapers, and outdoor locations, such as billboards. This segment operates various advertising networks, such as Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, JWT, Y&R, Grey, Bates CHI&Partners, and the United Network. Media Investment Management: GroupM Worldwide, Inc (GroupM) is the company’s major global media investment management operation. With its agencies, GroupM has capabilities in business science, consumer insight, communications and media planning implementation, interactions, content development, and sports and entertainment marketing. The primary purpose of GroupM is to improve the performance of the company’s media agencies, as a collaborator on performance-enhancing activities, such as trading, content creation, sports, digital, finance, tool development, and other business-critical capabilities, to utilize the combination of GroupM’s core and talent resources. The company’s offering in this discipline also includes the network tenthavenue, which integrates some of the Group’s key specialist media offerings in online, mobile, experiential, and out of home. This segment’s media investment management companies include MediaCom, MEC, Mindshare, Maxus, and tenthavenue. Consumer Insight This segment operates through Kantar Group. The Kantar Group offering includes custom research in a range of business sectors and areas of marketplace information, including strategic market studies; brand positioning; equity research; customer satisfaction surveys; product development; international research; modeling; advertising research; pre-testing, tracking, and sales modeling; and trends and futures research and consultancy. Public Relations & Public Affairs This segment operates through Burson-Marsteller, Cohn & Wolfe, Hill+Knowlton Strategies and Ogilvy Public Relations. This segment’s companies advise clients who are seeking to communicate with consumers, governments, and/or the business and financial communities. This segment’s activities include national and international corporate, financial and marketing communications, crisis management, reputation management, public affairs, and government lobbying. Branding & Identity, Healthcare, and Specialist Communications This segment’s operations are conducted by B to D Group; ghg; Wunderman; Sudler & Hennessey; OgilvyOne Worldwide; Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide; G2; OgilvyAction, 24/7 Media, Inc.; POSSIBLE; AKQA Holdings, Inc.; and other companies. Branding & Identity: The company provides consumer, corporate, and employee branding and design services, covering identity, packaging, literature, events, training, and architecture. Healthcare Communications; The company provides integrated healthcare marketing solutions from advertising to medical education and online marketing. Direct, Digital, Promotion, & Relationship Marketing: The company provides the range of general and specialist customer, channel, direct, field, retail, promotional, and point-of-sale services. Specialist Communications: The company provides a range of specialist services, from custom media and multicultural marketing to event, sports, youth, and entertainment marketing; corporate and business-to-business; and media, technology, and production services. WPP Digital: Through WPP Digital, the company provides access for WPP companies and their clients to a portfolio of digital experts. Services provided by WPP Digital full-service interactive agencies include digital marketing solutions for advertisers and publishers; integrated digital marketing strategy services; mobile solutions for handset manufacturers and wireless operators; creating measurable interactive marketing; and proprietary platforms, which enable advertisers to engage with global audiences across the universe of digital media. Clients The company services 350 of the Fortune Global 500 companies; all 30 of the Dow Jones 30; 63 of the NASDAQ 100; 31 of the Fortune e-50; and approximately 760 national or multinational clients in 3 or more disciplines. Approximately 480 clients are served in 4 disciplines. Strategy The company’s core strategic priorities include increasing the share of more measurable marketing services, such as Consumer Insight and direct, digital and interactive – to be approximately 50% of revenues, with a focus on the application of new technology, big data, and digital; and achieving ‘horizontality’ by ensuring its people work together for the benefit of clients, primarily through two horizontal integrators: client leaders and Country Managers. History WPP plc was founded in 1971.