Fall of a giant

Tough times for business that used to rule adland

- Mark Sweney

A dark joke is doing the rounds in adland that Wire and Plastic Products, the Kent-based basketmaker that Martin Sorrell bought 40 years ago as a vehicle to build a global advertising group, might outlast WPP.

Now named Delfinware, the business, a maker of dish drainers, is 56 years old and privately held, while the listed global advertising group that was once its parent struggles amid a changing corporate landscape.

For decades the financial success and dominance of WPP - which has more than 100,000 employees servicing global clients from Ford to Coca-Cola - has been the corporate manifestation of Britain's shining reputation for creative advertising.

WPP has housed some of the most prestigious agency networks - from J Walter Thompson (JWT) and Ogilvy & Mather to Young & Rubicam (Y&R) - producing globally resonant campaigns such as Dove's Real Beauty.

Among WPP's greatest hits are the unlikely pairing of the Sex Pistol John Lydon with Country Life butter, and decades of work for Coca-Cola, including Ogilvy convincing the company to replace its logo on bottles with personal names - a global phenomenon still on shelves 12 years later.

But now, as WPP struggles to stem a growing exodus of clients worth billions of pounds and deal with an existential race to match the AI and data capabilities of rivals, there is talk of a breakup - something hitherto unthinkable.

"WPP ruled the world at one point, it was like the British empire," said one industry executive. "It was symbolic of UK success and the country's status as the global home for advertising."