Perhaps you have heard of important companies within the world of advertising and marketing such as Kantar, CMI Media Group, MediaCom or Gray Group. But what you may not know is that together with many other companies, they are part of the british multinational holding company WPP, whose headquarters are in London.
WPP recently announced the purchase of corebiz, an eCommerce agency with a presence in Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Spain, with the intention of continuing to bet on strengthening its commercial offer in Latin America and adapting to the frequent changes in the industry. Corebiz is specialized in the implementation of eCommerce platforms such as VTEX, Magento or Prestashop and It has more than 600 employees throughout the Latin American region, mainly concentrated in its offices in São Paulo and Franca in Brazil. The company’s Brazilian operations are will merge with the global VMLY&R commerce network and other regional developments will be made over the next year.
Taking advantage of this operation, we have decided to take a deeper look at WPP and its relevance in today’s market.
Brief history of WPP
The beginning of the multinational company is quite curious, since At first it had nothing to do with advertising.
In the year 1985, Martin Sorrell bought a majority stake in a small British manufacturer of wire baskets and teapots called Wire and Plastic Products. In 1987, he changes the name to WPP and uses it as the foundation on which to build an international advertising and marketing services group.
During the last years of the 1980s, the company began to execute a growth strategy based on acquisitions of other important companies in the sector. His first purchases included Scott Stern Associates, one of Scotland’s largest design and advertising companies, and J. Walter Thompson, now Wunderman Thompson, one of the world’s largest creative agencies.
In the next three decades, the WPP empire continued growing with the acquisitions of companies in the industry of advertising, digital marketing, online shopping, digital media, data management, corporate and retail consulting and sports marketing.
During May 2000, WPP acquired the American marketing and communications company Young & Rubicam Group, in a deal for $5.7 billion, one of the largest acquisitions in the advertising industry at the time. This purchase meant that, in terms of billing and income, WPP became the world’s largest advertising companyleaving Omnicom Group and Interpublic behind.
Martin Sorrell, who led the company for 33 years, retired in 2018 and was replaced by Mark Read, with the position of executive director. During his first year in office, Read merged several companies, sold more than 30 subsidiaries and 60% of kantar, one of its best known brands. He also sold the original Wire and Plastic Products company.
Currently, WPP is part of the agency companies called “Big Four” of advertisingwith the giants Publicis, Interpublic Group of Companies and Omnicom. Its workforce brings together approximately 107,000 employees distributed in 3,000 offices in 112 countries.
What brands make up WPP
- AKQA. Design and innovation agency.
- BCW. Comunication agency.
- CMIMediaGroup. Pharmaceutical marketing agency.
- Choreography. Agency for technology and data products.
- Essence. Analysis and technology agency.
- FGSGlobal. Communications consultant and strategic advisory.
- FLOCK. Advertising and marketing.
- GroupM. Media investment company.
- Hill+Knowlton Strategies. Consulting agency.
- Hogarth. Marketing Implementation Agency.
- Kantar. Consulting agency, information and marketing data.
- Landor and Fitch. Consulting agency.
- MediaCom. Communicational strategies agency.
- Mindshare. Media services company.
- Ogilvy. creative agency.
- Superunion. Design and brand consultant.
- VMLY&R. Marketing agency.
- Wavemaker. Media, content and technology agency.
- WPP Government & Public Sector Practice. Political advisory agency.
- Wundermann Thompson. Creative, consulting and technological agency.
- xaxis. Media platform and programmatic technology.
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