WPP's third quarter revenue dipped by 8.4% globally on a reported basis and 3.5% on a like-for-like basis to reach GBP 3,259 million.

Its Indian operations, however, grew by 6.7%, the only market among the top five to witness growth.

Cindy Rose, chief executive officer, WPP, said, “My ambition is for WPP to lead our industry in terms of innovation, client delivery and organic growth. However, I acknowledge that our recent performance is unacceptable and we are taking action to address this."

She added, "We have strong foundations and the ingredients needed to succeed. We have amazing long-standing clients that represent the largest, most well-known brands in the world, strong capabilities and world-class talent that spans media, production and creative, some of the most consequential agency brands in the market, unrivalled global scale and reach, and market-leading technology and technology partnerships that give us a real competitive edge. This is an exciting platform to build on. To deliver performance improvements, we will position our offering to be much simpler, more integrated, powered by data and AI, efficiently priced and designed to deliver growth and business outcomes for our clients. We will significantly improve our execution, strengthening our go-to-market and dramatically simplifying how we organise ourselves internally, as well as building a high-performance team culture. We will expand our addressable market by pushing harder into enterprise and technology solutions. And finally, we will take a disciplined approach to capital allocation with a focus on cost efficiency and maintaining a strong balance sheet while prioritising the parts of our business where we can deliver the greatest shareholder value."

Speaking about her first two months as CEO at the holding company, she added, "There is a lot to do, and it will take time to see the impact, but in my first 60 days we are already moving at pace with some initiatives already announced and more to come. We know what it takes to win: we are optimistic, energised and confident that we’re building the right plan and the right culture to secure a bright future for WPP, our people, our clients, and our shareholders. We look forward to sharing more details early in the new year.”

WPP Media saw a LFL decline in revenue less pass-through costs of 5.7% in Q3. Performance in the quarter was impacted by client assignment losses in the US and UK, a 'significant deterioration' in Germany and 'moderating declines' in China, partially offset by improving performance in Spain and India. Since the network lost further clients from 1 October, it anticipates the LFL decline in revenue less pass-through costs to deteriorate further in the fourth quarter.

Other global integrated agencies declined 6.5% LFL impacted by continued volatility in client spending, with sustained pressure on both Ogilvy and AKQA. 

VML’s revenue-less pass-through costs in the quarter continued to decline but at a more moderate rate, while Hogarth saw a return to growth in the third quarter supported by a strong performance in India.

Its PR agency, Burson saw a mildly improved, trend relative to the first half, but saw revenue less pass-through costs down in the mid single digits as the business continued to face a challenging environment.

Landor and Design Bridge and Partners both saw a return to growth in the quarter supported by spend from existing clients. With pressure on the longer tail of activities within the segment, overall Specialist Agencies saw a decline of 2.2%. 

The network is currently reviewing its strategy with a focus on four core principles:

• Simplifying and integrating its client offering while harnessing AI to deliver growth and business outcomes for clients 
• Significantly improving its execution and building a high-performance culture 
• Expanding its addressable market through enterprise and technology solutions
• Strengthening its financial foundations and performance through operational efficiency and a disciplined approach to capital allocation (full details will be shared early next year)