WPP’s Worldview — Too Wide?

How do we wind up by ‘accident’ in unintended places on the Internet? It often (very!) seems soooo random. I just stumbled upon WPP’s PR site on a quiet Sunday when I should be somewhere else and saw the following chart that gives the WPP internal corporate view of their vast agency and services universe. Did I say vast?

If you were a prospective network client, would you view this cavalcade of companies as being a …

Pick one.

Turn on?

Turn off?

Me? I find the sheer number of logos a bit freaky and am turned off. Why? Because as an ex-Saatchi & Saatchi global-behemoth-employee (i.e. the old days) who worked across many global Saatchi offices and companies, I know for a fact that these various owned agencies do not / cannot work well with each other. They have P&L (and ego) battles. Understatement.

Look, I am sure that WPP management kinda says that all of these various companies work super well together. But, when you are an individual agency CEO with P&L responsibility, and your bonus is predicated on profitability and great work at your agency, how can you really stand out if you have to UBER collaborate? Like, and let’s keep this easy– like how to you divvy up the client’s moolah between other voracious CEO’s?

OK, back to the WPP Mega chart.

By the way, who, because logo positioning isn’t random, decided that the AKQA logo goes first? I’m trying to imagine the conversations leading to finalizing the layout.

(Oh, one more thing. Willing to think small(er) —  Here is an agency that is totally positioned against the need for the global behemoth approach.)