>> in 2022, wpp as it is now known as the biggest advertising

firm on the planet. specifically in 1989, mark crede walk through the doors and played a starring role in that transformation. in 2018, he became the executive of the financial crisis. today, we speak to mark crede about a new age of advertising and how to run a business for for the 21st century. ♪ >> thank you for joining us on leaders with lacqua. >> our industry, it is such a interesting phase. we have just been through the pandemic. we have come out ever more relevant. we face a period of continued innovation with new advertising formats, additional companies being launched, e-commerce taking off. i--is changing now, more than ever.

francine: if you look at the pace of change the last 10 years, it has been incredible. can you go through the same pace of change in the next 10 years? mark: i think so. we try to have the heart, like the small company, to be responsive of how people day to day working on clients. that is how we get the scale of a big company, but how we also operate quickly and nimbly. francine: what is the future for wpp? mark: what makes us special is creativity. without ideas, there is nothing on these tech platforms. what would facebook be without creative work and creative ideas, all the things creative people like? creativity is what makes wpp extinct of and where we are to invest. with technology, how we bring ideas to life, where they live and exist, that is changing quickly. it is about building up

traditional skills if you like the past. but building a better understanding of the technology you need in the future. francine: your role is changing, i guess. is it still advertising or advertising -- or advising clients? mark: wpp is a advertising company more today. when i got to customs, i said, i work in advertising. wpp is more than advertising. when i am asked by a client, how do we succeed on amason -- amazon. we have had to learn new skills over the last 10 years. francine: what is going to be the next 10 years? amazon, twitter, something else will be the new hot thing? mark: consumers will decide. we need to be where consumers are. it is our job to understand those platforms and help our clients understand what is most

relevant, where can they reach their consumers more effectively. what is the pig us return on investment? --biggest return on investment? francine: how did you end up in advertising? mark: sort of by mistake, really. [laughter] francine: a good mistake or a bad mistake? mark: i worked with a few business leaders and companies. i ended up working with wpp in the early days. i never thought i would end up sitting in this seat. francine: what did you like most about your job? mark: the people. ultimately, we are a people business. we have clients who are people, creative's who are people, technologists who are people. a lot of what my job is as ceo of the company is give those people motivation to tell them where we are going, to encourage them to come up and do their best work, encourage them to collaborate.

ultimately, the job is as much of, sometimes, you think you are a psychologist as you are a business leader. francine: what is your best piece of advice? i do not know if in psychological terms, but if there is a deal or account you need to get that you are worried will go to a rival, what is were pep talk like? mark: i love pictures, i love meeting from the front -- leading from the front and spending time with teams. i love to see the work we are doing. when we pitched to a new business is often when we come together. i try to put myself in the seat of the client. what is the client going to think and we see this work? are they going to be excited, is it going to turn their brand around? francine: how have clients changed over the years since you have been in advertising? do they ask for different services now because challenges are so much bigger? mark: we never lived through a period of so many crises, trying

to manage enormous budgets. they need trusted advisors. i think that is in a sense, why they are looking to wpp, our agencies and our people to bring in a sense of, if we do this, what will the impact be? from packaging, through to advertising, public relations, design. in many fields, the days of old, all of this was a matter of judgment. now, we are much more data-driven than we used to be. we measure the return on investment. we use digital media. i think we have become much more analytically than we have been. francine: what is the path forward if you look at some technology companies, twitter, facebook, is that where the future lies? mark: in the first six months of the year, if you look at wpp, we have grown more quickly than the average force of tech companies like facebook, google, twitter. the challenges they have faced

is somewhat different than the challenges we faced. we tend to have bigger, more global clients. we are not so reliant on capital venture startups. there are going to be a lot of opportunities for us. francine: who do you see as your biggest rival? mark: we compete with traditional rivals, consulting companies, some clients who try to do some of this work in-house. it has always been competitive. two people in the garage can start an agency that have done many years. for the major clients that we service today, we are in a good position. we just came off the back a year ago winning the global mandate for the coca-cola company. they looked at and tested every element of what we are doing in the business from coming to develop creative work in china, india, south africa, to can we embrace the media revolution, partner with facebook and google and how to embrace tiktok.

every part of our business, selected us as their partner. that talks to the power and scale we have. francine: is it more difficult now because of the cost of living crisis, because of the economic downturn? do you start feeling it already? mark: as i speak to you today, the client spend is amazingly resilient. we can look at next year, we can worry about next year. it is easy. i have learned not to worry about things like hard control. i cannot control the economic environment. i can only put bpp and our clients and the best position to navigate it. i think what we do is super relevant and clients, what to demonstrate to consumers what they are doing. we work with supermarkets to demonstrate how customers can save money. clients have got to innovate, put price increases. the need for marketing is not going to go away. no doubt, the next 12 months will be challenging. i think we will come out of it

as we have done before in a stronger position. ♪ francine: next, clients and consumer. the admin must speak to both with people asking evermore from brands. we get the balance between profit and values. ♪

>> leadership is key for any firm's success, particularly in a creative industry. if more than 100,000 companies globally, how do you run a city as a small business? we continue the conversation with wpp chief executive, mark creed. francine: as we look forward to 2023, what do clients ask the most? mark: how much are we going to spend next or, what the economic outlook is going to be. that is the period of great

uncertainty. what we say to clients is, those that have done well should continue to support their brands. ultimately, what they need to do as we saw even during the pandemic, those companies cut them off and quickly, found it hard to reinstate. we say to the cliffs, do not be fiscally irresponsible, but do invest behind your business, invest behind your brands. that is what they are coming to us, asking how to do that. how to do that in 2023 means different things. what do i do one tiktok, how do i succeed on amazon, how do i manage my reputation? they are different questions from five or 10 years ago. francine: let's say i had a $10 million budget and i wanted to touch the u.s. consumer, not alienate china and keep my reputation intact. how do i deploy that money? mark: [laughter] all products --what is your product? francine: let's say a energy

drink. mark: we are working with a number of soft drinks companies. i think you've got to have a great idea. what is the product -- what does the product stand for and what does it mean to consumers? you've got to look across the media mix. people talk about the death of television, but in some ways, television is being reinvented. netflix is taking tv ads, disney+ can accept advertising. those channels are super relevant. you've got to understand creativity today in a different way before. we are trying to embrace different creative disciplines, partnering with people from hollywood, a partnership with a coca-cola company with marshmallo on a new drink. you answer, how do you reach the consumer? do you go through amazon, build your own distribution channels? these are all questions that wpp can help you answer. francine: do i have to have a

chief executive point of view? do i need to call out things that are morally wrong in my eyes? mark: no, i don't think brands have to have a political point of view. i think brands have to understand what is going on since -- going on in society, what consumers care about, and what they do is relevant to them. a study, 82% of consumers care about how brands treat people, treat social issues, take position on those. you have to think about energy consumption, what is your policy on sustainability, your packaging policy, how do you treat your people? were you to sell your product, who would you sell it to? i would rather think about purpose then about them being political. francine: are those real changes? mark: absolutely. francine: and do they mean it? mark: i think they do. certainly, i mean it. at wpp, we have 100,000 people

who are passionate about these topics. they want to know where we stand on the social, political, societal issues. i think societal is a good definition of the -- rather than political. francine: how will the qatar world cup change advertisers and relationships with big sporting events? mark: i think advertisers will think of the world cup as the world cup as football celebration. to get behind football and get behind fans. clearly, the -- around the host nation are problematic. it is just to focus on the football and support for the football, it is difficult. i agree. francine: how do you navigate china? mark: with a big business in china, we also have a big business in taiwan. i was reassured by some moves in the biden meeting, we spoke with resident she and biden -- president xi and biden.

francine: there is something you said, you would advise clients to spend less and advertise because it is difficult to ramp it up. are you talking about slots? when you go to heathrow, you lose a slot and do not get it back? if you rain it too much, it is difficult to see -- get the eyeballs to see more? mark: i do not know -- i think increasingly, we know more about what works and what doesn't work. we can look at much of digital media, what the impact is to clients. do consumers buy things, do they not buy things? a lot of the uncertainty in our industry has been taken away by the use of data to measure results. francine: this is online. mark: online, but also off-line. off-line media, we have to understand how to use off-line ?

i talk about something and then i have ai it -- eight --a advertising? mark: i think we have been clear. consumers expect a right to privacy. i think that is a nonnegotiable. that is certainly something we try to push through all our work and every thing we do with clients. at the same time, advertising needs to be relevant. it is more relevant, it is more useful to you. we can use data in a way to make advertising more relevant, but we have to do it in a way that is transparent to consumers that does not misuse their data. i think those things are possible and what we are doing. francine: so what is the model for the future? we did a piece on this on bloomberg. when you go to a shop, the manikin is scanning your eyes. you're looking at shoes for a extra three seconds, that is what pops up in the ipad you are going around with. [laughter] francine: [laughter]

mark: the cookie was invented for many reasons. it came this universal way, as you way, tracking or spying on consumers. moving away from the cookie is a good thing in terms of online privacy. there is only so much targeting you can do. most of the world, products by coca-cola company's, only so much targeting they need to do to be effective. ultra targeting that has become spooky is not helpful. it is helpful to our clients, i wouldn't advise them to do it. francine: what about smaller brands? my energy drink wanted to sell that nobody knows about? mark: it has to be a value exchange. do they follow you on instagram, twitter? what is the value exchange? it is a value exchange consumers will give you and let you use their data. francine: with recession universally forecast, how does the ad industry weather the storm? mark read on selling in the age

of inflation. ♪

francine: it has been the age of the black swan. a global pandemic, or in europe, rampant inflation. how is the world's biggest ad firm positioning for a slowdown? ♪ francine: i would imagine there

is interesting clients you would like to do more of. is there a client or someone you would love to have books you do not have yet? mark: i am sure there is. we do fantastic work. i love all of our clients equally. [laughter] francine: of course, like your children. no favorite. mark: tesla is a interesting company. so far, haven't had to spend money on advertising. i am sure one day, they will. i think jeff diesel said back in 2009, advertising and what companies do when they have nothing to differentiate themselves. amazon today is one of the world's top five advertisers. i think when companies develop and you need to talk to consumers about what they do, why they are relevant, what they have to sell, i think those things make what we do valuable. francine: if you look at the lifecycle of a business, and the ability for that business to be disrupted, when is peak advertising moment? when is the right time to go for it? mark: technology companies like

google, amazon, some of the world's biggest advertisers certainly did not start that way. we have learned in the modern world, differentiations increasingly difficult. it is difficult to do this based on technology or product feature alone. actually brand what people think of the company, what they stand for, what they do. that matters. i think that is what we are trying to do through advertising. francine: what was the most ethical day in your job? mark: [laughter] probably the first day. nothing prepares you to be ceo of a public coming. i had worked for wpp for a long time. it was a position -- if the company had challenges when i started, we had grown. that was probably too high, we were complicated as a organization. if i look back on timing, just over four years ago, i am proud of what we have done. collectively, as a team. it has been a collective effort.

francine: your pre-assessor is martin -- predecessor is martin swirl. mark: he had been with the company for a long time. if you take on the role in a different way, you do it in a way that is right for you. one of the challenges was, how do we integrate log and digital? that is something that will become complex. we brought them together, our two integrated agencies to help crawl -- help clients across the markets and integrate and log digitals. that was the first thing that was important. secondly, we we were able to expand beyond advertising. we were in the advertising box. we expanded into e-commerce into commerce into building experiences for clients. we have been on that journey of reinvention of our traditional

businesses, but also expansion into new areas. he company can grow its top line. francine: is it better being bigger because you service your clients and more industries and you have more data, or does that not make much of a difference? mark: the -- -- the definition of scale has changed. it used to be buying power. we buy 60 -- of media around the world, it gives a certain leverage to get better prices. today's scale comes from data from technology and leveraging that technology investment and data and insight over multiple clients. i think scale helps, but to be nimble and smart and quick, it is our businesses day today and individual interactions with clients. if that is our challenge, how do we create scale without a bureaucratic organization, the last thing i want to run. francine: how does advertising spending look next year in the u.s., and is there anything to

rival the u.s. in terms of consumer spending or advertising spending? mark: the use is the biggest market together in the u.s. and china are together 50% plus of the global advertising market. heading in different directions, u.s. expected to be a zillion next her. china, not sure, maybe another tough year. might be up 6% or 7%. slightly slower, inflation is now 6%. we are used to looking at things in nominal terms, we forget to take off inflation, which is higher than it used to be. i think a relatively challenging year next year, but i think things have proven more resilient than people expect. we will have to see how the year unfolds. francine: do you think 2023 is the hardest year or 2024 could be harder if there is a lag affect? mark: i think 2020 was a difficult year. [laughter] we go through difficult years.

there is many reason to be optimistic about the future of our industry. it comes back to the questions clients are asking us, they are more significant, more important. the secret success of any company is to grow. i think wpp and our industry more broadly could be at the heart of a clients growth. how to succeed with consumers, how do they reach new areas, how do they innovate, create new brands. those questions are going to be just as relevant here and this digital transformation is going to continue. these are not going to go away. francine: what is the secret sauce being a great chief executive? do you empower, micromanage, what are you like as a chief executive? mark: i cannot do it on my moan -- on my own. i like to lead from the front, spending time with clients, spending time in pitches. we are a competitive industry. we are in pitches day today, we win or lose, you have to do that.

you also have to create a company which is collaborative. there is a tension between people who want to win and collaborate. that is what we are trying to do, desire to do great work, push the boundaries from clients but also desire to work together. sometimes, no one person has 1 -- ideas. francine: where will you be in five years? mark: we will look different and the same. things will be same in our belief and creativity. investments and data and technology, will probably be a slightly bigger disney -- slightly bigger business. we have 7000 people in china. i think the numbers will increase. the numbers will increase fast with the people we have been the u.k. and u.s. we are a u.k. company, but a global company that is headquartered in the u.k. u.k. today is only 12% of our business. i do not know if that will be wildly different, but i think it will be bigger in different parts of the world. francine: thank you for your

time today. mark: thank you, francine. ♪

francine: edward enninful, thank you so much for joining us. edward: thank you for having me. francine: what drives you? edward: what drives me?