Burson is Not The Problem.
It's The Preview
There’s a slightly unfashionable take on the proposed sale of Burson. It probably makes sense.
Not because Burson is weak. Quite the opposite. It’s a near-billion-dollar global business, built by combining BCW and Hill & Knowlton, and still winning clients like Heineken, Levi’s and Google. It continues to invest in new capabilities — from AI-driven reputation tools to expanded influence and corporate strategy.
By any normal definition, it’s a strong, well-run business.
But CindyRose has been very clear about WPP’s direction. And if you look at where WPP is winning, the logic starts to reveal itself.
Over the past six months, the pattern is hard to ignore. The biggest wins are not coming from traditional creative. They are not coming from PR. They are overwhelmingly media-led, often global, and increasingly tied to data, commerce and AI-enabled operating models.
Jaguar Land Rover is the obvious headline — a roughly $500M global mandate spanning media and creative. But it’s the exception that proves the rule. Most of the other meaningful wins are media at scale: EstéeLauder’s global media consolidation, Reckitt across Europe and India, SC Johnson in North America, IKEA in Malaysia. Even where creative is involved, it tends to sit inside a broader, integrated system.
And just as interesting is where these decisions are being made.
They’re not particularly U.S.-centric anymore.
That doesn’t mean the U.S. is necessarily declining. It does suggest something subtler: global brands are no longer organizing themselves around it. Coordination is moving. Singapore. London. Regional hubs. Multi-market systems. Growth coming from outside North America, and increasingly managed that way too.
Following their clients’ lead, WPP is doubling down on a model built around media, data and integration at global scale.
The issue is not whether Burson is good. It is. The issue is where value now sits.
Even the strongest PR firms do not control media budgets. They do not own the first-party data infrastructure that increasingly drives modern marketing. They do not sit at the centre of AI-enabled operating systems. And too often their revenues are still project-based rather than embedded in the day-to-day machinery of growth.
This calls into question other businesses in a similar predicament such as Landor,Ogilvy, David, Grey, AKQA and other smaller networks within WPP.
Burson, and these other business units look less like a problem and more like a mismatch. They are largely narrative-led, market-by-market-relevant, and harder to plug into a global operating system in the same way as media and data. Sure, their services matter. They’re valuable. But it’s not at the centre of this particular strategy or clients’ focus at the moment.
I take an uncynical view of this sale. Rather than seeing it as a weakness or failure, I believe it is an act of focus. The bigger question is, who will buy Burson, and what does that say about the buyer’s strategy?
For WPP, this is an acknowledgement that the shape of the industry has changed — and not every strong business still sits at the centre of it.