WPP Cuts 1,000 More Jobs Under Elevate28 as Wavemaker Wins UK Contract

WPP is cutting up to 1,000 more jobs in the second half of 2026 under its Elevate28 restructuring plan, according to comments from chief executive Cindy Rose. The cuts come on top of roughly 11,000 roles already removed from the group since 2025, as WPP works towards a target of £500m in annual savings by 2028.

WPP is the UK headquartered advertising and marketing group that owns agencies including Wavemaker, Ogilvy and GroupM. Elevate28 is the name Rose has given to the wider overhaul she has been running since taking the top job, aimed at simplifying a group that had grown into a sprawling collection of agency brands.

The new cuts land in the same period that WPP's media buying arm, Wavemaker, won a roughly £1.5bn UK government media buying contract. The four year deal, awarded by the Cabinet Office, moves the business from incumbent Omnicom to Wavemaker and forms part of a wider shake up that has cut the government's approved advertising supplier roster from 33 down to 23.

Winning a contract that size while still cutting headcount is not necessarily a contradiction. Media buying contracts like the Cabinet Office deal are won on cost and process efficiency, which is exactly what a leaner agency structure is meant to deliver. But it is a stark contrast for the roughly 1,000 people whose roles are affected, and for a UK creative industry still absorbing several years of consolidation across the big holding groups.

For anyone working in or around UK advertising and design, the pattern is familiar by now. Holding groups are shrinking headcount and layers of management while still chasing, and winning, large scale client business, on the view that fewer, more senior people using better tools and shared services can service more billings than before. Whether that view holds over multiple years of Elevate28 is the thing to watch.

WPP has not given an exact breakdown of which agencies or offices will see the latest 1,000 cuts, and the timing within the second half of 2026 has not been pinned to a specific date. The Wavemaker contract, by contrast, is confirmed and already changes who the government pays to place its advertising from this point on.