WPP’s Angela Steele On AI, CTV And The ‘Trusted Growth Partner’ Pitch
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By Alyssa Boyle
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Thank you to all who joined us last week for an unforgettable evening celebrating the most influential women in media, entertainment and advertising!
Times are a-changin’! AI is taking over the media and tech industries in the name of simplification, and marketers are pining for provable campaign outcomes, including from TV. These shifts are also causing significant change in Agency Holdco Land.
WPP, for one, has spent the past year restructuring its teams and workflows in an effort to give marketer clients more of what they need: simplification and performance. WPP made another client-focused move at the top of the year when it hired holdco vet Angela Steele as the agency’s first US chief client officer. The hire follows Cindy Rose taking the helm in late 2025.
Under Rose’s leadership, WPP strives to live up to the name of “trusted growth partner” to its clients, Steele told me. While that phrase may sound like marketing fluff at first blush, the goal speaks to a wider trend of agencies competing for business by acting more as a partner than simply a vendor.
In this case, “trusted growth partner” means centering AI workflows, simplifying operations and better understanding and achieving clients’ media performance goals, Steele said.
I spoke with Steele to understand her plans for leading WPP to success, the agency’s top priorities and how today’s main marketing buzzwords fit into that equation – as in, streaming TV and AI.
STREAMLINED: How did your career trajectory lead you to take on the role of WPP’s first US chief client officer?
ANGELA STEELE: I was lucky because I always knew what I wanted to do in life. I knew I wanted to be in the advertising world ever since I was 16. And what I love most about working at agencies is getting to understand and implement the technologies and innovations that help marketers improve their brands’ success. This year, I was inspired to join WPP because its recent restructuring represents a simplification in agency operations and a lead in AI.
As someone who has always worked in advertising, how did you find your footing in an industry that has been so male-dominated until relatively recently?
I started my career in 2001, when online advertising was just kicking off. As a woman in the industry at that time, it was really important to have a role model with a seat at the table to understand that I, too, could make a name for myself in this industry. There weren’t a lot of female CEOs at the time, but there were some. I worked at Starcom when Renetta McCann was CEO. I was fortunate that I’ve had someone I could look up to that early on in my career.
To other women early in their advertising career today, my advice is to have a strong point of view. For women especially, believing in your viewpoint and being clear and articulate is incredibly important when it comes to creating space for yourself in a room and getting your point across. Especially in the age of AI, where original thought is becoming even more valued.
What developments within WPP are you most excited about as you take on this new role at the company?
Alongside acting as a trusted growth partner for clients, AI is at the core of what we do at WPP.
There are two innovations at WPP I’m particularly excited about. One is Open Intelligence, which is part of our AI-driven marketing platform, WPP Open. Open Intelligence is a data platform that allows us to merge insights across client and partner portfolios to help advertisers identify new sources of growth for their brand. The feature also helps marketers visualize how certain data inputs could influence their media performance.
Then, we have something called business intelligence. Think of that as the measurement and performance component of our intelligence and insights. The product is an interface that spits out answers in response to direct questions from the client, which is much more user-friendly than your traditional client-side dashboard. Clients can ask questions about how to enhance their media plans for the best results, how well their campaigns are working and what can be done to optimize campaigns in-flight.
Speaking of performance, the ad industry is still trying to make connected TV fit into the performance marketing mold. What do you make of CTV as a performance channel?
Of all channels, CTV comes closest to offering all of the value advertisers need across the marketing funnel. Nowadays, performance in CTV doesn’t just refer to the measurement reporting we get back. Performance in CTV also refers to the ability to implement campaign and audience insights earlier on in the campaign planning process. As agencies and their tech partners improve their ability to turn around campaign feedback more quickly, advertisers have more data at their disposal to inform audience targeting and ad creative. And an audience-led approach in CTV is a big strategic advantage.
AI is growing its foothold over digital advertising. What’s your take on how much power AI should wield over modern online advertising?
At WPP, we believe AI is the enabler of the tasks at hand. AI is built into how we work – from both an operations and a technology perspective – and allows us to work better and faster, which improves campaign results for clients. But we still need humans asking the right questions to ultimately guide the AI in the right direction, such as tailoring campaigns for awareness, consideration or performance, for example. No matter how helpful AI is, the importance of the human can’t be underestimated.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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