WPP is a global leader in communications, experience, commerce and technology, with over 130,000 employees working across 112 countries. Creativity is at the core of WPP’s business — a 2017 Nielsen study found that creativity contributes 47% of advertising-driven sales. But in today’s data-rich world, creativity needs to work harder and smarter. That’s where data comes in.

In 2018, WPP launched its Creative Transformation strategy — a company-wide vision to use creativity not just as an art form, but as a catalyst for business growth. The strategy marked a shift from using data solely to optimise and target campaigns, toward using data to inspire, inform and amplify creative ideas. As part of this transformation, WPP partnered with the Open Data Institute (ODI) to help build the data confidence and capability of its global workforce.

The Challenge

WPP employees come from a range of professional backgrounds. While some are expert data scientists, many others are creatives, strategists or account managers who have limited data experience — and some who are frankly a little wary of it. To truly unlock the potential of data to fuel creativity, WPP needed to raise baseline data literacy across the business.

The goal: empower employees to become confident data users and storytellers, not just number-crunchers. That meant making data relevant to their roles, showing how it supports creativity, and ensuring it was used both effectively and ethically.

The ODI’s Role

The ODI collaborated closely with WPP to co-develop a bespoke data literacy learning programme, tailored to the needs of a global creative company. Drawing on the ODI’s experience in building data skills and shaping ethical data practices, we worked with WPP to deliver a four-part training series for non-specialists.

The course introduced key data concepts in the context of creative marketing, and covered:

  • The value of data: how it supports insight, innovation and impact.
  • Responsible data use: ensuring data is used ethically and transparently.
  • Data storytelling: making sense of data and communicating it compellingly.
  • Real-world application: exploring case studies where data unlocked unexpected insights or new creative directions.

This training was designed not to overwhelm with technical detail, but to demystify data and show its creative potential — giving WPP employees the confidence to engage with data in their everyday roles.

Supporting a Wider Strategy

This data literacy initiative formed part of a broader transformation effort at WPP, alongside two other key pillars:

  • Data Ethics: WPP created its own Data & AI Ethics Principles, using the ODI’s Data Ethics Canvas as a foundation. These principles provide pragmatic guidance to teams across the company and are helping ensure responsible innovation in how data is used for marketing.
  • Data Community: A new WPP-wide data community is helping connect analysts, engineers, and strategists across agencies. It provides a space to share ideas, collaborate on projects, and take part in regular data challenges — fostering innovation from the ground up.

The Impact

By embedding data literacy into the fabric of the business, WPP is strengthening its most important competitive advantage: creativity. Whether it’s data scientists building AI-powered campaigns or creatives using data to uncover new audience insights, WPP is creating a culture where data and creativity work hand-in-hand.

One example of this in action came from VMLY&R, a WPP agency, which launched the Six Degrees to Tennessee campaign. Using data science, they created a digital map connecting new artists to Tennessee’s rock heritage, helping fans discover local music experiences through intelligent recommendations.

This is the kind of work that’s possible when data literacy becomes part of the creative process — and why the ODI is proud to support WPP on its journey of creative transformation.