WPP’s outgoing CEO Mark Read has called WPP Media’s restructuring “disruptive but necessary” in a call to investors last week following the group’s half-year results.

The move, which led to the globally-recognised GroupM brand name dropped, also saw the British holding group drastically cutting staff bonuses and halving its dividend after a 5.8% drop in revenue across the second quarter.

The call follows on from the announcement of WPP Media’s strategy plan earlier this year, with chief executive Brian Lesser revealing that there would be a focus on ‘simplifying operations’.

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This would primarily involve moving flagship media agencies EssenceMediacom and Wavemaker to a single P&L, as well as a cryptic pledge to “sunset” agency-specific job titles.

Lesser said: “I’m pleased with the collective progress we’ve made in the first half of this year, from launching Open Media Studio in our largest markets to debuting Open Intelligence, restructuring our teams and centralising leadership for laying the foundation for a stronger, more agile organisation.”

“We now have more data than any of our competition, reaching five billion consumers connecting intelligence of all forms, including IDs, across a vast federated ecosystem. It’s live, it’s adopted and it’s already delivering measurable value for our clients.”