An Open Letter to WPP

wpp site

From Rafferty Pendery CEO Studio98.com

This week I happened to visit your website. I was expecting to find a state-of-the-art site with great graphics and an easy user-interface – after all WPP is the world’s largest communication group. For the second consecutive year, WPP topped the Warc 100 annual ranking of the world’s best campaigns and companies. So you obviously have the talent and resources to produce excellent work.But you’d never know that by looking at the homepage of your website.

I expected to find perfect Digital PR demonstrated.  I know that you have access to some of the best talent on the planet. You could have one of your subsidiary companies redesign and build you a stellar website. Perhaps it’s the case of the cobbler’s children?  We know how that can happen. They’re so absorbed in producing work for the clients that your own image takes a back seat. We’ve been hired by several agencies exactly because of this issue.

And it’s not just the design that needs attention – the code is old and clunky. Although there is a mobile version of the site it is not responsive - just another indicator of old ideas and technology that haven't been updated.

The Press Center is a virtual news graveyard. The releases are a page of text links without any visuals or multimedia elements, which are essential in today’s digital news world. There are only three images in the image gallery and your videos don’t have embed codes for the media to use.Now some might say that when you’re the biggest and best agency in the world it really doesn’t matter.  But I think it does. In fact, I think it is even more important to show your very best face to the world, simply because you are the biggest and best agency in the world.  It should be an integral part of your Digital PR strategy.