Company

WPP opens creative campus space in Manchester

July 6, 2023

WPP’s first UK campus outside of London is built on the former Granada Studios site, Enterprise City, and will be occupied by eight WPP agencies including Code.

The move strengthens the company’s 30-year-long presence in the city and unites 550 people from long-established WPP agencies in Manchester – EssenceMediacom, Code Computerlove, Cheetham Bell, Wavemaker, CSP Commerce and Kinetic – as well as agencies new to the area: Ogilvy Health and VMLY&R Health.

The modern, 67,000-sqft office space was designed by BDG architecture + design, a WPP company, and is split over eight floors to provide collaborative and dynamic co-working areas for the agencies which have grown significantly in the last five years.

The campus has put inclusive design at its heart to meet the evolving and diverse needs of its people, including flexible workspaces that reflect WPP’s continued focus on mental wellbeing. It boasts three double-height social hubs with feature stairs, additional accessible toilets and dedicated mothers’ rooms. The building also includes a roof terrace with views across the city, as well as a café, bar, and business event space. Sustainability is at the centre of the renovation – as it is for all new WPP campus buildings – and the Manchester Campus is targeting a BREEAM rating of Excellent.

The Manchester Campus will also serve as a catalyst for growth in the local community. Through partnerships with organisations like The ScaleUp Institute, WPP plans to support and foster small businesses in Manchester, providing them with opportunities to collaborate and grow alongside its agencies. The campus will also partner through a variety of volunteering opportunities with local community groups such as The Trussell Trust and Mustard Tree, who are dedicated to addressing food waste, and preventing homelessness and poverty respectively.

Gemma Handley, Managing Director at Code, said: "Despite being a hybrid-first company, the physical space we use to come together, collaborate and do our work forms a massive part of our culture.

Throughout the years, our physical spaces have continually evolved around the needs of our Computerlovers, and the opportunity to now come together with other WPP agencies under one roof to drive creativity and growth is incredibly exciting for Code." 

Karen Blackett OBE, UK President of WPP, said: "Manchester has always been a city brimming with growth and creativity and we wanted to be at the heart of that. The city is also home to a beautiful fruit salad of people and we need to reflect that in our organisations in order to generate growth. We are thrilled to see this vision come to life and become an integral part of the vibrant Manchester community."

. . .

Learn more about the WPP Manchester agencies: 

CSP Commerce

EssenceMediaCom

Cheetham Bell

Wavemaker

Kinetic

Ogilvy Health

VMLY&R Health

About EM Code

EM Code is a customer experience, digital innovation and AI agency. 

We’re a strategic digital partner that delivers breakthrough growth throughout the customer experience (CX). 

We achieve this through our industry-renowned services in digital transformation, web development, brand strategy, click rate optimisation (CRO) and UX (user experience).

Our human centric approach underpins every aspect of our work.

A collective of experts in multiple disciplines, we collaborate to distil the complex needs of organisations and end users to engineer solutions that make an impact.

From fast scaling start ups to global brands, we can help you to transform your organisation.

We are an EssenceMediacom North agency.

About EssenceMediacom North

EssenceMediacom North helps brands to breakthrough in the new communications economy.

Disrupting models of media, EssenceMediacom North accelerates creative and business transformation for its clients roster, including Hillarys, Absolute Collagen, Webuyanycar.com and United Utilities.

The agency delivers breakthrough growth, capabilities, and revenue through the integration of media, creativity, data and technology, combined with its diverse industry-leading expertise.

Equipped with access to the richest data, robust benchmarking and advanced technologies, EssenceMediacom North unlocks new opportunities to deliver truly integrated media solutions for scaling and global brands.

EssenceMediacom North is part of WPP’s media investment group, GroupM

Visit the agency

WPP Manchester Campus

1 New Quay Street

Greater Manchester

M3 4BN

#AIAgency #InnovationAgency #CXAgency #CustomerExperienceAgency #DesignSprint #ProductThinking #BrandStrategyAgency #CROAgency #DigitalTransformationAgency #TechnologyInnovationAgency

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