WPP Behavioural Interview: Competencies & How to Answer

What a WPP behavioural interview actually looks like

WPP is a holding company made up of agencies like Ogilvy, VMLY&R, Wunderman Thompson, GroupM and many others, so the exact interview process varies by agency, region and role. That said, across large marketing and communications groups, behavioural interviews (sometimes called competency interviews) follow a common pattern: you're asked to describe real past experiences rather than hypothetical scenarios, and interviewers listen for evidence of specific skills rather than a rehearsed sales pitch.

You might meet this format as a live video call, a panel interview, or an on-demand recorded interview where you answer set questions within a time limit. If you're given a timed, one-way video format, treat it exactly like a live interview: same eye contact, same structure, same energy — there's no second take to fix a rambling answer, so practising under time pressure beforehand (tools like ScreenReady simulate this) makes a genuine difference to how composed you sound.

The competencies agencies like WPP commonly assess

While no two WPP agencies run identical scorecards, creative and media agencies typically hire against a similar cluster of competencies because the work itself demands them. Expect questions built around these themes:

• Collaboration and teamwork — working across creative, strategy, account and media teams, often with conflicting priorities
• Creativity and problem-solving — generating ideas under constraints, or reframing a brief when the obvious answer isn't working
• Client relationship management — handling difficult feedback, managing expectations, or rescuing a strained relationship
• Adaptability and resilience — coping with late-stage briefs, shifting deadlines, or a campaign that didn't land as planned
• Commercial awareness — understanding budgets, margins, and how your work connects to a client's or agency's bottom line
• Leadership and initiative — taking ownership of a project, mentoring juniors, or pushing back on a decision you disagreed with
• Communication and influence — pitching an idea persuasively, or simplifying complex data for a non-technical stakeholder

How to structure every answer: STAR

STAR is the most reliable way to keep a behavioural answer tight and evidence-led:

Situation — one or two sentences of context. Where, when, what was at stake.

Task — your specific responsibility or goal, not the whole team's.

Action — what you actually did, step by step. This is where most of your answer should live.

Result — the outcome, ideally with a number, client reaction, or concrete change. If there's a lesson learned, add it briefly at the end.

A common mistake is spending 80% of the answer on Situation and Task, then rushing Action and Result in one sentence. Interviewers are scoring you on what you did and what happened — flip the balance.

A worked example: 'Tell me about a time you had to push back on a client's feedback'

Situation: 'On a rebrand project, the client asked us to add their old logo back into the new visual identity two weeks before launch, which would have undermined the whole concept.'

Task: 'As the account lead, I needed to protect the creative integrity of the work while keeping the client confident in the decision.'

Action: 'I asked the strategy team to pull together the original research findings that justified the new direction, and I set up a short call with the client's marketing director rather than replying by email. I acknowledged their concern directly, showed them a side-by-side mock-up of both versions, and reframed the conversation around what their customers would actually notice.'

Result: 'They agreed to keep the new identity as designed, and the campaign launched on schedule. The client later told us the rebrand outperformed their previous three campaigns on engagement, and we kept the account for the next renewal cycle.'

Notice this answer names a specific action (the call, the mock-up, the reframing) rather than saying 'I communicated well with the client' — vague claims don't score; specific behaviour does.

Questions you're likely to be asked

Exact wording differs by agency and role, but these themes come up repeatedly in advertising and media holding-company interviews:

• Tell me about a time you disagreed with a colleague or manager — how did you handle it?
• Describe a project that failed or underperformed. What did you learn?
• Give an example of when you had to manage several competing deadlines at once
• Tell me about a time you had to persuade someone senior to change their mind
• Describe a moment you took ownership of something outside your usual remit
• How have you handled a client who was unhappy with your work?

Do's and don'ts

A few small habits separate strong behavioural answers from weak ones:

• Do use 'I', not 'we', when describing your own actions — panels need to isolate your contribution
• Do prepare 5-6 flexible stories in advance that can each answer several different competency questions
• Do quantify results where you can — percentages, timeframes, client retention, budget saved
• Don't pick a story where someone else did the interesting part — the interviewer will probe for your role
• Don't over-polish into a script; interviewers ask follow-up questions and a memorised answer falls apart under probing
• Don't badmouth a previous client, colleague or agency, even when the story involves genuine conflict

How to prepare in the final week

Start by mapping your last two to three years of work against the competency list above — for each one, jot down one concrete story, even in bullet-point form. Then practise saying them out loud, ideally on camera and against a clock, since the gap between a strong answer on paper and a strong answer under time pressure is where most candidates lose marks. Recording yourself with something like ScreenReady and reviewing the playback is a quick way to catch filler words, rambling openings, or an Action section that's too thin — the same faults an interviewer will notice live.

Finally, research the specific WPP agency and role you're interviewing for, not just 'WPP' as a whole — the priorities of a media agency, a PR consultancy and a creative shop differ, and tailoring your examples to match the kind of work they do shows you've done your homework.