Source: TheDrum
Sir Martin Sorrell spoke at the 2018 Digital Media Summit in New York on Tuesday, where he gave some ideas on what he plans to do next after his abrupt departure from WPP.
His departure and plans being one of the most interesting topic in the global media industry recently, it isn’t surprising that participants at the Summit wished to know more about Sorrell’s plans for the future, to which he replied: “There are two buckets: one is geography, and one is technology. So I’m looking at, and what I will focus on, and try and do again … is look at where are the opportunities from a technology point of view and look at the opportunities from a geographical point of view, and put the two together,” TheDrum reports.
Industry veteran who built WPP from the ground up and led it for 33 years towards becoming the world’s largest advertising holding group, also added that he believes the role of the classic advertising agency has come under much scrutiny in recent years, especially as advertisers adopt zero-based budgeting methods, along with exploring ‘in-housing’, and new media companies are joined by business consultancies threatening ‘disintermediation’.
However, Sorrell underlined his earlier stated belief in the resilience of agency holding group model, adding that taking advertising operations ‘in-house’ is much easier said than done.
According to Sorrell, the world’s largest corporations, such as Procter & Gamble or Unilever, now want advertising partners that can respond to briefs in an agile manner free from the legacy constraints of ‘old media’.
He said: “They want more agile, more responsive, more new media orientated, less bureaucratic, less heavy responses and organizations to the way they operate in.”
Sorrell went on to add: “On the programmatic side and addressable [TV] side, I still think clients will find it very difficult to keep the people, good people, update the technology in opposition to the agency holding companies.”
