WPP is set to knight its new CEO. Multiple publications Tuesday reported that as early as next week, the holding company is set to name Wunderman and WPP Digital CEO Mark Read the firm’s second-ever chief executive, following the departure of founder and longtime leader Martin Sorrell in April. (Update: WPP confirmed Read’s ascension on […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Read Favored To Run WPP Speculation has swirled for months about who will succeed Martin Sorrell as CEO of WPP, and we may finally have an answer. Mark Read, CEO of Wunderman and co-COO at WPP since Sorrell’s departure, has emerged as the top […]
Martin Sorrell’s new holding company, S4 Capital, just snatched Dutch digital production agency MediaMonks from the clutches of his former team. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but The Wall Street Journal reports S4 agreed to pay about $350 million for the agency. Clarity Partners in London and JEGI in New York advised on […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Zuck Abides Readers might be forgiven for thinking this has been a brutal year for Facebook, given the long string of scandals and investigations the company has faced. But in some important ways, Facebook is humming along as smoothly as ever, according to […]
Summer Of Our Missed Consent Google is causing consternation and potential GDPR violations by delaying its implementation of the IAB Europe Transparency and Consent Framework, a collaborative model for publishers to gather consent and transmit that consent up the supply chain, Reuters reports. Google promised to fully integrate with the industry framework by August, but […]
It’s been a heck of a couple of months for Mark Read. The Wunderman CEO was promoted to co-chief operating officer of WPP in April after then-CEO Martin Sorrell stepped down amid an investigation into misuse of company funds. Read shares his role with Andrew Scott, WPP’s COO for EMEA, who focuses on the commercial […]
Kantar is facing a lot of speculation about its future at WPP. Since Martin Sorrell resigned as CEO of WPP in April, analysts and investors have buzzed about how the holding company can unlock value for shareholders in a period of slow growth. Many say selling the Kantar market research business, whose growth has lagged […]
WPP reelected its board with 84.5% of shareholder votes at its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, despite concerns about slow growth and leadership. Reported revenue was down 3.4% for the first four months of the year to roughly $6.4 billion. Some investors, however, expressed concern and discontent about how the company handled CEO Martin Sorrell’s […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Cannesultants Cannes Lions kicks off next week, but without the hometown hero. Last year, the French holding company Publicis Groupe said it would forgo Cannes and other award shows in 2018 and reinvest savings in an AI platform. In a press release on Monday, […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Playing Nice As he throws his energy into a new marketing investment vehicle, Martin Sorrell has no plans to undermine WPP Group, where he remains the eighth largest investor, Reuters reports. Reuters spoke with another big WPP stakeholder, Jupiter Asset Management fund manager Alastair […]
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As many expected, former WPP Group CEO Martin Sorrell isn’t quitting without a fight after being boxed out of his company in April. Sky News reported late Tuesday that the longtime CEO and industry legend had acquired Derriston Capital, a so-called “cash shell” listed on the London Stock Exchange, with plans to turn it into […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Sorrell Speaks Martin Sorrell had plenty on his mind as he took the stage at Luma Partners’ DMS conference on Tuesday, so much so that moderator Terry Kawaja could hardly get a word in. Sorrell’s most surprising comments were on Amazon’s ad business. He […]
Martin Sorrell may be out as CEO of WPP, but he’s not done as an entrepreneur yet. “I’m going to start again,” he said at the Techonomy conference in New York City on Tuesday. “I’m not going to go into voluntary, or involuntary, retirement.” So what’s the next act? Sorrell didn’t say, but he noted […]
No other holding company has had its CEO as ingrained as WPP. Now WPP must keep its massive organization, with so many disparate agencies and pieces, together without Sorrell. “He was important not only as the voice, look and feel of WPP, but he was very much involved in the day-to-day operations,” said Rebecca Lieb, […]
Longtime WPP CEO Martin Sorrell’s abrupt departure Saturday shocked the industry. Sorrell, 73, is the advertising giant’s founding CEO and the only person to hold the title since 1986. But despite his age, WPP’s board never named a possible successor for the company. There are many options to choose from, said Brian Wieser, senior research […]
WPP CEO Martin Sorrell stepped down Saturday from the massive agency holding company he founded in 1985 and where he had served as CEO since 1987. WPP chairman Robert Quarta will be executive chairman until the new CEO is appointed. Mark Read, CEO of Wunderman, and Andrew Scott, WPP’s corporate development director and Europe COO, […]
WPP confirmed Tuesday that its board has hired an independent counsel to investigate CEO Martin Sorrell for misuse of funds and allegations of inappropriate behavior. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news. The advertising giant issued the following statement regarding the investigation: “The Board of WPP has appointed independent counsel to conduct an investigation […]
Despite a slight uptick in CPG volumes in Q4 2017, WPP CEO Martin Sorrell still predicts cyclical budget cutting from the sector due to pressure from activist investors and zero-based budgeting (ZBB). “What we see in packaged goods, certainly, is a continued caution,” he said on WPP’s Q4 and FY 2017 earnings call Thursday. “I […]
The past year was a tough one for agency holding companies. WPP, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe, IPG, Dentsu Aegis Network and Havas posted little to no growth in 2017. The agency business has been in flux for years, but 2017 offered the “perfect storm” of challenges that caused growth to stutter, said Greg Paull, principal analyst […]
WPP, which reduced its full-year forecast Tuesday following a disappointing Q3, said it had invested mre than $7 billion on Google and Facebook this year as the No. 1 and No. 3 destinations for its clients’ media spend. NewsCorp., Twenty-First Century Fox, Sky and Foxtel all tied as the second-largest destinations for client spend. By […]
One of the many pressures facing holding companies is increased competition from management and IT consultancies like Accenture, Deloitte, IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers. While consulting firms may not be their biggest threat today, tomorrow could be another story. Holding companies tend to work from the bottom up, focusing on marketing initiatives like creative or media strategy […]
WPP’s stock is down. And the company’s longstanding chief, Martin Sorrell, isn’t sure if the holding company can do anything about the factors putting pressure on its business. “I don’t know whether anything is within our control or not,” Sorrell said. “Some people say it’s the rise of the digital giants. No. Some people say […]
WPP cut its growth outlook from 2% to between flat growth and 1% during its Q2 2017 earnings call on Wednesday as clients, particularly CPGs, squeeze their marketing budgets. WPP pegged 2017 growth at 3% at the beginning of the year and reduced it to 2% in Q1. “The key factors here were the trifecta […]
WPP cut its growth target for this year from 3% to 2%, citing a tepid economy and lack of new business wins, the company said on its Q1 earnings call on Thursday. Q1 organic growth came in below expectations at 0.8%. WPP is feeling the pricing pressure from CPGs as they struggle to compete with […]
There’s an old ad industry saw that goes, “a little Procter & Gamble budget in everyone’s paycheck.” Well, now there’s a half billion less. The CPG giant told investors on the company’s earnings call in January that the company had succeeded in cutting $370 million in marketing costs in 2015, and that it expected to […]
In a wide-ranging panel at Cannes, CEOs Dick Costolo (Twitter), Philippe Dauman (Viacom) and Martin Sorrell (WPP) discussed the evolution of rich media consumption on mobile devices and why marketer investment in mobile video does not yet match consumer demand. Sorrell, who opened the panel by stating WPP spends $750 million with Viacom (said Dauman: […]
The six global ad holding companies (WPP, Publicis, Interpublic, Omnicom, Dentsu, and Havas) are basically legal roosting boxes for advertising agencies, but a few years hence we may see them very differently. Or, a few of them anyway. Speaking with AdExchanger today, CEO Martin Sorrell said, “I think our business has changed dramatically in the […]
