Sorrell to Ad:Tech: You're lucky to have me
Martin Sorrell is apparently much in demand on the conference circuit. While speaking at Ad:Tech in New York on Wednesday morning, the WPP CEO reminded organizers not once but twice that they'd asked him for three years to appear before he agreed to grace the assembled digital nerds with his presence. Sorrell used the occasion to stroll Oprah style into the crowd at the Jacob Javits Center and basically regurgitate WPP's three-pronged strategy of focusing on emerging markets, digital media and consumer insights. A couple pieces of good news: The economy is "less worse," and WPP now finds Google a "much friendlier frenemy." A downer for the agency world came when Sorrell talked about industries dealing with "overcapacity" by shrinking their cost bases. That means more procurement torture sessions. "I have never known clients more focused on cost as they are now," Sorrell said, noting he's been in the business 33 years. —Posted by Brian Morrissey Previously on AdFreak: |
|
Published on November 4, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (1)
|
Sorrell not faring too badly in this recession
On this first-anniversary weekend of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which triggered the worst economic crisis in a generation, the Guardian reminds us that some have felt the pain a whole lot less than the rest of us over the past year. In its annual salary round-up, the U.K. paper reports that even as FTSE 100 companies were laying off tens of thousands of staffers and their stock prices lost a third of their value, the people running these companies saw their basic salaries rise 10 percent, with full- and part-time directors of those businesses sharing a windfall of more than $1.65 billion. WPP Group chief Sir Martin Sorrell is a regular top performer in the survey, but even he took a hit last year, dropping from the No. 1 most-highly-compensated exec in the U.K. to No. 4. The 64-year-old, who has had to lay off an estimated 7,200 staffers in the wake of cutbacks from marketers, pocketed $33 million in 2008, bringing his five-year payday to a total of more than $166 million. (Sorrell, a pioneer in share-price performance scheme payouts, earned $39 million in 2007 and $86 million in 2005.) For investors in WPP Group's American Depository Receipts, returns over the past five years have been decidedly less than lucrative: The ADRs have declined 40 percent from $49.30 on Dec. 31, 2003 to $29.59 on the same day last year. —Posted by Noreen O'Leary |
|
Published on September 14, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Sir Martin discovers new passion: blogging
Sadly, as in years past, I had to miss Davos this year. Bummer. Luckily, WPP CEO and Davos fixture Martin Sorrell is blogging from the World Economic Forum for the Financial Times. That social-media tutorial is coming in handy. So far, he's posted three entries—and one inscrutable photo of himself wearing an Obama ski hat and standing with a dog in the snow. What's clear is that Sir Martin doesn't like crowds. In fact, I get the distinct impression he doesn't think many of his fellow attendees are important enough to be there and make him wait on line. This is how he began an entry yesterday, ostensibly about a chat the Chinese premier gave: "Far too crowded. Probably 500 people over the top. Last year 2000 was heavy, 2600 is too many. Some can't attend sessions even having tried to book online from home. Participant numbers should be reduced. Security is also very tight, aggravated by the crush. There are heavy lines and queuing, especially early in the morning." —Posted by Brian Morrissey |
|
Published on January 30, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (2)
|
Amid downturn, WPP brass poke each other
We all deal with economic catastrophe in our own ways. For WPP's top echelon of executives, it means enjoying a little Wii and Facebook. A new BusinessWeek story recounts a meeting in Athens, Greece, in October where WPP's board discussed—wait for it—how the company could prepare itself for digital media. The Internet is big, who knew? (Agency Spy, for one, is incensed about this.) A top priority for these execs: getting Facebook accounts. In this endeavor, WPP's titans of advertising got help from none other than Mark Zuckerberg himself. BusinessWeek reports that 63-year-old WPP CEO Martin Sorrell has already lost interest in the site, but others have been liking it. "The directors had fun, but the exercise was meant to help them fully grasp the phenomenon of social networks and how they may affect the ad business," according to BusinessWeek. Ah, but there's more. Apparently, WPP's top 3,000 managers get training courses on things like Twitter. I don't begrudge anyone for trying to make money, but training ad people on Twitter? I tried to find Sir Martin on Facebook to write on his wall. Alas, I can't seem to locate him. —Posted by Brian Morrissey |
|
Published on January 7, 2009 | Permalink
| Comments (5)
|
