Martin Sorrell

CANNES — In an industry that moves as fast as digital marketing, it isn’t really that far away. So, what does one of the business’ best reads of tea leaves think brands will look like in 2025? In this video interview with Beet.TV editorial advisor Jon Watts at Cannes Lions, Sir Martin Sorrell, Executive Chairman, S4 […]

CANNES — He may have previously run the world’s largest advertising agency holding group, but Sir Martin Sorrell is pretty happy in his current seat. The former WPP CEO is now executive chairman of his own S4 Capital, the group building a digital marketing services company through its main Media.Monks division. In this video interview […]

CANNES — Recession? What recession? From where Sir Martin Sorrell is sitting, the omens are still good. The former WPP CEO, now executive chairman of his own S4 Capital, is a reliable soothsayer and business bellwether when it comes to the economy and advertising. In this video interview with Beet.TV editorial advisor Jon Watts at […]

One of the ad industry’s great soothsayers expects digital spending to be the ad industry’s major driver in 2022, as economic growth tails off. But Sir Martin Sorrell thinks the industry could be growing faster if companies got their marketing data fit for purpose. Former WPP CEO Sorrell’s S4 Capital this month completed its latest […]

The COVID-19 pandemic will bring a recession unlike any seen before, one that will  see many brands cut advertising budgets – but it will also accelerate existing digital transformation trend lines and produce new ones. That is the view of Sir Martin Sorrell, executive chairman of his S4 Capital vehicle and former WPP CEO. Sorrell […]

LAS VEGAS — He created and, for years, ran the world’s largest ad agency holding group, WPP. After he left in 2018 and formed his own, much smaller vehicle, S4 Capital, how does Sir Martin Sorrell read the prospects for the Big Six groups? In this video interview with Beet.TV, Sorrell says: The big groups […]

LAS VEGAS — When he led the world’s largest ad agency holding group, his central strategy was seeking growth in two circles of a Venn diagram – digital media and emerging markets. Now that he helms his own S4 Capital, Sir Martin Sorrell aims to repeat the trick – with a twist. S4 Capital, a […]

It may be barely a year old but, already, the digital ad services group formed by former WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell is making headlines. After its initial capitalization, S4 Capital was kick-started by a pair of key acquisitions – content studio MediaMonks and programmatic firm MightyHive – and further acquisitions will continue to provide […]

Digital advertisers will wake up to a new dawn on May 25, one in which they had better tread carefully with how they use audience data – or risk a new penalty fine of up to 4% of global turnover. The European Commission’s General Data Protection Regulation updates prior consumer data protection rules in a […]

COLOGNE — Mondelēz International has previously described it as one of the fastest-growing revenue generators for brands – so why are clients scrapping internally over the ecommerce opportunity? In this video interview with Beet.TV, WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell says that ecommerce, with which brands now have the ability to sell directly to customers and not […]

COLOGNE — At last year’s DMEXCO, WPP Sir Martin Sorrell promised he would finally join Twitter – if CEO Jack Dorsey showed up at the next event. Well, at this week’s 2017 occurrence of the digital ad gathering in Germany, the pair graced the stage together, and Sorrell joined the social network live in front […]

BARCELONA — Despite years of promise, mobile advertising has still not developed in to a full-fledged advertiser medium, because inadequate technology is causing advertisers to hold back on spending. That is according to the boss of the world’s largest ad agency holding group, WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell. Speaking with Beet.TV in this video interview at Mobile World Congress, […]

BARCELONA — The boss of the world’s largest ad agency holding group has come out fighting against back-handers and kick-backs that are rapidly becoming a stain on the advertising industry – and which could ultimately hurt it. “There are some things going on in the industry which are just unacceptable in my view, in terms of […]

LAS VEGAS —  It is the world’s largest advertising agency holding group. That means WPP operates dozens of owned units, agencies, acquisitions and investments, across the advertising value chain. At time of writing, for example, WPP’s website lists some 400 subsidiaries under its umbrella. CEO Sir Martin Sorrell thinks the situation could stand some tidying up […]

COLOGNE — The world’s biggest ad agency holding group may soon spend more money with Mark Zuckerberg than with Rupert Murdoch, as it aims to shrink its reliance on Google in the media mix. But its CEO is still searching for other horses to back, in a digital ad world that is increasingly led by just two runners. Sir Martin Sorrell reveals to Beet.TV […]

BARCELONA — With data suggesting a large percentage of online ad views are being called by fake users (malicious lines of code written by nefarious publishers racking up fraudulent clicks), advertisers have become worried. Now the boss of the world’s biggest ad agency holding group is repeating his call for online platforms to do more for […]

In the past 10 years, since the WPP-owned global brand consultancy Millward Brown has tracked the value of brands with its BRANDZ 100 rankings, there have been many changes.  Over that period, nearly half of the companies have changed.  This upheaval  has been powered by two major factors:  geography and technology innovation observes Sir Martin […]

It was a WPP agency that devised The Financial Times’ once-famous marketing slogan, “No FT, no comment.” So, what does WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell think of Pearson’s sale of its newspaper to Japan’s Nikkei for £844m ($1.3bn) this week? Speaking with Beet.TV in this video interview, Sorrell urges Nikkei to thaw an approach to advertisers he […]

CANNES – WPP is “placing its bets” with a variety of investments and initiatives outside what has been typically been a media holding company, explains CEO Sir Martin Sorrell in this interview with Beet.TV  The latest is a content creation agency created in alliance with Daily Mail and Snapchat, the company announced this morning in Cannes. […]

When Martin Sorrell bought in to WPP in 1985, it was the start of a journey that would end up making the world’s largest advertising holding group. What most people probably don’t know, however, is that, along the way, Sorrell nearly made a very costly mistake. Asked by Beet.TV in this video interview to regale his biggest career setback, […]