Search Results for : Martin Sorrell

By Adam Kleinberg Direct-to-consumer (DTC) business models have been heralded as the antidote to disruption. From the moment Unilever wrote a billion-dollar check to a unicorn, virtually every brand that sells a product in a store has been tripping over themselves to figure out their DTC strategy before they get Dollar-Shave-Clubbed upside the head. The […]

He turned an average-sized plastic manufacturing company into a marketing services giant with a market value of $20 billion. After 33 years of service, he left WPP in the midst of controversy, and within a month formed S4 Capital, providing digital marketing solutions to a broad array of clients. At age 74, executive chairman Sir […]

By  Brian Braiker Rishad Tobaccowala has logged nearly four decades at Publicis. Starting with a run at Leo Burnett and followed by stints as chairman of Digitas LBi and Razorfish, he spent some time in leadership roles at VivaKi and Starcom IP as well as other companies under the Publicis umbrella. Today he is the […]

When asked what his biggest takeaway was after attending Burning Man earlier this year, Martin Sorrell had a ready response: “The importance of creative destruction and renewal.” A photo of the iconic Burning Man graced the first page on the prospectus of Sorrell’s new venture, S4 Capital. And to be sure, Sorrell himself has been […]

Ford launched its global review in April this year putting incumbent WPP’s Global Team Blue (GTB) under peril, especially at a time when the group deals with naming Martin Sorrell’s successor. Now, a few months later, Ford has tapped Wieden & Kennedy New York for a short-term marketing assignment that comes amid its massive global agency […]

The one executive who has persistently stood out as the likely successor to Martin Sorrell at WPP, Mark Read, is set to officially take the helm. Read is expected to be named as CEO of the world’s largest advertising firm as early as next week, according to multiple company insiders who asked not to be […]

A battle between WPP and Sir Martin Sorrell’s new agency, S4, to acquire Dutch digital production company MediaMonks is turning ugly, with WPP threatening to withdraw share awards from Sorrell’s exit payoff if he goes ahead with the purchase. Speaking at Cannes about the potential competition between WPP and his new agency S4, he called S4 a […]

Wunderman Global CEO Mark Read was thrust into the spotlight in April when WPP announced that CEO Martin Sorrell was stepping down amid an unspecified allegation and that Read and his colleague Andrew Scott would step in as chief operating officers. Read had been floated in past years as a possible successor to WPP’s iconic leader, […]

(Image credit: Illustration by Tam Nguyen/Ad Age) By Brian Braiker, editor, AdAge W. Somerset Maugham was onto something in 1941 when he wrote “the Riviera isn’t only a sunny place for shady people.” While still hilarious in 2018, there was significantly less shadiness – both in conference-goer behavior and as a reprieve from the blazing sun […]

When Campbell Soup Co. named Publicis Groupe the winner of a massive agency review for digital, creative and media, the press release contained a smorgasbord of buzzwords that have come to typify holding company-level pitches. Publicis will provide an “entire suite of marketing services and provide more accountability and flexibility than traditional marketing models,” its March […]

The review comes at a particularly bad time for WPP, which has been operating without a CEO since Martin Sorrell stepped down earlier this month. Since then, questions about the holding company’s future have swirled. Sorrell was known as being extremely hands-on with WPP’s clients. Though clients have been outwardly quiet about their thoughts on […]

The beginning of April 2018 saw an investigation being launched into advertising legend and WPP chief Martin Sorrell over undisclosed alleged “personal misconduct.” Just a few days later, Sorrell stepped down as CEO and now WPP is on the hunt to fill his shoes. Why WPP is now vulnerable WPP looks vulnerable at the moment […]

Martin Sorrell stepped down as CEO of WPP following an internal investigation into misconduct, ending a 33-year career at the world’s largest agency holding company. The company announced that WPP Chairman Roberto Quarta would take over as executive chairman until a new CEO is appointed. Mark Read, CEO at Wunderman and WPP Digital, and Andrew […]

Image credit: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg Irwin Gotlieb hasn’t taken two consecutive weeks off in the last 48 years. That’s about to change. The GroupM chairman retired from his role just a few days ago and will now serve as an advisor to WPP. He tells Ad Age he’s committed to WPP CEO Martin Sorrell for at […]

WPP has confirmed that its board is investigating its CEO, Martin Sorrell, in response to undisclosed alleged “personal misconduct.” “The Board of WPP has appointed independent counsel to conduct an investigation in response to an allegation of personal misconduct against Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive Officer of WPP,” the world’s largest agency holding company said […]

When the world’s largest holding company posts its biggest stock decline in almost two decades and predicts no growth for 2018, there will inevitably be questions over whether the holding company model is irreparably broken. It isn’t. On Thursday’s earnings call, WPP CEO Martin Sorrell said 2017 was “not a pretty year” for the company […]

Over the past year, geopolitical situations and economic challenges have left their mark on businesses across the globe, increasing the pressure on creative, media and PR agencies to reinvent themselves. “The greatest degree of reinvention is needed in ad [creative] agencies,” says BPG Group CEO Avi Bhojani, mainly because audiences now consume content and buy […]

Clients want one partner to simplify the fragmentation and data – and today’s shops may not be among them Winter is coming. The old families are preparing their troops and poring over strategies in a race to secure their territory before it is invaded by new and unfamiliar forces. The best option might be to […]