Sir Martin Sorrell said advertising in print could be more effective
Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive the world’s biggest ad agency group admitted he had shifted his view.
The head of WPP told the Broadcasting Press Guild that agencies and their clients had moved so much money from newspapers and TV to online and social media in the past decade that it was time for an “assessment of the statistics, the return on investment and whether it makes sense.”
Sir Martin said: “There is an argument on at the moment going on about the effectiveness of newspapers and magazines, even in their traditional form, and maybe they are more effective than people give them credit. There is some interesting data that I have seen recently on consumer engagement in terms of newspapers and magazines — just like we’ve seen in traditional TV.”
The research showed that “some of the traditional media are probably more retentive and engaging” than online and mobile in terms of both “advertising and content”, he said. “In a way it’s logical, if the average reader spends 40 minutes with a newspaper, it’s probable that the memory will retain things.”
Sir Martin said this meant advertisers needed to think more about measuring engagement in the future rather than the amount of “time spent” by a consumer.
Mary Meeker, a US media analyst, has argued that advertisers should be shifting more money into online media because budgets are not keeping up with the amount of time spent on digital platforms.
However, Sir Martin said: “A number of people find that analysis too superficial: time spent versus investment. What you should look at is: engagement versus investment.”
His comments about the importance of traditional media are significant because he has pushed his company to embrace online advertising with 36% of revenue coming from digital and interactive. WPP advises many of the biggest companies in the world including HSBC, Barclays, Vodafone and Unilever.
Sir Martin emphasised, however, that he saw no let-up in the long-term shift to digital and social media.
“I have no doubt there’ll be another surge, because there is a “fundamental change” in media consumption by millennials, those people born between 1983 and 1997, and even more so by those born after 1997.
Business Money editor, Robert Lefroy, commented: “We never doubted it, nor do out advertisers!”
The full article can be read at: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/media/article4393156.ece
