Wednesday, 29/09/10

Sir Martin Sorrell discusses the future of marketing.

WPP CEO joins us for a special webcast event.

Sir Martin Sorrell

Supporting the launch of The Insider, our new quarterly newsletter, Sir Martin Sorrell recently joined us for an interactive webcast to discuss the future of marketing.

The webcast, entitled 'The next 5 years in marketing: How not to be taken by surprise (Much)', saw Sir Martin assess the current state of the marketing industry and the challenges that will face advertisers in the next five years.

In the 50 minute discussion, now available to watch here, Sir Martin speaks about why he believes boardrooms are beginning to wake up to the value of marketing and identifies the companies that he considers to have invested smartly in innovation and marketing.

He goes on to look at current trends, such as "the rise of retail", that have caught his attention, and explains how retail brands have expanded geographically and into new areas of business. He also touches upon how there is little "greenwashing" going on within businesses nowadays and how clients are embracing CSR "in a genuine way."

Sir Martin also addresses the three things that advertisers want - efficiency, effectiveness and liquidity - and explains why the post-Lehman trend of worrying about liquidity might be short term.

In addition, he discusses why WPP's companies might develop closer relationships with media owners, and highlights the "very big opportunities" for the two to work together, referencing the success of the China's Got Talent TV programme and its tie-up with Procter & Gamble.

The WPP boss is joined by Matthew Mee, Head of Freshness and Strategy at MediaCom EMEA, who shares his insights on the media investment landscape and assesses how macro consumer trends can be turned into micro strategies for advertisers.

If you have already registered, please click here to watch the webcast. Otherwise, please sign up first. A Q&A session from the discussion will be available to download soon.