Summit Notebook
Exclusive outtakes from industry leaders
Q&A with WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell
Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP Group Plc, was interviewed as part of the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit held this week around the globe. He talked to Reuters reporter Kate Holton in London, with groups of reporters calling in from Paris and New York to ask questions. Here are extended excerpts from a longer interview:
SOFTER 2009; REBOUND IN 2010 Reuters: How is the U.S. advertising market holding up in light of the credit crunch and housing crisis?
Sir Martin: I would just say that I think we continue to be surprised by the relative strength of the US in the first four months of the year, I guess.
Reuters: Previously said you see a stronger 2010 but concerns in 2009. Are you still happy with that characterization?
Sir Martin: Following the Beijing Olympics and the elections of the new US President, 2009 may see a little bit of slowdown in China but all of these things are relative because China is still growing at 20 percent plus and it can’t carry on forever. The GNP can’t continue to grow 10 percent per annum consistently so — forever. The laws of compound arithmetic just make it very difficult. So ’09 I think you have a little bit of relaxation and also I don’t think the world has decoupled. So if America’s weak, as we have said before, you may not catch a flu, but you may certainly catch a cold.
And then in 2010 a number of events –you have the (U.S.) mid-term congressionals. So any US President has to do something unpleasant in ’09 will do it early and hope that mid-term congressionals would not be affected. But you’ve got the Shanghai fair, the expo in 2010. You’ve got the Asian games. You’ve got the Winter Olympics in Vancouver and you’ve got – the biggest event is probably the World Cup in South Africa
Reuters: If we did experience a greater economic downturn would you expect to see increased competition amongst agencies for business? How does that impact on you?
Hulu by numbers
Hulu CEO Jason Kilar stopped by the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit to discuss the future of online video advertising and why giving users what they want trumps having it stolen.
Lambasted by blogs and analysts as a has-been even before it launched, the online video joint venture of News Corp and NBC Universal first full month as a publicly available company will probably change some minds. Its monthly usage in April beat every major U.S. television network including those of its founders. More details below:
Data: Nielsen VideoCensus / Metrics: Total Streams, Streams % Change from Previous Month, Streams Per Viewer (SPV), SPV % Change from Previous Month, Time Spent Viewing (TSV), TSV % Change from Previous Month, TSV per Viewer, TSV per Viewer % Change from Previous Month, StreamCensus Global
While you keep concentrating on the big guys, what we now call the “legacy media companies,” and advertising
dollars and market share are being lost, new players such as http://www.ourtown.com are becoming successful with feet-on- the-street reporting and hyperlocal advertising. OurTown Media has launched more than 70,000 websites and is successfully licensing local editors.