Brands do not spend enough on digital direct marketing because media agency heads are too resistant to change - that's the controversial assertion made by WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell in his keynote speech at ad:tech New York.
"The people who run agencies tend to be of an older vintage - to put it politely," he said. "They tend to be resistant to change and want to spend the last three to four years of their careers travelling around the world rather than dealing with fundamental strategic issues on a daily basis."
Digital media is crucial to WPP, and is a growing market. It is already responsible for a quarter of WPP's $14 billion revenue, but Sorrell believes that brands will raise their online spend from 13% to more than 20% by 2015.
He explained the projected rise by pointing out that brands increasingly have ROI in their sights. Digital marketing has the edge because, to borrow Coast Digital's trademark, it's marketing you can measure. Or to use Sorrell's words: "New media gives us a way to quantatively evaluate media in a way that we've never seen before."
Coast Digital specialises in generating excellent ROI for brands and companies that use its online marketing services. So, if you feel that the head of your media agency is too old or unwilling to face change, then please get in touch!
