The CEO of the world's largest ad holding company explains why it spends $7 billion on Google, how media reviews need to change, and why it's not threatened by consulting companies
- WPP CEO Mark Read said there was an advantage in maintaining close ties with Google, Facebook, Adobe, Salesforce and other platforms.
- Doing so gives WPP an edge in advising its clients, the company's CEO said at industry trade AdExchanger's Industry Preview conference in New York on Tuesday.
- Read also said media agency reviews needed to prioritize performance in digital media over price and that agencies have a creative advantage that positions them well against management consultancies.
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His predecessor Sir Martin Sorrell called Google and Facebook his "frenemies," but Mark Read said there was an advantage in maintaining close ties with Google, Facebook, Adobe, Salesforce and other platforms.
"The closer we are to Google, Facebook, Adobe, Salesforce, the more we are able to understand them, and the better we are able to advise our clients on how to get value from technology platforms," he said, speaking at industry trade AdExchanger's Industry Preview conference in New York on Tuesday.
WPP spends a lot of money on Google - and that's a good thing
Read said WPP spends upwards of $7 billion a year with Google - up from $5 billion a few years ago - making WPP Google's single biggest customer. Google is also a WPP client - its second largest - which gives WPP a competitive advantage with its other clients, he said.
"We know Google as well as any other company, probably better than any other company in the world. And the same is true for Facebook, Adobe and others," Read said. "That to me makes us an extremely valuable partner to clients - the CEOs and CMOs who are trying to navigate their way through this world - and the closer we are, the better."
Despite having a good relationship with the platforms, WPP is still independent and has tough conversations with them about brand safety, measurement, or viewability, he added. In addition to Google and Facebook, Disney and Comcast make up WPP's biggest media vendors, he said.
Read said media agency reviews needed to be overhauled
Read also addressed media agency reviews, the process by which advertisers select their agencies, saying the process should evaluate agencies based on performance and how well they manage digital media, not price and legacy media commitments.
"The key thing you need in a review is not how much money you would save on traditional media, analog media, and television," he said. "They should judge us on effectiveness and performance, and we are trying to shift the conversation much more in that direction."
He said Google's phasing out cookies was "the biggest announcement in the last year or more" and that there was a danger that their removal would make the internet "more like day-time television." But he also argued that while the end of cookies would strengthen walled gardens and make it harder to manage clients' media, it would also make agencies more indispensable.
Ad agencies have a creative edge over management consultancies
Read has made some big moves in his 18 or so months leading the world's largest ad holding company to meet client needs and fend off competitors like management consultancies. In fact, he has a consulting background himself.
But he said ad agencies have a creative advantage over consultancies, pointing to the High Line, New York City's railroad-turned-elevated park.
"If you went to a management consultant and said that this area in lower Manhattan needs to be regenerated, they'd say tax breaks and a subway line.' People in our business would say 'Let's use this old line and make it into a garden.' That's what makes us special," he said.
