WPP's Martin Sorrell Says Whole Foods Deal Could Up Amazon's Ad Game
21 Giugno 2017 - 7:07PM
Dow Jones News
By Jack Marshall
Google and Facebook continue to strengthen their grip on the
online advertising market, but there's another "gorilla in the
room" that troubles WPP Chief Executive Martin Sorrell more:
Amazon.
The online retail giant has for years been described by ad
executives as a "sleeping giant" in the digital advertising world,
but its $13.4 billion acquisition of grocery chain Whole Foods
could further strengthen Amazon's ability to influence how and
where WPP's clients choose to spend their money, Mr. Sorrell
said.
The deal could extend Amazon's already powerful data about
consumers' online behaviors and consumption habits to real-world
stores.
The Whole Foods deal "is going to change the way clients control
their budgets and think about their budgets in a meaningful way,"
Mr. Sorrell said in an interview hosted by the Financial Times at
the Cannes Lions advertising festival on Wednesday.
Amazon still isn't a big digital ad player -- eMarketer predicts
it will generate $1.81 billion in ad revenue worldwide this year,
for a 0.8% market share.
Beyond Amazon, Mr. Sorrell once again expressed concern about
the growing power of the online ad "duopoly" of Google and
Facebook, and their changing role in the digital media
landscape.
The two companies currently control 75% of digital advertising,
he estimated, but WPP questions the transparency they provide given
their surging revenues, margins and market caps. (Emarketer
estimates that the tech titans earned 77 cents of each new dollar
spent on digital advertising in the U.S. last year.)
"Who knows how their algorithms work? Their algorithms change
and there's no explanation," Mr. Sorrell said.
He said the duo should take more responsibility for the content
that's hosted on their platforms and behave like media
companies.
"In my view Google and Facebook are media companies, they are
not technology companies. They are responsible for the content they
distribute and they can't walk away from that," he said.
Representatives for Google and Facebook had no immediate
comment.
Some advertisers pulled their spending from Google and YouTube
earlier this year after revelations their ads ran alongside
objectionable content. Google has made efforts to win them back,
including improving the technology that screens videos and giving
marketers more control. Those efforts have won over many marketers,
though other notable ones still remain on the sidelines.
Write to Jack Marshall at Jack.Marshall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 21, 2017 12:52 ET (16:52 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Grafico Azioni WPP (NYSE:WPP)
Storico
Da Set 2024 a Ott 2024
Grafico Azioni WPP (NYSE:WPP)
Storico
Da Ott 2023 a Ott 2024