• by Paul Gough , November 11, 2003

Here's another example of how the Internet is changing the way we do business. (If we needed it.)

Take the case of WPP PLC, the British-based agency holding company responsible for $7 billion in annual revenues not just in planning and buying but in research, public relations and so-called specialized communications.

At least $1 billion of WPP's annual revenues are what Chief Executive Officer Sir Martin Sorrell calls "Web influenced," that is connected to the Internet in one way or another. That doesn't mean just advertising, as less than half WPP's revenues are connected to the traditional forms of advertising. Sorrell, speaking to the "Beyond the Numbers" conference on the aging Baby Boom generation in midtown Manhattan this morning, counts the influence of the Internet as one of the top drivers of not only advertising, marketing and research but the world economy as a whole.

"It's very fashionable to deny the Web," said Sorrell, noting that the hubbub surrounding the dot-com meltdown masks the fact that there's a resurgence going on. He said clever companies - and the ones who missed out in the first coming of the Internet in the 1990s - are reinvesting in the Web.

For WPP, it's also about getting to the consumer more effectively and efficiently. One way is via WPP's marketing research units, which are responsible collectively for about $1 billion of the company's annual revenues.

Sorrell said that one of the biggest complaints of clients regarding research is that it takes too long to field, gather and slice survey data. Now, through Lightspeed Research, WPP can go to a panel of 750,000 consumers and literally get statistics overnight.

--Paul J. Gough