WPP Chairman
Roberto Quarta is pushing for an overhaul of the advertising holding company now that Martin Sorrell, the designer of the business model, has parted with the firm.
Quarta's
restructuring plan is likely to emerge in a way that better supports digital advertisers as more dollars move online to Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Quarta also plans to merge under-performing
agencies into other more productive ones, reports The Wall Street
Journal.
For example, the WSJ reports that Quarta did not rule out merging some flagship creative agencies, such as Young & Rubicam. The resignation of
73-year-old Sorrell, after the possible misuse of assets and improper behavior, now gives Quarta -- who is up for reelection on the board -- an opportunity to trim down the holding company's assets to
increase profits.
Google, best known for owning the majority of the search advertising spend by advertisers, is expected to continue to transform the industry and companies that do
business with it. C3 Metrics, for example, recently spent nearly $2 million
to adapt its business model to comply with the changes Google made to adhere to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Aaron Kessler, internet analyst at Raymond
James Equity Research, recently published a note estimating Google and Facebook will capture more than 85% of incremental online advertising spend this year, with mobile driving the majority
of growth, especially in emerging markets.
Warc, which touts its business as an international authority on advertising and media effectiveness, estimates that this year, search advertising
will increase 11% to $100.5 billion in aggregate across a dozen key markets such as Australia,
Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and United States.
Data from Warc’s Global Ad Trends Report in April 2018 shows that
Google’s share comes closer to 66.8% in the more mature desktop market. Baidu controls 20.5%, while Bing takes 7.7%, Yahoo has 3.5%, and others comprise about 1.5%.
WPP’s agencies
will also need to support the move to image and voice search The Warc report notes the top six activities of people using voice technology weekly. About 60% of users rely on online searches, 53% find
information on products, 50% ask questions, and 41% search for information on a brand or a company.