By Matthew Stokes
You might not be aware of it, but Sir Martin Sorrell, who will be speaking at the Oxford Media Society this Wednesday, most likely has a huge amount of control over your daily lives – or, more importantly, over the cash in your wallet.
As Chief Executive of WPP, he is at the helm of the world’s largest advertising group, which employs over 150,000 people working hard to entice you to part with your cash. Several – if not most – of the most successful and memorable advertising campaigns in history have come from WPP and its subsidiaries.
After studying at Christ’s College, Cambridge and Harvard, Sir Martin Sorrell joined Saatchi & Saatchi – at the time, the world’s biggest advertising agency – where his influence and success earned him the nickname ‘the third brother’. In 1986, he left the company to buy a controlling stake in a small company making wire supermarket baskets.
His intentions, however, went further than providing Sainsbury’s with a steady supply of baskets. Over his first three years there he acquired 18 advertising companies, including JWT – the fourth largest agency in the world at the time – in a hostile $566m takeover. Only three years later in 1989 the company bought out Ogilvy & Mather, in another hostile bid valued at $825m.
Since that time, WPP has expanded and diversified to become a world leader not only in advertising but also in branding, public relations and media investment. He steered the company through difficult times in the 1990s and 2000s, and the company now has a market capitalisation of £9.1bn. One of the most respected figures in the industry, he has unsurprisingly been labelled ‘the world’s leading ad man’.
Over 300 of the Fortune 500 companies are clients of WPP, as are over half of the NASDAQ 100 companies. In the UK, WPP work with Nestlé, BP, Unilever, the BBC, ITV, Guinness and Marks and Spencer amongst hundreds of other companies.
He was appointed an Ambassador for British Business in 1997 and joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Panel at the turn of the millennium. In 1999 he was appointed to serve on the Council for Excellence in Management and Leadership. He was knighted in the 2000 New Year’s Honours List.
He also holds a number of posts at educational institutions, including the London Business School, the Judge Business School in Cambridge, the IESE in Spain, the Harvard Business School and the Indian School of Business.
The Oxford Media Society is proud to be sponsored by WPP this term, and is honoured that Sir Martin Sorrell is opening the term’s event schedule at 8pm, January 18, 2012, in Lecture Room B, Queens College. He will be giving a talk about his career followed by a Q&A session. Admission is free for members and £2 for non-members, who can sign up on the night for membership which costs £10 a year.You can indicate your interest to attend by clicking here to join the Facebook event.
This is truly a great opportunity to see one of the most recognisable figures not only in the advertising industry but in British business today. Not one to miss – see you Wednesday!
