Sir Martin Sorrell - PRNewser

WPP Shareholders Vote Down Sir Martin Pay Increase

Tonya Garcia — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 13:33:40 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, some of WPP‘s top investors issued a “red top” alert over a proposed 30 percent increase in pay for the company’s CEO, Sir Martin Sorrell. Now, they’ve lowered the boom with 60 percent of investors voting “nay” on a proposed pay package at the company’s annual meeting in Dublin.

“The message from shareholders was unambiguous and cannot be ignored. It is now in the compensation committee’s gift to reach out to WPP’s leading shareholders to address their concerns and implement mutually acceptable pay policies and practices,” Guy Jubb, global head of governance & stewardship at Standard Life Investments, told the Financial Times.

In 2011, Sir Martin’s salary increased 30 percent to £1.3 million, with total pay increasing 60 percent to £6.8 million (about $10.6 million).

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Shareholders Are Losing It Over High Executive Pay

Tonya Garcia — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:38:00 +0000

The word on the street is that WPP head Sir Martin Sorrell is getting a huge pay raise, which could stir up controversy over executive pay. It’s an issue that’s rearing its head at a number of companies, particularly at banks. (Mediapost has info about executive pay at other holding companies.)

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WPP’s Like-For-Like PR Revenue Up 1.9 Percent

Tonya Garcia — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:27:05 +0000

WPP reported a like-for-like revenue increase of 1.9 percent in the public relations and public affairs area for Q1 2012. Revenue for the sector totaled £225 million, or about $365.6 million. In constant currencies, that percentage goes up to 6.8 percent. The company said Burson-Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe showed the strongest growth. B-M this week announced leadership changes at Proof Integrated Communications and in its consumer and brand marketing practice.

Overall, that means PR and public affairs make up 9.4 percent of total revenue for the company.

Revenue for WPP as a whole totaled about £2.93 billion (about $4.76 billion), up 7.6 percent in pound sterling and 5.5 percent in U.S. dollars. Like-for-like revenue was up four percent.

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WPP Reports Record Profits, PR Revenue Up 4.8 Percent

Tonya Garcia — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:30:48 +0000

WPP earnings today show a 7.4 percent revenue growth, with full-year revenue numbers topping £10 billion (about $16 billion, according to today’s conversion rates) for the first time. Profits also exceeded £1 billion, a first-ever for the marketing giant.

Billings for the company were up 4.9 percent for the year to £44.8 billion (about $71.4 billion). And operating profits reached £1.43 billion (about $2.28 billion).

On the PR and public affairs front, revenue for the year totaled £886 million (about $1.41 billion), up 4.8 percent. WPP firms include Ogilvy PR, Burson-Marsteller, and Hill & Knowlton. For more info on WPP’s earnings, click here.

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Revolving Door: TechCrunch Outrage, ‘The Guardian’ in the U.S., and More

Tonya Garcia — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:39:19 +0000

Readers and members of the media went ballistic called a foul when TechCrunch published a glowing review of Bitcasa, a company backed by Michael Arrington’s new CrunchFund. “This reads like a press release,” said one reader. [via The Atlantic Wire]

The Guardian is here. There’s a new website, Nick Davies is joining from the U.K., and Ana Marie Cox is on board from the U.S.

Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, supports the launch of another Sunday U.K. paper to replace the now-defunct News of the World. However, readers shouldn’t expect Sun on Sunday until 2012 and Mail on Sunday has not gotten past the planning stages just yet. [via The Guardian]

Speaking of News Corp., James Murdoch will be recalled to testify before a parliamentary panel after discrepancies were found between his previous testimony and new evidence in the phone hacking scandal. And shareholders have filed an amended lawsuit against the company claiming it knew about “widespread misconduct.” Yikes and double yikes.

New York Times restaurant critic Sam Sifton is now the national editor for the paper.

Abigail Pesta, Marie Claire editor-at-large, has joined Newsweek and The Daily Beast as editorial director for Women in the World, which has an annual summit and foundation. The group will be adding editorial content across The Daily Beast website. [via The Observer]

For more of the latest media moves click through.

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PR, Marketing Leaders Also Top MediaGuardian List

Tonya Garcia — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:31:11 +0000

Freud Communications' Matthew Freud is among those on the 'Guardian' media list.

The U.K.’s Guardian newspaper has published it’s top 100 in the media and there are some PR and communications pros taking spots on the list.

Max Clifford, the founder of Max Clifford Associates known for his work managing tabloid news and the PR for high-profile names like Simon Cowell, has moved up 10 spots to number 25. Matthew Freud, chairman of Freud Communications and husband to Rupert Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth, is at number 31. And Alan Parker, the founder and chairman of powerful financial and corporate comms firm Brunswick Group, is in at number 65.

The top marketing and PR spot goes to Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP‘s CEO, coming in at number 8.

As we mentioned this morning, Mark Zuckerberg comes in at number one. Also in the top 10 are Rupert Murdoch, Steve Jobs, and the aforementioned Simon Cowell. For more of the marcomms leaders on the list, click here.

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Lévy Staying Put at Publicis

Tonya Garcia — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 12:24:41 +0000

This week, Publicis Groupe shareholders voted to raise the age limit for management board members from 70 to 75. This means that Maurice Lévy, the Groupe’s 69-year-old chairman and CEO, can stay on for another five years while a successor is selected.

Publicis firms include MSLGroup as well as advertising giants Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett.

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Burson Backlash Continues on the Firm’s Facebook Page

Tonya Garcia — Mon, 16 May 2011 15:31:19 +0000

The backlash against Burson-Marsteller‘s botched media campaign for Facebook continues today with commenters piling on negative responses (in a variety of languages) on the firm’s Facebook page. Appropriate.

Comments not only express acrimony over the effort against Google, but also about news reported on Wired.com that a negative comment posted on Burson’s Facebook page had been deleted. According to a spokesperson who talked with Wired, the post will be put back and the page has received “a lot of profanity.”

The question now is how long the backlash will continue and who it will impact. Burson is an award-winning firm with lots of top international clients (including some controversial clients). But this episode has really angered a lot of people, including many in PR, largely because of how it reflects on the entire industry.

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Tidbits: Google’s PR Leader, Jay Cutler, Sir Martin Sorrell, and More

Tonya Garcia — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:30:27 +0000

Business Insider gets to know Google’s PR head, Jill Hazelbaker.

Chicago Bears’ Jay Cutler has been feeling the heat from fellow players and commentators on Twitter. Dig Communications offers some advice.

Speaking at the annual NATPE event, WPP Group’s CEO Sir Martin Sorrell said media companies should have a pay model for content and the government should subsidize journalism.

Edelman lands on Ad Age‘s Agency A-List.

The lawyer for Yonni Sebag, who pleaded guilty with his accomplice Bonnie Hoxie for attempting to sell confidential financial information about Walt Disney’s earnings, has asked the court that his client be sentenced to time served. “This hare-brained scheme was obviously doomed to fail from the start,” wrote his attorney in a letter to the judge. Hoxie was the assistant to Disney’s corp comms chief Zenia Mucha. She will be sentenced on February 22.

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Levy and Sorrell On Their Companies and the Industry

Tonya Garcia — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 11:01:22 +0000

CEOs Maurice Lévy (Publicis Groupe) and Sir Martin Sorrell (WPP) recently spoke with reporters about the state of their businesses and the industry.

Lévy, talking with EuroBusiness Media, had a good outlook for economies around the world. This following a good showing for Publicis in Q3.

“Europe is slowing down a little bit, the US is strengthening a little bit, and fast-growing markets,” like Brazil, are growing by leaps and bounds, he said. He adds that he’s heard predictions for growth in Brazil by as much as 20 percent. But he would be happy with 15 percent. Levy’s video is quite long – about 20 minutes – but it’s broken into segments.

Sorrell, talking with Bloomberg, touted the strength of WPP right now, saying that “Q3 on its own, is back to where we were in 2008,” However, he says, the number of people at the firm is less, as is the case at other firms.

“We’re doing the same volumes in Q3 as Q3 2008 with fewer people,” he said.

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