Categories: Articles

The Current State Of Advertising's Business

Where is the world of advertising at today?

It’s easy to say that advertising is dead (it’s not). Here is something that most people (even the smart business folks that you know) don’t realize: advertising spend (paid media) will climb in 2016 by 5.7% to $542.55 billion this year (according to eMarketer‘s article, Worldwide Ad Spending Growth Revised Downward). What does that really mean? The impact of advertising on the overall economy is an important part of what moves our world economy forward and – more importantly – the people at the top of the advertising industry have a pretty amazing insight into where our economy is at, where it’s going and how healthy things are. It’s hard to imagine that there is anyone on a higher perch than Sir Martin Sorrell the chief executive officer and founder of WPP – the world’s largest marketing and communications holding company and network (full disclosure: WPP acquired our agency, Twist Image, in 2014 and we rebranded as Mirum in 2015). WPP has a $28+ billion market cap (as of this writing).

Current status and moving forward.

ET Now’s Brand Equity show sat down with Sir Martin a few weeks back to discuss everything from Brexit and the Cannes Lions to mediapalooza, the US election and more. How is the advertising industry adjusting to our ever-changing world? What does your business need to be thinking about, at this point in the year?

Watch this: Brand Equity – In Conversation with Sir Martin Sorrell.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.