Sorrell, who made his age-specific suggestion at ad:tech New York, specifically said brands' online spend is lacklustre because the people who run their agencies are too old and resistant to change. "The people who run agencies tend to be of an older vintage - to put it politely," he said. "They tend to be resistant to change and want to spend the last three to four years of their careers traveling around the world rather than dealing with fundamental strategic issues on a daily basis."
One general manager at a digital agency outside WPP says remnants of Sorrell’s statement can be seen daily.
“Yes, I come across it all the time. I’ve seen people say to the client in a meeting that digital’s ‘for the young people’. It makes no sense! I just want to say, ‘Look around you – the world isn’t changing. It’s changed,’” the source said. “It does really surprise me, and I sometimes catch the clients nodding to this.”
When asked about specifics, the source noted that this sentiment is “seen in some really senior creatives and senior account management”, usually above the age of 45.
“It has actually shocked me that people are still thinking like that,” the source continued. “I think I’ve seen this sort of meeting within the last seven days.”
But others in the region – where average online spend is only a fraction of what is seen in the West – deny the problem has anything to do with age.
“It think it’s just a different mindset. I think its difficult for people to make decisions that they don’t understand, so that’s why people spend the time to get to know digital, like the iPhone or Twitter or Facebook, then they’re more capable to use it as an advertising medium,” said Will Swayne, managing director of Carat Hong Kong. He pointed to Nigel Morris, CEO of Aegis Media North America and former head of Isobar, as a leader who does good digital work. “He’s a 52-year-old guy and he’s got the digital mindset.”
On the other hand, Matthew Godfrey, Asia CEO of Publicis, says that Sorrell’s comment is "ridiculous”.
“It’s a ridiculous excuse. There are many more progressive brands, like Hewlett-Packard, that have 25 per cent of their worldwide media in digital. There are also FMCG advertisers like Procter & Gamble that have done great digital marketing – Martin must not be seeing the progressive clients,” Godrey said. “Maurice Levy [chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe] was sitting down with Eric Schmidt [founder of Google] and he’s facilitated the acquisition of Razorfish his year. He’s definitely of an ‘older vintage’ and he’s able to do great things in digital.
“It’s a reflection of his own people. That’s more common in WPP, not Publicis,” he added.
However, while Richard Fraser, managing director of Proximity Asia, noted that he hasn’t come across these problems in relation to age, he does admit most agency heads in his network aren’t too old.
“I suppose that, in general, if you’re looking for some really cutting-edge technology aimed at younger audiences, this might be true, but that’s not really all of digital,” he said. “And we’re quite fortunate that our network has relatively youthful agency leaders – definitely more than skewed with one foot in the grave.
“And I really don’t know anyone in our network who’s at that end of their career, lazy and wanting to traipse around the countryside,” he added. “Maybe that’s a WPP thing.”
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