WPP Group Earnings: Blinded by Science

WPP Group, new owner of 24/7 Real Media, has released its 2007 Interim financials. Though the numbers provided by the firm don’t break out online revenues, the company did make note of media changes it’s dealing with and the effect they’re having on the firm and, in particular, its media operations. Specifically, the press release notes:

“According to industry research sources, approximately 1-in-4 advertisements you may see anywhere in the world may have been planned or bought by WPP’s GroupM and its constituent operating brands MindShare, Mediaedge:cia, MediaCom or Maxus. GroupM increasingly provides one buying point in each country to give clients increased cross-platform content opportunities, buying leverage and consumer and research insights. Inside WPP, there is, therefore, an almost $40 billion (the level of our gross media billings and turnover) media engine that mirrors the importance of media in the Japanese or Dentsu model. As a result, traditional media faces increased buying concentration, as well as the challenges of new media and technology.”

As for those new media and tech challenges, WPP observed recent “land-grabs” by the likes of Google (DoubleClick buy), Microsoft (aQuantive buy) and itself (24/7 Real Media buy), noting “science is being increasingly applied to advertising and marketing services industries.” The company continued, “Whilst also about talent, these initiatives really concern the deployment of detailed and precise technology in our industry for the first time.”