Reading List: The World According to Sir Martin

The World According to Sir Martin: Most of the ad world’s CEOs do not offer the most scintillating interviews, but WPP Group’s Martin Sorrell is the exception. The WPP annual report is even worth a read for Sir Martin’s letter that spans the globe. (I do recall he predicted Hillary Clinton’s presidency, but nobody’s perfect.) CNN has an interview with Sorrell about the future of advertising. What’s clear is technology is driving his vision at WPP, which has been more aggressive than most of its peers in acquisitions and investments. He also has a message for the doomsday types for TV: it isn’t happening. Sorrell notes that people are watching more TV, not less. And on social media, Sorrell falls into the mild-skeptic camp, noting its main use from a marketer’s perspective at the moment is in public relations. CNN

Publishers and Data: When it comes to media in the age of Big Data, the focus tends to fall on the ad-sales side of things. But there’s as big of a shift underway when it comes to those producing the content to monetize. Lewis DVorkin, chief product officer at Forbes, writes that journalists need to embrace data as a critical part of the feedback loop now more than ever. DVorkin gives a look at a dashboard he uses to determine what Forbes stories are trending in real time. In a way, what he’s attempting to do is harness the power of data without going down the Demand Media track of allowing it to dictate what to do, often at the expense of quality. Pandering for traffic is not brand building,” he writes. “Winning the respect of your audience is.” Some things don’t change. Forbes