Sir Martin Sorrell On the Future of PR in a Conversation with Art Stevens
I get a great deal of joy, enlightenment, insights, and knowledge from having interviewed some eighty-one icons from the world of public relations and marketing communications. It is truly a labor of love. I’ve had the opportunity to work with Fay Shapiro, publisher of CommPRO for the past four years and together we have combed the best of the best. But as Al Jolson once said: “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” (Note to the younger generation: Al Jolson was the most popular entertainer in the country about a hundred years ago.)
The PR profession can boast of many icons, legends, and Masters. That’s what’s so amazing about our PR Masters Podcast series. There are many more PR Masters in our industry and Fay and I will continue to tap them. But as another saying goes, we’ve caught a big fish in our current podcast. And here’s more about our distinguished guest on episode #81 - Sir Martin Sorrell, Founder and Executive Chairman of S4 Capital plc.
Sir Martin Sorrell, Founder and Executive Chairman of S4 Capital plc
In this exclusive interview, we delve into the mind of a marketing and advertising visionary, exploring Sir Martin's insights on the current state and future of public relations , his thoughts about the recent merger of BCW and Hill & Knowlton, his journey from advertising to PR, and the impact of artificial intelligence on the state of the communications industry today - “AI is going to turn PR upside down…”
About Our Guest
Sir Martin Sorrell is the Founder and Executive Chairman of S4 Capital plc, the tech-led, new age / new era digital advertising and marketing services company for global, multinational, regional, and local clients, and millennial-driven influencer brands.
Sir Martin was the Founder and CEO of WPP for 33 years, building it from a £1 million ‘shell’ company in 1985 into the world’s largest advertising and marketing services company. When Sir Martin left in April 2018, WPP had a market capitalization of over £16 billion, revenues of over £15 billion, profits of approximately £2 billion, and over 200,000 people in 113 countries. Before that, Sir Martin was Group Financial Director of Saatchi & Saatchi plc for nine years and worked for James Gulliver, Mark McCormack, and Glendinning Associates before that.
In 2018, S4Capital merged with MediaMonks, the leading AdAge A-listed creative digital content production company, and then with MightyHive, the market-leading digital media solutions provider for future-thinking marketers and agencies. Since then, MediaMonks and MightyHive have combined with more than 30 companies.
In August 2021, S4Capital launched its unitary brand by combining MediaMonks and MightyHive into Media.Monks. As the operational brand, Media.Monks underpins S4Capital's agility, digital knowledge, and efficiency and is the next step in delivering on its foundational promise to unify Content, Data & digital media, and Technology services with over 8,000 people in 32 countries. S4Capital is listed on the London Stock Exchange under SFOR.L.
Sir Martin supports a number of leading business schools and universities, including his alma maters, Harvard Business School and Cambridge University, and a number of charities, including his family foundation. He was ranked the second best-performing CEO in the World by the Harvard Business Review in 2016 and 2017 and received the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award. He has also been nominated as one of the TIME 100: The Most Influential People. He is also an Honorary Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge, and a Bloomberg Philanthropy Director.
