Media's Audience Measurement Key to Content Creation, WPP CEO Sorrell Tells Bloomberg TV
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The rise of new digital media is running up against the staying power of traditional media, especially in television programming.
CEO Martin Sorrell of WPP PLC, a London-based communications services holding company, sees more effective audience measurement as key to finding the balance between the two for any media company.
"Measurement has become critical in the area of content ... because pricing might have also come back in the right way but also because audiences are a little bit stronger in traditional media then people give it credit for," Sorrell said on Bloomberg TV's "Bloomberg GO."
Investment in data measurement companies, such as comScore (SCOR), is becoming crucial "because of the differences in the way people are consuming," Sorrell noted. By measuring consumption more effectively, WPP can invest "in content that appeals to new audiences," regardless of the demographic background.
"Traditional measurement criteria ... don't measure effectively and the pricing [in the current market] is pricing that in," Sorrell said.
As a result, pricing is "up about 8% or 9%" and part of that is because of the lack of current data.
"At our Cannes festival a few of our clients were worried about lack of data ... [as] you have to a referee who has data, who is verifiable," Sorrell added.