Amid downturn, WPP brass poke each other
We all deal with economic catastrophe in our own ways. For WPP's top echelon of executives, it means enjoying a little Wii and Facebook. A new BusinessWeek story recounts a meeting in Athens, Greece, in October where WPP's board discussed—wait for it—how the company could prepare itself for digital media. The Internet is big, who knew? (Agency Spy, for one, is incensed about this.) A top priority for these execs: getting Facebook accounts. In this endeavor, WPP's titans of advertising got help from none other than Mark Zuckerberg himself. BusinessWeek reports that 63-year-old WPP CEO Martin Sorrell has already lost interest in the site, but others have been liking it. "The directors had fun, but the exercise was meant to help them fully grasp the phenomenon of social networks and how they may affect the ad business," according to BusinessWeek. Ah, but there's more. Apparently, WPP's top 3,000 managers get training courses on things like Twitter. I don't begrudge anyone for trying to make money, but training ad people on Twitter? I tried to find Sir Martin on Facebook to write on his wall. Alas, I can't seem to locate him.
—Posted by Brian Morrissey
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