WPP chief Sir Martin Sorrell has admitted that the network’s ad spend on Snapchat last year was “much bigger” than anticipated, and believes advertisers now view the photo and video sharing app as the “third force” to Google and Facebook.
In an interview with Business Insider, Sorrell said that while Google is still WPP’s biggest media customer – having spent US$5 billion with the internet giant last year – the network miscalculated its level of ad spend with Snapchat for 2016.
“We were projecting US$20 million or US$30 million last year, and then we said $60 million, and it’s gone through to $90 million, so clearly people see Snapchat as a third force to Google and Facebook,” he said.
To put this in perspective, WPP’s ad spend with Facebook rose from US$1 billion to US$1.7 billion in 2016, while the “Murdoch empire” – News Corp, Fox, Star and Sky – was the network’s third-biggest media customer for ad spend at around US$2.25 billion, according to Sorrell.
The advertising guru told Business Insider that he recently met a “big investor” in Facebook and Snapchat, who predicted that the app could “displace” Mark Zuckerberg’s social media baby.
“This is a very acute and astute investor at both, and he said over the next 15 to 20 years – maybe sooner – somebody will displace Snap as well.”
