WPP leads the way for UK ad agencies

MediaGuardian reports on the latest success of the British-based advertising conglomerate, WPP, which saw its sales rise 16 percent in the first quarter of 2005. For WPP, run by Sir Martin Sorrell, it was a reward for its decision to buy U.S. rival Grey Global - as well as "big account wins from Samsung and Unilever." WPP, which also owns the J. Walter Thompson and Young & Rubicam advertising agencies, is (with the purchase of Grey Global) now apparently the world's second largest advertising services operation - just behind its number one U.S. rival Omnicon. WPP got a huge boost in profits last year with the Olympics, Euro 2004, and the U.S. presidential elections - profits that surely helped it in its latest U.S. acquisition.

It's sometimes forgotten just how important the advertising industry is to Britain and its influence around the world (and in the U.S.). The UK was for a long time the world's second largest market in terms of media advertising revenue, after the United States. Television advertising got an early boost in the UK in 1955, when the Independent Television (ITV) network began operations - the first national commercial television operation outside the U.S. Over the years British ad agencies became true global players, taking on and often beating their U.S. counterparts - even in the U.S. Even as famous UK agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi got gobbled up by competitors, WPP emerged as Britain's main "flag carrier" in global advertising.