Sorrell guns for first party data, talks down Epsilon, Acxiom buys
Former WPP chief Sir Martin Sorrell says S4 Capital is still on the hunt for a big first-party data acquisition, but suggests two of the three recent big holding group data deals would not meet clients' standards (Digiday).
- Sorrell suggests Epsilon and Acxiom are “not good examples” of agency first party data buys, though “Merkle… is a good example of what we’re aiming for”.
- Brands going direct-to-consumer underlines their desire to control first party data
- S4 not looking to acquire traditional media agencies: “Thereʼs no growth there because of the procurement pressure.”
Sir Martin knows how to rile competitors, and suggesting their multi-billion dollar data buys aren't much cop will do that in spades. But they could counter that Sorrell left WPP with a pile to clean up and didn't cover himself in first party data glory either.
With tit for tat out of the way, what could S4 buy? It's difficult to see the group financing a Merkle sized deal at this stage of its life. Three months ago Sorrell suggested talks were underway with two companies - one around retail with 90 million customer records, the other in transportation with data for 100 million customers, according to AdExchanger.
But Sorrell also pointed out Google, Facebook and Amazon make most of their money by scooping up SME krill. Perhaps small data, in first party terms, is S4's realistic target.
