Marketing through the ages: The 1990s and the calm before the digital storm

The abrupt departure of WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell earlier this year had, in truth, little to do with a grubby scandal. The reality was a tanking share price – down 35% on the previous year – and, behind it, the perception of shareholders and board directors alike that the sands had run out. The business model that had once made WPP great was irredeemably broken.
That model was in its prime during the 1990s, when Sorrell blazed a marketing services acquisition trail that brought him