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The
world's best-known advertising boss is building up the new
venture following his departure from ad giant WPP, sealing deals
for digital content that runs on platforms like Facebook and
Google, and the automated placing of ads online.
Sorrell said digital growth was "on fire" and his focus on it
meant he was currently involved in five large pitches.
S4 will gain access to Firewood's client base in the United
States, including Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Salesforce and
VMware.
S4 raised 100 million pounds ($123 million) through a placing to
part fund the Firewood deal and to build up a war chest for
future acquisitions.
Rather than replicate WPP, the world's biggest advertising
company he created with a holding company model, Sorrell is
buying smaller agencies and merging them into one arm producing
content and one arm handling the programmatic placing of ads.
"I don't want to end up with a fragmented model," he said.
Sorrell told Reuters he is still looking to acquire companies
that own first-party data on consumer habits, but said he had
two small deals looming for data analytics companies, with one
in London and one in Korea.
"They will slot in to the programmatic offer," he said.
S4 has already won work from the likes of Procter & Gamble,
Nestle, Coca-Cola and Sprint and had said it was being asked to
bid for other major clients.
Industry data released on Monday showed the U.S. advertising
market remained solid, helped by small- and medium-sized
companies spending on digital platforms to reach customers.
(Reporting by Kate Holton in London and Pushkala Aripaka in
Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Alexander Smith)
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