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The WPP chief executive was giving the annual lecture of the Stationers‚ and Newspaper Makers‚ Company in the City on the topic ‘Recession. Bath, shower or whirlpool; which is it to be?'

Asked by Marketing Direct whether he believed the term direct marketing was obsolete in the digital age, Sir Martin intimated that precise definitions were unimportant.

"Call it direct marketing or digital or one-to-one marketing, it's advertising in a more targeted way. The old Lord Leverhulme [issue] that he didn't know which half of his advertising worked is slowly being tackled."

He added that one benefit of this recession was "the more responsible buying of marketing services". Understanding customer insight would become more vital as CEOs "become more interested in justifying the decisions they make" and that such decisions would be more data-driven.

WPP is focusing on building its new media and consumer insight business. "New media is 25% of our revenues but we'd like that to be a third," Sir Martin said. The proportion of clients' budgets spend on new media is still relatively small, he said, compared with how much time consumers spend online. "It's 10 to 12% of clients' marketing budgets but it could grow to 20%," Sir Martin said. 

Spend on TV advertising will shrink to 20% of clients‚ budgets, but "to say TV is dead is clearly wrong," he argued. However WPP in five years‚ time will be "more Asian, more Latin American, less focused on TV and radio and data driven and focused on customer insight," he said.

Sir Martin defended large agencies as more likely to survive in this recession. "Big agencies are much maligned...despite what [magazines such as] ±±¾©Èü³µpk10 and Ad Age would love to suggest, Golaiths are picking up share while the Davids are really under pressure, particularly as credit markets remain frozen."

Regionally, WPP will focus on what Sir Martin called the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) "plus the next 11" (which include Mexico and Vietnam).

"I'm a China fanatic," he said, expressing admiration for the economic revolution that has taken place in China since 1985. He estimated that the share of world GNP produced by China would grow hugely, though the short-term issue was persuading the Chinese to spend more and save less.