Speaking at the IAB Engage 2005 conference in London today, the chairman and CEO of WPP Group warned that there was a tremendous pace of change, which was not being fully grasped.
He said it was a "cop out" to talk about children and grandchildren having different media habits. "It's happening now," he told delegates.
Sorrell blamed the failure to react on the age of people who run the major media and ad groups, mainly in their 50s and 60s, and a reluctance to change.
Highlighting the rate of change, Sorrell cited the Chinese version of 'Pop Idol', where 800m votes were cast by mobile phone during the final episode -- even though China has only 400m mobile phone handsets.
Although he said he had a lot of respect for Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation, Sorrell raised questions about his internet strategy.
Murdoch has recently been on a major digital buying spree, snapping up several internet firms.
News Corp recently bid £64m for Australian internet property site realestate.com.au and it bought videogame and movie website company IGN Entertainment, which owns GameSpy and Rotten Tomatoes, for $650m (£365m) and MySpace.com for $580m.
Speaking on wider issues facing the industry, Sorrell said that a major issue would be the shortage of human capital.
"The critical deficiency we will have to face is the supply of good people," he said.
Sorrell said that even after people who quit large agencies during the first dotcom boom returned to larger companies, re-entry interviews indicated that they did not regret their experiences, implying that with a second internet boom upon us, this trend would re-emerge.
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