Sir Martin Sorrell, the WPP chief executive, was speaking at a Reuters conference when he reiterated his stance that he expects a good 2007 after a good start to the year.
"April was a good month top line and stronger than the first quarter. It's difficult to say with total confidence ... but I would stick with my original view from last year that 07 will be a good year and better than 06 for the industry and if we do the right job we'll be in line with that," Sorrel said.
The strength of the pound pushed down WPP's first-quarter revenues by 0.7% to £1.37bn as revenues grew 4.3% year on year.
Sorrell said that the industry was set to benefit in 2007 as it headed into a quadrennial year with the US presidential elections, the Euro 2008 football championships and the Olympic Games.
However, looking to the US market he said he had concerns about the overheating in the US market.
"I think things are set fair. Am I nervous about overheating say in the US and the UK? Yes to some extent, but I think we're driven by a political cycle and I don't think that is going to happen until after the US election.
"If you ask me when I would get worried? I think it would be at that point. No president likes to go to the country or have members of his party go to the country other than with a reasonably good economic environment and I think that is what is going to happen now."
Sorrell spoke about WPP's digital ambitions and again raised his concerns about Google calling "a short-term friend and a long-term enemy". He recently said he was concerned about the combination of Google and DoubleClick while WPP has been named as a potential bidder for internet advertising services company 24/7 Real Media
"They have considerably more firepower. We're sort of a little bit handicapped in comparison. Our ambitions would be substantially more modest but no less important, I think.
"There are things we can do on a smaller scale which we think is significant and will give us a position and a seat at the table as the technology is changing at a fairly rapid rate," he said.
He added that WPP would be focusing on small to medium sized-acquisitions such as the recent acquisition of a stake in internet-based ad agency Spot Runner.
"Why did we buy 3% or so percent of Spot Runner? Well the reason is because we think there is some future in online media planning and buying. We want to understand the technology, understand what people are doing and obviously build similar online models."
"April was a good month top line and stronger than the first quarter. It's difficult to say with total confidence ... but I would stick with my original view from last year that 07 will be a good year and better than 06 for the industry and if we do the right job we'll be in line with that," Sorrel said.
The strength of the pound pushed down WPP's first-quarter revenues by 0.7% to £1.37bn as revenues grew 4.3% year on year.
Sorrell said that the industry was set to benefit in 2007 as it headed into a quadrennial year with the US presidential elections, the Euro 2008 football championships and the Olympic Games.
However, looking to the US market he said he had concerns about the overheating in the US market.
"I think things are set fair. Am I nervous about overheating say in the US and the UK? Yes to some extent, but I think we're driven by a political cycle and I don't think that is going to happen until after the US election.
"If you ask me when I would get worried? I think it would be at that point. No president likes to go to the country or have members of his party go to the country other than with a reasonably good economic environment and I think that is what is going to happen now."
Sorrell spoke about WPP's digital ambitions and again raised his concerns about Google calling "a short-term friend and a long-term enemy". He recently said he was concerned about the combination of Google and DoubleClick while WPP has been named as a potential bidder for internet advertising services company 24/7 Real Media
"They have considerably more firepower. We're sort of a little bit handicapped in comparison. Our ambitions would be substantially more modest but no less important, I think.
"There are things we can do on a smaller scale which we think is significant and will give us a position and a seat at the table as the technology is changing at a fairly rapid rate," he said.
He added that WPP would be focusing on small to medium sized-acquisitions such as the recent acquisition of a stake in internet-based ad agency Spot Runner.
"Why did we buy 3% or so percent of Spot Runner? Well the reason is because we think there is some future in online media planning and buying. We want to understand the technology, understand what people are doing and obviously build similar online models."
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