Advertising Age interviewed ex-WPP CEO Mark Read, who hyped his AI conference.
Looks like Read is transitioning from failing to extinguish a global flaming dumpster to organizing an obscure conference. The probable next steps include pseudo-consultant and honorary university professor.
Read may inevitably assume a series of roles, and through his performance, demonstrate that each position could be replaced by AI.
Mark Read’s next act—running an AI conference for marketers, agencies and startups
By Brian Bonilla
After seven years at the helm of one of the world’s largest agency holding companies, former WPP CEO Mark Read is running an AI conference called Prompt. The aim is to bring together about 150 people, connecting chief marketing officers and agencies with AI startups to figure out what comes next.
Read, who sold an internet company, WebRewards, to Bertelsmann during the dot-com era in 2001, is once again embracing a startup mentality while trying to help companies navigate the AI space.
The first Prompt took place in London in June. The event is designed for a small group of marketers, AI entrepreneurs and agency executives, with discussions held under Chatham House rules. The format encourages participants to speak frankly, Read said in an interview.
“We’re not trying to compete in any way with CES or even Possible,” said Read. “This is not about scale. It’s really just trying to focus on the intersection of creativity, AI, technology and marketing, and be small.”
Read, who exited WPP late last year, also spent years running Stream, WPP’s technology-focused event. He said that he saw an opportunity to continue connecting marketers with a new generation of companies developing AI applications.
Read said he sees a gap between the AI platforms marketers recognize and the applications they can put to work.
“Everyone knows OpenAI or Claude or Gemini, but on their own, they’re not much use to CMOs, right? They need applications,” he said in an interview with Ad Age. “And I thought, why don’t I see if I can bring these people together?”
Prompt comes to New York Oct. 6, during Advertising Week. Read expects about 150 people at the invite-only event, which is free to attend. Longtime advertising executives David Droga, vice chair of Accenture, and Carolyn Everson, now senior adviser at Permira, are some of the notable speakers. Other participants include CEOs and other senior executives from AI companies such as Profound, Listen Labs and Google.
Asked how much he had personally invested in Prompt, Read said only, “It’s not a massive investment.” He retains control over the speaker lineup.
“Not everyone who’s sponsoring is on stage, and not everyone who’s on stage is sponsoring,” he said.
The gap he sees with AI
Read described himself as a frequent user of Gemini and Claude for different tasks.
“The whole of Prompt is run on those two platforms—from legal advice, financial advice, managing invitations, creating content,” he said.
Read praised AI’s usefulness for startups like his own new venture, noting that established companies face a harder task of retrofitting processes and teams. The conversations Read wants Prompt to host reflect that issue: Companies are adopting AI tools, he said, but their efforts often remain disconnected.
“Too much of AI deployment happens in individual bits,” Read said. Companies need to move beyond experimentation, he said, by connecting applications, establishing sound data governance and focusing on work that can change how the organizations operate.
Read also thinks advertising inside AI tools has yet to realize its potential. “Now, what we have to do—and I don’t think we’ve yet seen this, even from OpenAI—is have an ad experience that fully exploits the power of AI to bring the right message to the right person at the right time,” he said.
He calls that “relevance rather than personalization.” Read cited a personal example of using AI while planning a trip to Alaska, noting that he would have found it useful if the tool had shown him which hotels were available, their prices and any offers while he searched.
Read’s time advising AI companies and using AI tools has also led him to consider how a brand-new agency might operate. “If I were a 25-year-old entrepreneur starting an agency, I’d be saying, ‘How do I embrace all of these tools and start from scratch?’” Read said. “What if you need fewer account executives when AI can take the briefing notes?”
Read remains a WPP shareholder and is keeping an eye on the holding companies.
The industry’s consolidation has been “driven by intense, sometimes irrational competition,” he said, adding that “pressure from procurement has led to an industry with really three major players, which hopefully will create a somewhat more healthy ecosystem for those three companies.”
Read is considering taking Prompt to Berlin, Riyadh and Singapore. Expanding Prompt beyond events is not in his current plans, he said.
Asked whether he has considered starting an agency or agency group himself, Read offered a glimpse of the possibility.
“I think about this,” he said. “Let’s leave it at that.”
No comments:
Post a Comment