Information, Insight and Consultancy

WPP’s Kantar companies, including TNS, Millward Brown, The Futures Com­pany, and many other specialists in brand, consumer, media and marketplace insight, work with clients to generate and apply great insights

Public Relations and Public Affairs

Corporate, consumer, financial and brand-building services from PR and lob­bying firms Burson-Marsteller, Cohn & Wolfe, Hill & Knowlton, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide and others

Branding & Identity

Consumer, corporate and employee branding and design services, covering identity, packaging, literature, events, training and architecture from Addison, The Brand Union, Fitch, Lambie-Nairn, Landor, The Partners, and others

Direct, Promotion & Relationship Marketing

The full range of general and specialist customer, channel, direct, field, retail, promotional and point-of-sale services from Bridge Worldwide, G2, OgilvyOne, Ogilvy Action, RTC Relationship Marketing, VML, Wunderman and others

Healthcare Communications

CommonHealth, ghg, Ogilvy Healthworld, Sudler & Hennessy and others provide integrated healthcare marketing solutions from advertising to medical education and online marketing

Specialist Communications

A comprehensive range of specialist services, from custom media and multicul­tural marketing to event, sports, youth and entertainment marketing, corporate and business-to-business; media, technology and production services

WPP Digital

Through WPP Digital, WPP companies and their clients have access to a portfolio of digital experts including 24/7 Real Media, Schematic, BLUE and Omniture

The company states that they “encourage and enable our companies of different disciplines to work together, for the benefit of clients and the satisfaction of our people." In most cases, it seems, clients use only one or two of WPP’s companies However, the firm also notes that, "A recent development, and for a minority of clients, WPP itself can function as the 21st century equivalent of the full-service agency, acting as a portal to provide a single point of contact arid accountability, of a few, the holding company’s largest clients-Ford and IBM are examples-the entire holding company works to achieve the best possible marketing communication results across the gamut of new and old media.

Media Literacy and the Persuasion Industries

Using integrated communications, new media, and target marketing efficiently has for several years been a cutting-edge concern of executives and creative personnel in the persuasion industries. If we step back from their day-to-day challenges and turn our attention to what their activities mean for the larger society, we confront very different concerns regarding these aspects of mass media today. Here we will highlight three worries about the role that the persuasion industries in general, and public relations in particular, are playing in the contemporary world. Two of the issues—one on conglomerates and the other on target marketing—carry forward two themes that we've seen throughout this text. The other—on truth and the hiding of influence—centers on the persuasion industry but also relates to the media system as a whole. As you might imagine from everything you've learned in this book (we hope!), all three issues are interrelated.