Share tips: an advertising giant for the digital age

This world-class advertiser is expanding into new media at a decent clip, and looks worth a buy, says Paul Hill.

Advertising has long been seen as the preserve of traditional print, radio and television campaigns. But what about the expanding world of new media? Take WPP, where digital is growing at an 8% clip and accounts for 27% of revenues, with the aim being to increase this to 35%-40% over the next few years.

A tremendous opportunity awaits, driven by social networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube), mobile and online promotions. Another major draw for WPP is its geographical footprint. It is the world's largest advertising agency, with only 12% of revenues derived from Britain. That's less than half the amount produced from emerging markets, which grew at an eye-popping 11.5% in the first quarter of 2011.

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Paul gained a degree in electrical engineering and went on to qualify as a chartered management accountant. He has extensive corporate finance and investment experience and is a member of the Securities Institute.

Over the past 16 years Paul has held top-level financial management and M&A roles for blue-chip companies such as O2, GKN and Unilever. He is now director of his own capital investment and consultancy firm, PMH Capital Limited.

Paul is an expert at analysing companies in new, fast-growing markets, and is an extremely shrewd stock-picker.