Publicis Groupe is a French
multinational advertising
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
and
public relations
Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...
company. One of the oldest and largest marketing and communications companies in the world by revenue, it is headquartered in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
.
After 1945, the little-known Paris-based advertising agency grew rapidly, becoming the world's fourth-largest agency. It was a leader in promoting France's post-
war economic boom, especially the expansion of the advertising industry; it was successful because of its close ties with top officials of the
French government
The Government of France ( French: ''Gouvernement français''), officially the Government of the French Republic (''Gouvernement de la République française'' ), exercises executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister, who ...
, its clever use of symbols to promote itself, and its ability to attract clients from widely diverse growing industries.
It is one of the "Big Four" agency companies, alongside
WPP,
Interpublic and
Omnicom
Omnicom Group Inc. is an American global media, marketing and corporate communications holding company, headquartered in New York City.
Omnicom's branded networks and specialty firms provide services in four disciplines: advertising, customer ...
.
Publicis Groupe S.A. is headed by
Arthur Sadoun, and its agencies provide digital and traditional advertising, media services and marketing services (SAMS) to national and multinational clients.
History
The company was founded by 20 year old
Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet in 1926.
In 2011, Publicis was named the third-largest marketing group worldwide by revenue, surpassing Interpublic.
By the end of 2010, the twin sectors of digital activities and high-growth emerging countries represented one-half of Publicis Groupe's total revenue.
The group had operations in over 202 cities in 105 countries, including a strategic alliance with
Dentsu.
In July 2012 it was announced that Publicis Groupe and
Omnicom Group would merge to form Publicis Omnicom Group, but by May 2014 it was announced that the deal had fallen through and the Publicis-Omnicom merger would not happen.
In February 2015, Publicis acquired
Sapient Corporation to form Publicis.Sapient as the world's largest digital network, which at the time included SapientNitro, Sapient Consulting, DigitasLBI and RazorfishGlobal.
In September 2015 The Publicis Groupe acquired South African marketing, promotions and activations agency
The Creative Counsel. The acquisition was reported as the largest agency buyout ever to happen in South Africa, with an unconfirmed valuation of between R1bn and R1.5bn.
In December 2015, Publicis announced a new organisation into 4 main divisions:
* Publicis Communications (gathering creative networks
Leo Burnett Worldwide, Publicis Worldwide,
Saatchi & Saatchi,
Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), global design and technology consultancy Nurun, and creative production group Prodigious Brand Logistics and global PR agency
MSLGROUP) under the leadership of Arthur Sadoun;
* Publicis Media (gathering the media planning & buying capabilities of
Starcom Mediavest Group and ZenithOptimedia) under the leadership of Steve King;
* Publicis.Sapient (gathering technology & digital agencies
Razorfish
Razorfish may refer to:
Species Fish
A common name used for three unrelated groups of fishes:
* The genera ''Aeoliscus'', and ''Centriscus'', also known as shrimpfishes, in the family Centriscidae
* The genus ''Xyrichtys'' of the family Labridae
* ...
, DigitasLBi and
Sapient Corporation) under the leadership of Alan Herrick;
* Publicis Healthcare, already in existence, will remain under the leadership of Nick Colucci.
In addition, Laura Desmond became Chief Revenue Officer, leading a team of 20 Chief Client Officers who would lead client teams across all Publicis Groupe entities. The new organisation was to be effective 1 January 2016.
Since 2016, Publicis has co-organised, with
Groupe Les Echos, the annual technology conference,
Viva Technology
Viva Technology, or VivaTech, is an annual technology conference, dedicated to innovation and startups, held in Paris, France. VivaTech was founded in 2016 by Publicis, Publicis Groupe and Les Échos (France), Groupe Les Echos. The first two da ...
.
In 2017, CEO
Maurice Lévy replaced
Elisabeth Badinter (Bleustein-Blanchet's daughter) as chairman of the supervisory board and was succeeded as CEO by
Arthur Sadoun.
On 21 January 2019, Publicis announced the deal to sell two of their Latinamerican agencies, NovaDigitas and Pixeldigital to BancroftX to form a new marketing firm under the group umbrella
BancroftX.
On 14 April 2019, Publicis announced a $4.4 billion deal to acquire data marketing firm
Epsilon
Epsilon (, ; uppercase , lowercase or lunate ; el, έψιλον) is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet, corresponding phonetically to a mid front unrounded vowel or . In the system of Greek numerals it also has the value five. It was d ...
.
On 4 February 2020, Publicis Groupe India announced the merging of existing agencies – Arc Worldwide, Solutions and Ecosys OOH, to create 'Publicis In-Motion'. In January 2014, Publicis acquired Law & Kenneth, an Indian advertising and digital agency.
On 3 May 2022 French advertising holding company Publicis Groupe acquired Profitero, an
e-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manag ...
software company that provides analytics for brands, as marketer clients are increasingly seeking services in commerce.
Operations
The company owns several full-service advertising groups that undertake a range of media activities: mobile and interactive online communication, television,
magazines & newspapers, cinema and radio,
outdoor. The company's SAMS services include
direct marketing/
customer relationship management
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study large amounts of information.
CRM systems compile data from a r ...
services,
sales promotion, healthcare communications, multicultural and ethnic communications, corporate and financial communications, human resource infrastructure, public relations, design services, interactive communications, events marketing and management, sports marketing, and production and ''pre-press services.'' Its media services include media planning, media buying, and media sales. Publicis Groupe's Vivaki developed a technological platform supported by
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...
,
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
,
Yahoo!
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Mana ...
and
AOL
AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...
Platform A technologies that offers advertisers the possibility to target specifically defined audiences in a single campaign across multiple networks.
Controversies
Qorvis, a U.S. subsidiary of Publicis, has represented the country of Saudi Arabia since the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
and has been accused of helping to
whitewash
Whitewash, or calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime (calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk calcium carbonate, (CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes used.
...
its
record on human rights. More recently, the writer
Ken Klippenstein obtained leaked documents from Qorvis, which show the PR company pitched a private company on a four to five minute propaganda video, which hoped to improve the reputation of its Homestead, Florida shelter for "unaccompanied alien children."
Subsidiaries
As of October 2015, the main subsidiary companies of this group are:
*Publicis Communications
**
Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH)
**Glickman Shamir Samsonov
**
Leo Burnett Worldwide
**
Publicis New York
**Publicis Worldwide
**Publicis India
**Publicis Beehive
**Digitas
**
Saatchi & Saatchi
**Epsilon
*Publicis Media
**
Starcom
**Zenith
**Frubis
**
Spark Foundry
**Digitas
**GroupeConnect
**Blue 449
**Performics
**Publicis Global Delivery (PGD)
**Publicis Sport & Entertainment
**
Saatchi & Saatchi
*Publicis Sapient
**3SHARE
**
SapientRazorfish
***Rosetta
**
Publicis Pixelpark
**
Publicis Sapient
Publicis Sapient is an American digital consulting company, founded as Sapient in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1990 by Jerry Greenberg and J. Stuart Moore.
On February 6, 2015, Sapient became a fully owned division of French advertising giant Pub ...
***
Vertiba
**vivaki
*Publicis Health
*Specialized Agencies
**Médias & Régies
**PMCI (content and innovation)
** LionVault (Web3 Specialist Group)
**
MSLGROUP
**Prodigious Brand Logistics (including Translate Plus Limited)
**
Publicis Healthcare Communications Group
**
The Creative Counsel
PublicisLive
PublicisLive is a global event management and strategic communication firm founded in 1995 and has offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Geneva, Istanbul, Kigali and Paris. PublicisLive is part of Publicis Groupe.
References
Further reading
* Clark Hultquist, "Publicis and the French advertising world, 1946--1968" ''Essays in Economic & Business History'' (2009) 27: 61-76
External links
*
Official website: Nurun
{{CAC 40 companies
1926 establishments in France
Advertising agencies of France
Holding companies established in 1926
CAC 40
Companies listed on Euronext Paris
Holding companies of France
Public relations companies