As announced at the end of 2015, the work to implement the new structure was completed by mid-2016. This structure abandons the holding company model, in order to develop a company operational architecture based on the Connecting Company concept. Highly modular in structure, the Connecting Company model of Publicis Groupe is unlike any other platform in its genre, and offers clients plug & play access to state-of-the-art services. It means a complete rethinking of our approach:
Prestigious clients including USAA, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Walmart Stores and ASDA all recognize the strength of the The Power of One solution. Reinvigorated by this initial success, work is underway to get all our employees to buy into this new approach and promote the The Power of One solution to all existing clients.
Two events that took place in 2016 have made Publicis history. The goal of the first, Viva Technology Paris, run in association with the Les Échos group was to stage a global event in Paris that would bring together start-ups and major stakeholders in the digital industry. This event, held from June 30 to July 1 and 2, 2016, attracted 5,000 start-ups, dozens of large industrial groups and investors, and included over 300 conferences with the biggest names in the global hi-tech sector. With over 45,000 visitors in three days, Viva Technology proved a great success and underscored the pre-eminent place of Publicis Groupe in the global digital economy. This annual event returned for its second edition on June 15, 2017, just before the Cannes Lions Festival. On the occasion of its 90th anniversary, Publicis Groupe launched a project named Publicis90. This idea was to provide 90 projects or start-ups with financial aid and the support of the Group’s digital experts. After an initial phase of stringent selection over a period of several months, the winners were selected from among the 3,500 contestants from 130 countries, and received their awards at a ceremony held during Viva Technology.
At the beginning of 2017, the Publicis Groupe Supervisory Board appointed Arthur Sadoun as Maurice Lévy’s successor as Chair of the Management Board. Since June 1, 2017, Maurice Lévy has been a member of the Supervisory Board which he now chairs. Arthur Sadoun chairs a Management Board strengthened by the addition Steve King, CEO of Publicis Media, who joined forces with Jean-Michel Etienne, Executive Vice-President - Groupe Finance and Anne-Gabrielle Heilbronner, Secretary General.
2017 was marked by two topics: going deeper in integration and faster in the execution of the strategy prepared by Maurice Lévy. Our ambition is to become the leader in the convergence of marketing and operational transformations, through the alchemy of creativity and technology. For this, the Group has created two new decision-making entities, the Executive Committee and the Management Committee. Several talented people joined the Group during the second half of 2017: Véronique Weill, as General Manager, with responsibility for Re:Sources, IT, real estate, insurance and mergers and acquisitions, Agathe Bousquet, as Chair of Publicis Groupe in France, Emmanuel André in the newly created position of Chief Talent Officer (CTO). Annette King has been appointed during the second quarter of 2018 as CEO of Publicis Groupe in the United Kingdom, where she will supervise the Group’s activities in this market.
After breaking the silos and organizing itself into Solutions, the Group has gone a step further by implementing an organizational structure by country, with the aim of providing customers with a fully integrated offer, from advertising to marketing, consulting, and the media, with data at its core. The deployment of this organization has begun in France, the United Kingdom, China and Italy.
Sprint to the Future, the plan for 2018-2020 was unveiled in March 2018. Built around its strategic game changers, namely data, dynamic creativity and digital business transformation, as well as its country organization, Publicis Groupe aims to become an indispensable partner in business transformation. These ambitions are matched by a sizeable investment plan, financed by a raft of cost-savings measures. In a market environment that saw a further wave of repitching of media accounts in 2018, Publicis notched up significant new account wins, including Daimler, Marriott, Campbell’s, Carrefour, Smucker’s, GSK and Fiat-Chrysler.
Publicis Groupe looked to equip itself with a system that would serve its talent. The Marcel artificial intelligence platform developed in partnership with Microsoft, and named in honor of the Group’s founder, Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, was launched in May 2018 at the third Viva Technology event. The aim is to facilitate our transformation from a holding company to a platform so that all Group employees worldwide can discuss and collaborate without barriers or borders.
