Chapter 4. Corporate Social Responsibility – Non-financial performance - Page 140 | Publicis Groupe - 2019 Annual financial report

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2019 Annual financial report

- Message from the Chairman of the Supervisory Board
- Message from the Chairman of the Supervisory Board
- Message from the Chair of the Management Board
- Message from the Chair of the Management Board
- Key figures
- Key figures
- Governance
- Governance
- Chapter 1. Presentation of the group
- Chapter 1. Presentation of the group
- Chapter 2. Risks and risk management
- Chapter 2. Risks and risk management
- Chapter 3. Governance and Compensation
- Chapter 3. Governance and Compensation
- Chapter 4. Corporate Social Responsibility – Non-financial performance
- Chapter 4. Corporate Social Responsibility – Non-financial performance
- Chapter 5. Commentary on the financial year
- Chapter 5. Commentary on the financial year
- Chapter 6. Consolidated financial statements 2019 year
- Chapter 6. Consolidated financial statements 2019 year
- Chapter 7. 2019 Annual financial statements
- Chapter 7. 2019 Annual financial statements
- Chapter 8. Company information and capital structure
- Chapter 8. Company information and capital structure
- Chapter 9. General shareholders’ meeting
- Chapter 9. General shareholders’ meeting
- Chapter 10. Additional information
- Chapter 10. Additional information
- Contacts
- Contacts

4

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY– NON-FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

CLIENTS AND PARTNERS

4.2 CLIENTS AND PARTNERS

4.2.1 The Group’s clients

In 2019, based on 3,216clients representing 87% of the Group’s

net revenue (see Section1.3.4 of this Registration Document),

the breakdown of client business sectors/industries remained

relatively in line with past year trends with no major changes.

Agencies conducted more than 10,000client surveys, a stable

number. These surveys are conducted either as questionnaires

administered by agencies or as annual interviews or

performance appraisals. Several key international clients also

administer these customer satisfaction surveys themselves. A

portion of client surveys therefore fails to come to the attention

of agencies. Assessment criteria include five main themes

that are monitored closely: campaign performance or digital

systems introduced, the creativity/innovation provided, team

competence, the effectiveness of the service offered and the

quality of the relationship.

The Group has long-standing relationships with certain clients:

the average duration with the ten main clients is 36 years.

See also Section 6.6, Note 28 “ Risk management” Section

“ Disclosures regarding major clients” .

4.2.2 Responsible communication

and marketing

The basic responsible marketing principles are founded on: truth,

decency, respect, honesty, and societal responsibility. As such,

this must be translated into the form and the substance of the

messages, while preserving a maximum amount of creativity.

Group agencies participate in the emergence of new forms of

transparent, efficient and direct communication with the end

consumer and with clients and promote new, more sustainable

forms of consumer behavior.

Creativity & Technology for Good illustrates the Group

philosophy and professional practices that underpin responsible

marketing. Examples of campaigns can be found in the CSR

section of the Group’s website.

The communication sector is a regulated industry that is

sometimes governed by laws. The profession has always

promoted professional self-regulatory mechanisms to ensure

that the ethics of advertising content are respected. The Group

and its agencies work hand in hand with various national bodies

such as ASRC (Advertising and Self-Regulation Council) in the

United States, ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) in the

United Kingdom, ARPP (Autorité de régulation professionnelle

de la publicité) in France, and EASA (European Advertising

Standards Alliance) in Europe, or the ASC (Advertising

Standards Council) in India.

In the field of digital communication, Group agencies attach

particular importance to the fact that digital advertising should

not be intrusive, irrespective of the type of channel used;

otherwise it could cause user-rejection, and promote the use

of “Adblockers” (advertising blocking devices). This principle of

responsibility has long been defended by the Group, and is now

widely shared by industry professionals, making it possible to

establish industry standards banning certain types of formats.

The Group has always defended people’s right to have control

over their data. This principle guides technology choices and

solutions offered to clients who need to have control over their

data, just like end users who need to be able to access, correct

or delete their own data. It is also part of the work carried out

by an organization such as the IAB (International Advertising

Bureau) of which the Group is a member (See Section4.4.2).

Consideration of audiences and their individual peculiarities,

particularly when these are children or so-called vulnerable

audiences, is key since responsible communication is also

reflected by the methods chosen. In France, for example, creative

agencies such as Publicis Conseil, with Prodigious, have chosen

to systematically subtitle films and videos for all mediums . This

approach is an extension of the French Advertising initiative –

AACC – to promote the universal subtitling of advertising films,

www.soustitronsnospublicites.aacc.fr. This form of best practice

was applied by other teams worldwide, particularly in Europe.

For digital campaigns, whatever the country, creative teams use

best practices when choosing, optimizing and/or compressing

images, and even select ink-saving fonts. For their part, technical

teams find hybrid solutions in terms of the languages used i.e.,

Java, JavaScript or C++ so that the website or application uses

less energy but offers users the same service quality. As a result

of the Low-Tech Web Design approach taken by engineers and

developers, it is possible to cut energy consumption by a factor

of five , in the knowledge that final consumption always depends

on the final medium (screen type, age of computer, tablet,

smartphone, etc.) and the generation of electronic processors

that it contains.

Focus on the CSR strategy deployed by

Publicis Conseil in France

In 2018, Publicis Conseil was awarded the “RSE Active” label,

certified by the French standards organization, AFNOR. It

was awarded the maximum three stars, thereby validating

the agency’s level of maturity in the fields of sustainable

development and CSR for two years. This is the pay-off for

the policy followed by teams and management for the last

four years, as also demonstrated by its first Positive Study:

“Digital conversations on CSR”. Publicis Conseil is the flagship

Group agency based in Paris. The Lead the Positive Change

philosophy was built together with three main stakeholders:

employees, agency clients and NGOs, with whom the path

to conversion has been solidly built. For employees, internal

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2019 UNIVERSAL REGISTRATION DOCUMENT

PUBLICIS GROUPE S.A.