The Group’s clients were affected in very contrasting ways, as confinement did not have the same consequences for everyone. All the teams deployed a great deal of energy and rigor to be at their side at all times during this critical period, and to prepare for the continuation and resumption of normal activities. This period also accelerated the digital transformation for our clients. In this turbulent context, the teams also shared with their clients the numerous studies carried out by the agencies with groups of citizen-consumers on the impact of this crisis. These groups have shown a greater awareness of the challenges of sustainability and resilience; they have formulated expectations for major changes, being more demanding with regard to companies and their CSR strategy, as well as on their brands and promises. They appeared to be more concerned by climate issues and more willing to act at their level and on their territory on a daily basis.
The pandemic and the months of confinement have also led to a rethinking of certain events such as the regional editions of the Women’s Forum, which have been transformed into a series of high-level virtual sessions. The Paris edition of Viva Technology has been postponed until 2021.
Towards society, with the pandemic, the Group’s agencies have focused on a few causes of general interest through pro bono campaigns or projects and volunteer work.
In terms of climate change, at the beginning of 2020 the Group joined the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) to determine its new objectives for 2030, as those for 2020 have already been largely achieved. The action plan will be based on 3 elements: firstly, the drastic reduction of all impacts (more than 40%), secondly, the use of 100% renewable energies before 2030, and finally, as a very last resort, the use of carbon offsetting for irreducible impacts, the objective being the Group achieving carbon neutrality before 2030. In addition, the proprietary tool for assessing the impacts of client campaigns and projects has been finalized; “Alice” (Advertising Limiting Impacts & Carbon Emissions) will be gradually deployed in all countries.
The Group’s and agencies’ CSR actions are publicly accessible in the CSR section of the Group’s website and the data is summarized in the CSR Smart data section.
There were no significant transaction on the period.
