But that’s not all: Publicis is also reshaping its organization over time to meet the needs of clients for streamlined and efficient access to the range of expertise on offer in the Groupe. Publicis Groupe has also realigned its operations, organizing them by country to leverage synergies between areas of expertise and to discover novel solutions. The Power of One strategy, initiated in 2016 as an integrated working model providing even more benefits to clients, has been fully up and running since early 2020. Through the Groupe Client Leader, clients are offered a tailored service and direct access to the Groupe’s entire range of expertise. The Groupe helps its clients to constantly innovate and grow their sales, while controlling costs.
The Groupe entered 2020 with a finalized transformation in terms of assets and structure. This enabled it to quickly adapt to the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has impacted the Groupe’s clients and employees. The relevance of its integrated Power of One offer, allowing large-scale personalization of marketing campaigns, was thus further strengthened. By the end of March 2020, all Groupe employees were equipped to work remotely, thanks to Re:Sources. The rollout of Marcel, the Groupe’s artificial intelligence platform, has been accelerated to meet the requirements of new working methods and enable better sharing, even remotely. Thanks to its country organization, the Groupe has been able to quickly adapt to be as close as possible to its clients and employees.
In 2020, the Groupe’s foundations remained very solid financially, supported by the work of the teams in terms of cost and cash management. The operating margin rate and diluted headline earnings per share, respectively at 16.0% and euro 4.27, show particular resilience in such a context, especially as the investment in talent continued at a high level. Free cash flow before change in WCR amounted to nearly euro 1.2 billion.
Publicis Groupe supports its clients across the entire marketing value chain to help them win in a world of platforms and create a personalized experience at scale. The Groupe thus offers to meet four of its clients’ requirements thanks to its diverse expertise: dynamic and disruptive creativity, targeted and high-performance media on a large scale, data and technology skills enabling clients to build in-depth consumer knowledge and to create their own digital ecosystems. The Groupe also has expertise in Healthcare, its specialized practice being one of the largest in the world.
The primary mission of advertising agencies and networks is to find ideas that are both universal enough to cross borders, while resonating with each consumer, who must be able to easily and effectively identify with the message and recognize themselves personally.
While our clients’ brands are becoming more and more global, the personalization of content, adapted to each consumer, is becoming necessary in an increasingly digital world.
Creativity must both establish the reputation of the brand but also be dynamic. The Groupe advises its clients on their brand strategy, their repositioning and their identity, while creating dynamic content and activating it digitally.
The Groupe’s creative businesses are structured around big iconic brands, like Publicis Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Leo Burnett, as well as Marcel, Fallon and BBH.
Content production is closely linked to creativity. Publicis Groupe integrates global expertise, applied locally, in the design and delivery of brand content for all channels (television, print, radio, cinema, billboards (Out-of-Home) and digital: display, social networks, Internet video, etc.).
Publicis Groupe’s production business, Prodigious, provides production capacities to its agencies and clients with state-of-the-art campaign management tools and archive libraries.
In 2020, more than 50% of global advertising investments was spent online. While the various lockdown measures in many countries to combat the pandemic have had the effect of accelerating the penetration of digital, they have only accelerated a fundamental shift in consumer habits.
In response, Publicis has developed its Razorfish all-digital offering for clients seeking to expand their digital presence and reinvent how they relate to their consumers.
To support its advice to clients on all strategic aspects, Publicis Groupe has specialized networks in strategic communications and influence, the most notable of which are MSL, Kekst, Salter Baxter, CNC, Publicis Consultants and Publicis Live.
These networks of experts are on hand to meet a range of client needs: crisis communications, media relations, public affairs, institutional relations, financial communications, strategy and event management, to raise their profile, boost the effectiveness of their communications and engage in dialog with stakeholders.
