Publicis Groupe SA is the Groupe’s holding company, whose main activity is, together with dedicated subsidiaries, to provide consulting services to the various Groupe companies. The central consulting costs are spread out over all of the Groupe’s operational companies according to the cost of services rendered.
In addition, the parent company and the dedicated holding companies receive dividends from their subsidiaries. The parent company also carries most of the Groupe’s medium- and long-term financial debt. Lastly, financial companies within the Groupe also manage the financing operations and liquidity investment transactions of the subsidiaries.
Marcel is the Groupe’s collaborative artificial intelligence platform. Following a trial period, the Groupe decided to accelerate its deployment in the context of the health crisis in 2020. The platform quickly emerged as a place for discussions, particularly in terms of inspiration for campaigns, but also for sharing skills. It allows all of the Publicis’ talent to be connected to bring the best of the Groupe to clients. In a few hours, Marcel can build teams of multidisciplinary and multicultural experts to meet a specific need.
Publicis Groupe provides advertising and communications services to a diversified client portfolio that is representative of the global economy. It has a significant number of clients that are either national or global industry leaders, with more than half of its revenue generated by international clients, i.e. clients with operations in more than five countries. The top 30 clients represent 37% of the Groupe’s consolidated net revenue (see Section 6.6 “Notes to the consolidated financial statements” – Note 29). Payment terms are consistent with general market practices and the regulations in force in each of the countries in which the Groupe operates. Revenue from, and contracts with, different clients vary from year to year. Nonetheless, a significant share of Publicis Groupe’s revenue comes from loyal clients that have been with the Company for years.
The Groupe’s main clients by region in 2020 are listed below:
Lloyds Banking Group; Procter & Gamble; L’Oreal; Daimler AG; Samsung; Renault; Fiat Chrysler Automobile Group; Nissan; Nationwide Building Society; Nestle.
Toyota; General Motors; Verizon; Bank of America; Samsung; Fiat Chrysler Automobile Group; Procter & Gamble; Abbvie; Citigroup; GSK.
Procter & Gamble; McDonald’s; Nestle; Samsung; GSK; Queensland Government; Daimler AG; Huawei; L’Oreal; Volkswagen.
Bradesco; Procter & Gamble; Nestle; Renault; ABInBev; Heineken; Mondelez; McDonald’s; Samsung; Coca-Cola Company.
Procter & Gamble; Abu Dhabi National Oil Company; Nestle; Samsung; Abu Dhabi Culture; Fiat Chrysler Automobile Group; McDonald’s; Vodafone; Aramco; Majid Al Futtaim Group
In 2020, the breakdown of the business sectors of the Groupe’s clients as a percentage of total net revenue was as follows:
On the basis of 3,620 clients representing 91% of the Groupe’s total net revenue.
The breakdown of net revenue by principal client sector is representative of the major economic players and the structure of the portfolio remains stable.
Global advertising expenditures are listed in regular reports by various forecasting agencies, such as Zenith (Publicis Groupe), GroupM (WPP), Magna (Interpublic) and Nielsen. The forecast data published by these agencies reflect clients’ media buying intentions. These estimates are expressed in billings (client purchases) and do not as such represent advertising agencies’ potential revenue. A quarterly review of these reports offers insight on trends in the advertising market, even though the figures do not factor in a whole facet of advertising agencies’ business activities (public relations, direct marketing, CRM, e-commerce and e-mobile, etc.), of Publicis Sapient (digital business transformation, consumer experience, etc.) and of Epsilon (data and technology).
