After breaking the silos and organizing itself into Solutions, the Groupe went a step further by implementing an organizational structure by country, with the aim of providing clients with a fully integrated offer, from advertising to marketing, consulting, and media, with data at its core. The deployment of this organization began in France, the United Kingdom, China and Italy.
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 tribute to the Groupe’s founder, Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, was launched in May 2018. The aim of Marcel is to facilitate the transformation from a holding company to a platform so that all Groupe employees worldwide can discuss and collaborate without barriers or borders.
2019 was a pivotal year for the Groupe with the acquisition of Epsilon. Epsilon has the technology and platforms to structure client first-party data, round it out with an incomparably diverse range of data sources and put together personalized campaigns at scale. The Groupe’s activities were resolutely positioned to the future, with more than 30% of net revenue generated by data and digital business transformation.
At the same time, the Power of One strategy, initiated in 2016, became fully effective. 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.
In 2019, the Groupe completed its transformation in terms of assets and structure. The Groupe was in a unique position to serve clients across the entire value chain. It is the only one to have large-scale assets in creativity, media, data and technology.
2020 was marked by the global Covid-19 pandemic, which affected all countries and sectors of activity for most of the year. This major health crisis resulted in one of the largest economic crises in recent history.
In such a challenging environment, the Groupe managed to deliver solid results thanks to the transformation undertaken several years earlier: the Groupe’s investment in data and technology, with the acquisitions of Sapient and then Epsilon; its country organization, which enabled it to closely support its clients at every stage of the crisis and to provide a comprehensive and integrated offer combining data, technology, media and creativity; its Marcel platform, which allowed the Groupe to adapt to new ways of working with better knowledge sharing, even from a distance. Marcel brought teams together and proved to be a valuable tool during such a period.
2021 was exceptional in more than one aspect. Firstly, it saw a strong rebound in advertising spend globally, boosted by general economic growth and multiple stimuli from central banks and governments. It was also marked by the continuation of structural changes in the industry, in first-party data management, new digital media, the evolution of commerce and digital business transformation. In this environment, the Groupe achieved record results with all indicators exceeding their 2019 levels. Furthermore, the Groupe acquired CitrusAd, a technology platform that optimizes the marketing performance of brands directly on e-commerce sites.
The Groupe emerged from the pandemic both stronger and even more committed to ESG, as reflected by the Groupe taking first place in the sector in the rankings of eight of the top ten rating agencies.
In 2022, the Groupe’s revenue exceeded euro 14 billion for the first time and net revenue euro 12 billion, driven in particular by double-digit organic growth for the second consecutive year. The Groupe made several acquisitions in the fields of data (Retargetly in Latin America), commerce (Profitero) and digital transformation (Tremend). In addition, the Groupe announced the creation of Unlimitail, a joint venture with Carrefour, to respond to the booming retail media market in Continental Europe and Latin America.
On the ESG front, the Groupe laid the foundations for a major initiative, #WorkingWithCancer, aimed at eradicating the stigma of cancer in the workplace by supporting affected employees or those whose relatives are affected by the disease. Many companies have joined the project since the beginning of 2023.
With revenue of nearly euro 15 billion in 2023, Publicis reinforced its position as the second-largest player in the industry and the leading player in terms of market capitalization. During the year, the Groupe made several acquisitions: Yieldify in the field of technological marketing; Practia, a leader in digital transformation in Latin America; and Corra, a leader in e-commerce recognized by Adobe as the one of the best companies in North America.
2024 will remain a historic year for Publicis Groupe. With net revenue of nearly euro 14 billion, the Groupe became the world’s leading advertising group. This performance is the result of efforts made over many years, generating market share gains, the contribution of numerous investments in data and technology, and the benefit of its platform organization, placing the Groupe at the heart of its organization. In 2024, the Groupe set up a new organizational structure around three pillars: Connected Media, bringing together data, media, CRM, social and commerce activities; Intelligent Creativity, including creative, production and public relations; and Technology with Publicis Sapient. The challenge is to meet clients’ key needs, to make marketing a measurable business tool and ensure the sustainability of their business model. In addition, Publicis Groupe made two significant acquisitions: Influential in influencing marketing and Mars United in commerce.
