In 2002, Publicis announced its acquisition of the US group Bcom3, which controlled the Leo Burnett, D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles agencies and Starcom MediaVest Group, and held a 49% interest in Bartle Bogle Hegarty. At the same time, the Groupe established a strategic partnership with Dentsu, the undisputed leading communications group in Japan and a founding shareholder of Bcom3. The acquisition established Publicis in the top tier of the advertising and communications industry, making it the fourth largest advertising group worldwide, with operations in more than 100 countries and five continents.
From 2002 to 2006, Publicis Groupe successfully integrated Bcom3, following Saatchi & Saatchi, and brought together a large number of entities. At the same time, it made a number of complementary acquisitions to create a coherent range of services, particularly offering different types of marketing services and access to the principal emerging markets.
The period between 2006-2013 marked the transformation of Publicis for the digital world. This was reflected by a profound change in its structure and operating methods to better adapt to the new demands of this new era. The Groupe added digital services to its well-known holistic offer while strengthening its position in fast-growing economies, both of which would be major strategic bets in the years to come. Amid fast growth in the digital arena, the most visible sign of the Groupe’s transformation was undoubtedly the launch of VivaKi, a new initiative aimed at optimizing the performance of advertiser investments. In 2007, Publicis completed the acquisition of Digitas, the US leader and the world’s largest interactive and digital communications agency. The acquisition of Razorfish – the number two interactive agency in the world after Digitas – from Microsoft in 2009, brought new strengths to the Groupe’s digital activities, notably in e-commerce, interactive marketing, search engines, strategy and planning, social network marketing and the resolution of technological architecture and integration issues.
In 2009, Publicis Groupe became the world’s third-largest communications firm, overtaking Interpublic Group.
During 2012 and 2013, the Groupe made a number of targeted acquisitions worldwide, particularly in the digital sector, in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the United States, Russia, Brazil, China, Singapore, India, Israel and, for the first time, in Palestine.
On July 27, 2013, Publicis Groupe and Omnicom Group signed an agreement for a merger of equals. In May 2014, Publicis Groupe chose not to pursue the proposed merger.
The most important transaction of 2014 was the acquisition of Sapient. In a world of growing convergence, the combination of Sapient with the Groupe’s know-how created an unparalleled expertise in marketing and commerce across all distribution channels and consulting services based on outstanding technological prowess.
Publicis Sapient became part of the new Group organizational structure announced in 2015, whose implementation was completed at the end of the first half of 2016. This structure abandoned the holding company model in order to develop an operational architecture based on the Connecting Company concept. This model is a one-of-a-kind platform that offers clients plug-and-play access to top-tier services:
Thus, Publicis connects all its expertise in an integrated way thanks to the “Power of One” to provide winning solutions to its clients.
In 2016, on its 90th anniversary, the Groupe launched a project named Publicis90. This idea was to provide 90 projects or start-ups with financial aid and the support of the Groupe’s digital experts. These projects were selected from 3,500 applications submitted from 130 countries.
At the beginning of 2017, the Publicis Groupe Supervisory Board appointed Arthur Sadoun as Maurice Lévy’s successor as Chairman of the Management Board. Maurice Lévy became Chairman of the Supervisory Board.
After breaking the silos and organizing itself into Solutions, the Groupe went a step further in 2017 by implementing a country-based organizational structure, aiming to provide 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 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, was launched in 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.
