With the acquisition of Epsilon, 2019 was a pivotal year. 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 was now fully in place, and the Groupe had thus 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 will remain marked by the global Covid-19 pandemic, which resulted in one of the largest economic crises in recent history. In such a context, the Groupe succeeded in delivering solid results thanks to the transformation undertaken several years earlier. Its Marcel platform brought teams together and proved to be a valuable tool during such a period. It helped the Groupe to adapt to meet the requirements of new working methods and enable better sharing, even remotely.
In 2021, global advertising spending rebounded strongly, boosted by overall 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 evidenced by its progress in ESG performance, reflected in its top ranking in the sector in the ratings of 8 out of the 10 leading 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), 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, ahead of Omnicom, and the largest 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 e-commerce 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, ahead of WPP. 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, putting clients at the heart of its operations. In 2024, the Groupe implemented a new organization based on 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. In addition, Publicis Groupe completed two significant acquisitions: Influential in influencing marketing and Mars United in commerce.
2024 was an exceptional year in the field of artificial intelligence, marked by technological advances and a proliferation of large language models (LLMs). While supporting its clients in their transformation towards AI, Publicis is also accelerating the deployment of this technology within its own organization by bringing together all of its own data under a single entity: CoreAI. This platform, developed in-house by Publicis Sapient, unifies all the Groupe’s activities, enabling its talent to take full advantage of AI and drive growth for clients.
2024 was also the year in which the Groupe’s governance structure changed, with the transition from a Supervisory Board and Management Board to a Board of Directors, and the appointment of Arthur Sadoun as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks to its AI-led growth model, Publicis maintained its leading position in all its key indicators in 2025: organic growth in net revenue, operating margin, free cash flow, new business, client retention, global media billings, ESG and market capitalization. Notably, 2025 marked the sixth consecutive year that the Groupe has outperformed the sector in terms of organic growth. Throughout the year, Publicis continued to target acquisitions to strengthen its capabilities in areas such as identity resolution (Lotame), influencer marketing (Captiv8, BR Media and HEPMIL), healthcare (p-Value) and sports marketing (Adopt). Publicis is thus entering its second century stronger than ever.
