Publicis Groupe Announces the Launch of B2B Creative Offering, Publicis Pro
Publicis Groupe EMEA has announced the launch of Publicis Pro, a B2B creative offering. The offering brings together B2B agency Octopus Group and 400 B2B specialists from across its global network. The Octopus Group name will be rebranded as Publicis Pro. It will be led by Octopus Group co-founders Jon Lonsdale as CEO and Pete Hendrick as Managing Director. Lonsdale will answer to Publicis Groupe’s EMEA CEO, Demet Ikiler. Focusing on B2B strategy, creative, influence, and commerce, the core team of sixty will pay particular attention to the UK, Germany, and France. Previously, Octopus focused on the UK market.
Publicis Rebrands Octopus Group with the launch of Publicis Pro
In 2021, Publicis Groupe purchased the London-based Octopus Group. It noted business-to-business and business-to-consumer clients as “big growth areas” in the B2B space. About sixty people worked for Octopus at its Farringdon office at the time. It relocated to the Chancery Lane office, home of Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett. Furthermore, it joined Publicis Groupe’s UK creative practice. Since then, Octopus has expanded its customer base in the manufacturing, telecom, financial services, and technology sectors, according to Publicis Group. Companies like Sharp Europe, Smartsheet, Rolls-Royce, and Twilio have awarded Octopus new business.
Octopus Group acquired in 2021
At the time of the acquisition, the deal was Publicis Groupe‘s most significant UK-specific M&A move in the creative space since 2014, indicating adland’s return to the acquisition trail following the Covid pandemic. Octopus Group has a range of tech-first capabilities, including creative, content, digital experience, and public relations. Its clients, which it did not share with Publicis at the time of acquisition, included technology, financial, and professional services brands like Siemens, Adobe, Logitech, Smartsheet, Cognizant, and ACI Worldwide.
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Investors
The principal investors in Octopus Group were the company’s management. Lonsdale, Finance Director Ben Holden, Board Director Nicola Pestell, Chief Strategy Director Billy Hamilton-Stent, and Hendrick are among them.
Here’s what they said
As reported by Campaign Asia,
The group said,
“The will enable Publicis Groupe to better connect international business audiences with new data and marketing services, accelerating growth for its global B2B and B2B2C clients and becoming a new centre of excellence across the EMEA region,”
Demet Ikiler stated,
“We want to make Publicis Groupe a centre of excellence for B2B clients, and to better serve our existing B2C clients who require B2B expertise. By building out Publicis Pro across our key markets in the region, we are already uncovering exciting new growth opportunities.”
Jon Lonsdale added,
“This is the natural next step in Octopus’ journey and will allow us to offer clients more access to talent, tech and data as we scale and supercharge our existing offering across Publicis Groupe. Publicis Pro brings an exciting opportunity to launch new services, including AI tools, that are specifically designed for complex B2B audiences.”
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