Publicis Groupe

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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Publicis Groupe Plans €300 million AI Investment, Unveils CoreAI Platform

Publicis Groupe intends to prioritize a new AI platform and devote an additional €300 million to AI initiatives over the following three years. As the new technology is used more and more in the advertising industry, this will include €100 million in 2024 as part of its new plan to become “the industry’s first AI-powered intelligence system”. Publicis unveiled CoreAI, a new “intelligent system” that will enable new AI capabilities for the Parisian behemoth throughout the whole organization, as part of a significant AI overhaul.

Fund distribution in the AI investment

The funds will be distributed equally. Half of the €100 million that is budgeted for 2024 will go toward personnel, such as hiring and training, and the other half will go toward technology, such as cloud infrastructure, software, and licenses. At a time when ad companies are moving away from a cookie-based online model to proprietary first-party data, Publicis announced that it would leverage the 2.3 billion individual data profiles it possesses to train its “CoreAI” tech platform, personalize campaigns, predict their impact, and adjust targeted audiences in real-time.

The company announced that it would invest €100 million in 2024 alone, with all funding coming from “internal efficiencies” and no impact on operating margin dilution. Additionally, Publicis stated that it intends to further incorporate AI into its current platform model by linking each employee to “CoreAI,” an entity that the group began developing in the second half of 2023 and will begin implementing in the first half of 2024.

What is CoreAI?

The new multi-layered platform known as CoreAI is the hub for AI initiatives. CoreAI combines multiple AI agents, an API layer, and foundation AI models from Publicis Groupe. It also includes Publicis Sapient’s Bodhi machine learning platform, using both structured and unstructured data. In addition, OpenAI, Adobe, Amazon, Microsoft, and twelve other third-party AI service providers are partners of CoreAI. Some other third-party suppliers are Bria, Hugging Face, RunwayML, Midjourney, and Pika.AI.

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How will the AI platform benefit?

The company will be able to connect every data point, from across every expertise, business unit, and geography. Furthermore, it will put them in the hands of all of its people. This is all thanks to the transition to an intelligent system. The central component of the system will be an entity named CoreAI by Publicis Groupe. It was created with the assistance and AI expertise of Publicis Sapient.

CoreAI data points deployment

Here’s what they said

Arthur Sadoun, CEO & Chairman of Publicis Groupe said,

Our journey from a holding company to a platform has not been easy, but it definitely paid off, as you can see with our 2023 organic growth outperforming the industry for the fourth year in a row. The platform organization we have built over the last decade, our proprietary data of unmatched breadth and accuracy, and the 45,000 engineers, consultants and data analysts at the heart of our model, uniquely position us to push the boundaries even further by leveraging AI.

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Publicis Groupe South Asia Appoints Amitesh Rao as CEO, Leo Burnett South Asia

Amitesh Rao has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Leo Burnett South Asia by Publicis Groupe South Asia. Rao takes over for Dheeraj Sinha, who left the agency to work for FCB last year. As part of his role, Rao will oversee all Leo Burnett India operations. It will include Leo Burnett Orchard, in Mumbai, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Chennai, and the rest of South Asia. Furthermore, he will oversee Publicis Business and Publicis Health.

Role and reporting within the agency

Working closely with Rajdeepak Das, Chief Creative Officer, Publicis Groupe India, and Chairman, Leo Burnett South Asia, the role will report to Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe South Asia. Rao has been carefully chosen to guide Leo Burnett South Asia into its next phase of growth and creative aspirations because of his multidisciplinary and multicategory experience from a variety of leadership roles, impressive track record on client business, and abundance of knowledge across technology, data, and creativity.

Amitesh Rao’s leadership experience

Rao, an IIM Bangalore alumnus, has over 25 years of leadership experience in marketing, advertising, and technology entrepreneurship in the gaming and simulation industries. He comes from McCann India, where he oversaw operations in the North and West as Executive Director. Rao previously held executive roles at TBWA, Rediffusion, and JWT. During his time in advertising, he worked across markets for well-known brands. These included PepsiCo, Airtel, Nestle, Reckitt, Coke, Mastercard, and Nissan. He has worked with MTS and RPG in the telco and data sectors, handling marketing and sales.

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Here’s what they said

Anupriya Acharya, CEO, of Publicis Groupe South Asia said,

I am delighted to welcome Amitesh Rao. We are in an age of constant invention and re-invention and in Amitesh, we found the perfect leader who brings both a thorough appreciation of the power of creativity in building strong brands and an intimate understanding and fluency in diverse languages of technology, gaming, data, and platforms. His easy demeanour and candid attitude are an added asset for clients, our teams and our Groupe’s Power of One agenda. I look forward to working with him.

Amitesh Rao added,

I look forward to leading Leo Burnett South Asia in an era where the confluence of technology and creativity is redefining the playing field. With its outstanding creativity and top accolades, a remarkable roster of blue-chip clients and an amazing talent pool, the agency offers an incredible canvas. I hope to bring new perspective on client businesses, strengthen seamless solutions and look forward to accelerating growth for Leo Burnett and its clients.

Rajdeepak Das, Chief Creative Officer, Publicis Groupe India and Chairman, Leo Burnett South Asia commented,

Having built Leo Burnett South Asia over the last 10 years and making it synonymous with iconic, inspiring creativity that transforms brands and businesses, I am delighted to find in Amitesh a leader who resonates with LB’s ethos and brings with him strong and diverse experience that can take Leo Burnett South Asia to the next level of success and build on the agency’s stellar offerings. We all look forward to partnering him.

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Publicis Names Rajdeepak Das as South Asia CCO; Chairman, Leo Burnett South Asia

Publics Groupe has promoted Rajdeepak Das to Chief Creative Officer, at Publicis Groupe South Asia, and Chairman of Leo Burnett, South Asia. Das’s appointment demonstrates the Groupe’s emphasis and dedication to world-class, inspirational creativity that develops brands through contemporary, purpose-driven work.

Focus on transforming client businesses

Das will concentrate on advancing the Groupe’s creative agenda in these newly established roles by utilizing the alchemy of technology and data to transform client businesses. To support these directives, he will collaborate closely with the Groupe’s creative, data, and technology talent.

Das’s leadership experience

Das is a superb creative leader with more than 20 years of successful brand development experience. Leo Burnett India has produced performances both domestically and internationally under his direction. The agency has won the Asia-Pacific Creative Agency of the Year at Spikes Asia 2023, the Most Awarded Indian Agency at the Cannes Lions 2023, The One Show 2023, Adfest 2023, and D&AD 2023 under his leadership. He is the recipient of over 100 international awards. Being a strong advocate of the ability of modern creativity to change people’s lives and an early adopter of cutting-edge concepts and technologies, some of his most notable campaigns have been wildly successful. These include “SmartFarms” for PepsiCo, “Say It With Oreo” for Mondelez, and “PumaDive” for PUMA.

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Here’s what they said

Anupriya Acharya, South Asia CEO, Publicis Groupe said,

I have really enjoyed working with Raj as his ideas and creativity continue to fuel both business impact and accolades. His quest for world-changing brand ideas is truly remarkable. His scintillating, sustained performance, ability to transform agency culture and reputation, as well as the width of the work that captures innovation, business transformation, data and sustainability, make him an ideal choice. We hope to leverage these strengths on a larger Groupe canvas.

Rajdeepak Das added,

I am super-delighted to get such a large canvas! With the breadth of capabilities at the Groupe level, a repertoire of finest clients and brilliant diverse talent, the opportunities are limitless. It’s been a truly exhilarating ride for me so far, and the new mandate (s) make it even more exciting. I look forward to redefining creativity and driving brand impact, as also positively shaping communities through powerful, progressive work.

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Publicis Groupe Wins Most Of Mondelez’s Global Media Business

Publicis Groupe won a lion’s share of Mondelez’s global media business – the makers of Cadbury and Oreo worth $1.6bn, as per media reports. The remaining business is with WPP and Vayner Media. 

Publicis will lead the business in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and the North African Peninsula, South Africa, and China. It will also manage Mondelez’s traditional video investment, content, and multicultural marketing in the U.S. and Canada. Publicis Groupe has gained $450 million of media billings across Europe, including the UK and Italy (formerly handled by Carat) as well as France and Germany (formerly handled by Wavemaker). By acquiring major European markets, it is estimated that it has increased the global billings from 30% to 70%

The redistribution of the business took place following a review that concluded this week. VaynerMedia has continued to lead communications planning and digital buying in the US and Canada. WPP has been appointed to lead Mondelez business in Southeast Asia, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.

Mondelez is one of the world’s largest advertisers, spending $1.6 billion on advertising in 2021. Recent years have seen Publicis Groupe slowly expand its share of Mondelez advertising services.

Campaign UK quoted a Mondelez spokesperson as saying, 

“To lead the future of snacking, we are continuing to evolve our marketing approach to be more consumer-centric and digitally-enabled than ever before. Since our last media review in 2018, we have re-engineered our agency model across creative and production to deliver meaningful impact to the Mondelez business. 

After a careful review, we are proud to announce key media agency partners have been selected to build on this foundation and further accelerate our growth.”

Interesting Read: The Journey From Deterministic To Probabilistic Marketing

Publicis Groupe Acquires CitrusAd, An Australian-Based SaaS Provider

Publicis Groupe has bolstered its retail portfolio by obtaining the Australian-based Software as a Service (SaaS) provider CitrusAd, which will help the company improve its marketing effectiveness on retailer websites. 

This has come at a time when the company has undergone rapid development of eCommerce over the last two years. 

By the virtue of this agreement, CitrusAd, which was started in 2017, will continue to function as a distinct organization while working within Publicis Epsilon’s data division to build a personal identity-based solution for retailers based on Epsilon’s existing Core-ID data product.

CitrusAd is a SaaS platform that enhances brand marketing performance directly into retailer websites, with over half of its revenue based in the United States. 

Kohl’s, Macy’s, Tesco, Ocado, Lowe’s, Sainsbury’s, and Woolworth’s are just a few of the companies that collaborate with the firm in 22 countries. It also boasts that its self-serve platform is being used by 4,000 brands.

The co-founder and chief executive of CitrusAd,  Brad Moran said in an interview that there had been discussions with other interested parties about the acquisition’s timing, but that the transaction with Publicis looked to be the best option.

Moran threw some light on this acquisition and said that Epsilon and CitrusAd’s partnership helps retailers to increase income by marketing co-branded assets across broader publisher networks outside of their four walls. 

He further commented – 

The world is moving to become cookieless, the world is moving towards walled gardens, and between us and Epsilon, we want to build the biggest walled garden in the world

Epsilon’s identification layer, Code ID, stores first-party data on customers worldwide, with 200 million profiles in the United States and 50 million in Europe alone. CitrusAd will add to Epsilon’s existing insights on online shopping and buying patterns, allowing the brand to better understand its customers and increase conversion rates. 

Arthur Sadoun, CEO and chairman of Publicis Groupe said :

We are delighted to welcome Brad, Nick and the CitrusAd team to Publicis. The leading technology they have developed, coupled with Epsilon’s CORE ID will enable CPG brands to grow faster and retailers to generate new sources of revenue to win in a platform world. It will also give to Publicis a strong competitive advantage in a channel that by 2025 should surpass traditional TV spend

CitrusAd will continue to be managed by Moran in his existing capacity and co-founder and CMO Nick Paech, who will supervise 130 engineers and media professionals stationed around the world when they join Publicis Groupe.

Moran will report to Thibault Hennion, Epsilon’s head of international operations, and Jay Askinasi, Publicis Groupe’s chief growth officer.