Publicis Groupe S.A. is a French
multinational advertising
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...
and
public relations
Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...
company. As of 2024, the company is the largest advertising company in the world by revenue. Based in Paris, it is one of the 'Big Four' advertising commpanies, alongside
WPP,
Interpublic and
Omnicom.
Publicis Groupe S.A. is headed by
Arthur Sadoun, and its agencies provide digital and traditional advertising, media services and marketing services to national and multinational clients.
History
The company was founded by 20 year old
Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet in 1926.
After 1945, the company grew rapidly, becoming the world's fourth-largest agency. It was a leader in promoting France's post-
war economic boom, especially the expansion of the advertising industry; it was successful because of its close ties with top officials of the
French government
The Government of France (, ), officially the Government of the French Republic (, ), exercises Executive (government), executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister of France, prime minister, who is the head of government, ...
, its clever use of symbols to promote itself, and its ability to attract clients from widely diverse growing industries.
In 2011, Publicis was named the third-largest marketing group worldwide by revenue, surpassing Interpublic.
By the end of 2010, the twin sectors of digital activities and high-growth emerging countries represented one-half of Publicis Groupe's total revenue.
The group had operations in over 202 cities in 105 countries, including a strategic alliance with
Dentsu.
In July 2012 it was announced that Publicis Groupe and
Omnicom Group
Omnicom Group Inc. is an American global media, marketing and corporate communications holding company, headquartered in New York City.
Omnicom's branded networks and specialty firms provide services in four disciplines: advertising, customer r ...
would merge to form Publicis Omnicom Group, but by May 2014 it was announced that the deal had fallen through and the Publicis-Omnicom merger would not happen.
In February 2015, Publicis acquired
Sapient Corporation to form Publicis.Sapient as the world's largest digital network, which at the time included SapientNitro, Sapient Consulting, the community, DigitasLBI and RazorfishGlobal.
In September 2015 The Publicis Groupe acquired the South African marketing, promotions and activations agency
The Creative Counsel. The acquisition was reported as the largest agency buyout ever to happen in South Africa, with an unconfirmed valuation of between R1bn and R1.5bn.
In December 2015, Publicis announced a new organisation with four main divisions:
* Publicis Communications (gathering creative networks
Leo Burnett Worldwide, Publicis Worldwide,
Saatchi & Saatchi,
Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), global design and technology consultancy Nurun, and creative production group Prodigious Brand Logistics and global PR agency
MSLGROUP) under the leadership of Arthur Sadoun;
* Publicis Media (gathering the media planning and buying capabilities of
Starcom Mediavest Group and ZenithOptimedia) under the leadership of Steve King;
* Publicis.Sapient (gathering technology and digital agencies
Razorfish, DigitasLBi and
Sapient Corporation) under the leadership of Alan Herrick;
* Publicis Healthcare, already in existence, will remain under the leadership of Nick Colucci.
In addition, in January 2016, Laura Desmond became Chief Revenue Officer.
Since 2016, Publicis has co-organised, with
Groupe Les Echos, the annual technology conference,
Viva Technology.
In 2017, CEO
Maurice Lévy replaced
Élisabeth Badinter (Bleustein-Blanchet's daughter) as chairman of the supervisory board and was succeeded as CEO by
Arthur Sadoun.
On 21 January 2019, Publicis announced the deal to sell two of their Latinamerican agencies, NovaDigitas and Pixeldigital to BancroftX to form a new marketing firm under the group umbrella BancroftX.
On 14 April 2019, Publicis announced a $4.4 billion deal to acquire data marketing firm Epsilon.
On 4 February 2020, Publicis Groupe India announced the merging of existing agencies – Arc Worldwide, Solutions and Ecosys OOH, to create 'Publicis In-Motion'. In January 2014, Publicis acquired Law & Kenneth, an Indian advertising and digital agency.
On 3 May 2022 French advertising holding company Publicis Groupe acquired Profitero, an
e-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...
software company that provides analytics for brands, as marketer clients are increasingly seeking services in commerce.
In September 2022 Publicis Groupe brings home Vietnam's only Effie Award in 2022 with ‘Keep Stories Alive’.
On 5 June 2023, Publicis Groupe announced the acquisition of Corra, an ecommerce leader recognized by Adobe as one of the top commerce firms in North America.
In June 2025, the company acquired the advertising mandate for
Mars Inc. estimated to be worth $1.7 billion.
Operations
The company owns several full-service advertising groups that undertake a range of media activities: mobile and interactive online communication, television,
magazines & newspapers, cinema and radio, and
outdoor. The company's SAMS services include
direct marketing
Direct marketing is a form of communicating an offer, where organizations communicate directly to a Target market, pre-selected customer and supply a method for a direct response. Among practitioners, it is also known as ''direct response ...
/
customer relationship management
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a strategic process that organizations use to manage, analyze, and improve their interactions with customers. By leveraging data-driven insights, CRM helps businesses optimize communication, enhance cus ...
services,
sales promotion
Sales promotion is one of the elements of the promotional mix. The primary elements in the promotional mix are advertising, personal selling, direct marketing and publicity/public relations. Sales promotion uses both media and non-media marketing ...
, healthcare communications, multicultural and ethnic communications, corporate and financial communications, human resource infrastructure, public relations, design services, interactive communications, events marketing and management, sports marketing, and production and ''pre-press services.'' Its media services include media planning, media buying, and media sales. Publicis Groupe's Vivaki developed a technological platform supported by
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
,
Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
,
Yahoo!
Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...
and
AOL Platform A technologies that offer advertisers the possibility to target specifically defined audiences in a single campaign across multiple networks.
Controversies
Qorvis, a U.S. subsidiary of Publicis, has represented the country of Saudi Arabia since the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
and has been accused of helping to
whitewash
Whitewash, calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, asbestis or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime ( calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk (calcium carbonate, CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes ...
its
record on human rights. More recently, the writer
Ken Klippenstein obtained leaked documents from Qorvis, which show the PR company pitched a private company on a four to five minute propaganda video, which hoped to improve the reputation of its Homestead, Florida shelter for "unaccompanied alien children".
Subsidiaries
As of October 2015, the main subsidiary companies of this group are:
*Publicis Communications
**
Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH)
**Glickman Shamir Samsonov
**
Leo Burnett Worldwide
**
Publicis New York
**Publicis Worldwide
**Publicis India
**Publicis Beehive
**Digitas
**
Saatchi & Saatchi
**Epsilon
**
ROKKAN
*Publicis Media
**
Starcom
**Zenith
**Frubis
**
Spark Foundry
**Publicis Collective
**Digitas
**GroupeConnect
**Blue 449
**Performics
**Publicis Health Media
**Publicis Global Delivery (PGD)
**Publicis Sport & Entertainment
**
Saatchi & Saatchi
*Publicis Sapient
**3SHARE
**
SapientRazorfish
***Rosetta
**
Publicis Pixelpark
**
Publicis Sapient
***
Vertiba
**vivaki
*Publicis Health
*Specialized Agencies
**Médias & Régies
**PMCI (content and innovation)
** LionVault (Web3 Specialist Group)
**
MSLGROUP
**Prodigious Brand Logistics
** Translate Plus Limited (The Publicis Language Services)
**
Publicis Healthcare Communications Group
**
The Creative Counsel
PublicisLive
PublicisLive is a global event management and strategic communication firm founded in 1995 and has offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Geneva, Istanbul, Kigali and Paris. PublicisLive is part of Publicis Groupe.
References
Further reading
* Clark Hultquist, "Publicis and the French advertising world, 1946--1968" ''Essays in Economic & Business History'' (2009) 27: 61-76
{{Authority control
French companies established in 1926
Advertising agencies of France
Holding companies established in 1926
CAC 40
Companies listed on Euronext Paris
Holding companies of France
Public relations companies