Publicis Groupe is a French multinational

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

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. ...

company. One of the oldest and largest marketing and communications companies in the world by revenue, it is headquartered in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. After 1945, the little-known Paris-based advertising agency grew rapidly, becoming the world's fourth-largest agency. It was a leader in promoting France's post-

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

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 (French: ''Gouvernement français''), officially the Government of the French Republic (''Gouvernement de la République française'' ), exercises executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister, who i ...

, its clever use of symbols to promote itself, and its ability to attract clients from widely diverse growing industries. It is one of the "Big Four" agency companies, alongside WPP,

Interpublic The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (IPG) is an American publicly traded advertising company. The company consists of five major networks: FCB, IPG Mediabrands, McCann Worldgroup, MullenLowe Group, and Marketing Specialists, as well as a ...

and

Omnicom 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 re ...

. Publicis Groupe S.A. is headed by

Arthur Sadoun Arthur Sadoun (born 23 May 1971) is a French businessman. He is the chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe, the world's third largest advertising and PR group. Early life and education Sadoun was born in Dourdan, France in 1971 to a well-off fami ...

, and its agencies provide digital and traditional advertising, media services and marketing services (SAMS) to national and multinational clients.

History

The company was founded by 20 year old

Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet (21 August 1906 – 11 April 1996) was a French entrepreneur and advertising magnate best known as the founder of Publicis Groupe. He is also credited with inventing radio advertising in France, helped create the first ...

in 1926. 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 Dentsu Inc. ( ja, 株式会社電通 ''Kabushiki-gaisha Dentsū'' or 電通 ''Dentsū'' for short) is a Japanese international advertising and public relations joint stock company headquartered in Tokyo. Dentsu is currently the largest advertis ...

. 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 re ...

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 Publicis Sapient is an American digital consulting company, founded as Sapient in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1990 by Jerry Greenberg and J. Stuart Moore. On February 6, 2015, Sapient became a fully owned division of French advertising giant Pub ...

to form Publicis.Sapient as the world's largest digital network, which at the time included SapientNitro, Sapient Consulting, DigitasLBI and RazorfishGlobal. In September 2015 The Publicis Groupe acquired South African marketing, promotions and activations agency

The Creative Counsel ''The Creative Counsel'' is a South African advertising agency founded in 2001 by school friends Gil Oved and Ran Neu-Ner. The company grew to become one of South Africa's largest advertising agencies (by staff and turnover), one of South Africa ...

. 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 into 4 main divisions: * Publicis Communications (gathering creative networks

Leo Burnett Worldwide Leo Burnett Worldwide, Inc., also known as Leo Burnett Company, Inc., is an American advertising company, founded on August 5, 1935, in Chicago by Leo Burnett. In September 2002, the company was acquired by Publicis Groupe, the world's third ...

, Publicis Worldwide,

Saatchi & Saatchi Saatchi & Saatchi is a British multinational communications and advertising agency network with 114 offices in 76 countries and over 6,500 staff. It was founded in 1970 and is currently headquartered in London. The parent company of the agency gr ...

Bartle Bogle Hegarty Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) is a British global advertising agency. Founded in 1982 by British ad men John Bartle, Nigel Bogle, and John Hegarty, BBH has offices in London, New York City, Singapore, Shanghai, Mumbai, Stockholm and Los Angeles ...

(BBH), global design and technology consultancy Nurun, and creative production group Prodigious Brand Logistics and global PR agency

MSLGROUP MSLGROUP is a public relations (PR) network of companies. Specialists in strategic communications and engagement, the company is part of the French multinational Publicis Groupe. It evolved as a merger of Publicis Consultants and Manning Selva ...

) under the leadership of Arthur Sadoun; * Publicis Media (gathering the media planning & buying capabilities of

Starcom Mediavest Group Starcom is an international media network, the third-largest communications group globally, part of France’s Publicis, headquarters in Chicago. History The global holding company Starcom Mediavest Group was formed in 2000. Jack Klues, wh ...

and ZenithOptimedia) under the leadership of Steve King; * Publicis.Sapient (gathering technology & digital agencies Razorfish, DigitasLBi and

) under the leadership of Alan Herrick; * Publicis Healthcare, already in existence, will remain under the leadership of Nick Colucci. In addition, Laura Desmond became Chief Revenue Officer, leading a team of 20 Chief Client Officers who would lead client teams across all Publicis Groupe entities. The new organisation was to be effective 1 January 2016. Since 2016, Publicis has co-organised, with

Groupe Les Echos ''Les Echos'' is the first daily French financial newspaper, founded in 1908 by the brothers Robert and Émile Servan-Schreiber. It is the main competitor of '' La Tribune'', a rival financial paper. History and profile The paper was established ...

, the annual technology conference,

Viva Technology Viva Technology, or VivaTech, is an annual technology conference, dedicated to innovation and startups, held in Paris, France. VivaTech was founded in 2016 by Publicis Groupe and Groupe Les Echos. The first two days of VivaTech are for startups ...

. In 2017, CEO

Maurice Lévy Maurice Lévy (February 28, 1838, Ribeauvillé – September 30, 1910, Paris) was a French engineer and member of the Institut de France. Lévy was born in Ribeauvillé in Alsace. Educated at the École Polytechnique, where he was a student ...

replaced

Elisabeth Badinter Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...

(Bleustein-Blanchet's daughter) as chairman of the supervisory board and was succeeded as CEO by

. 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) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain managem ...

software company that provides analytics for brands, as marketer clients are increasingly seeking services in commerce.

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, outdoor. The company's SAMS services include

direct marketing Direct marketing is a form of communicating an offer, where organizations communicate directly to a pre-selected customer and supply a method for a direct response. Among practitioners, it is also known as ''direct response marketing''. By ...

customer relationship management Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study big data, large amounts of information. CRM systems data collectio ...

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 marketin ...

, 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 technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...

and AOL Platform A technologies that offers advertisers the possibility to target specifically defined audiences in a single campaign across multiple networks.

Controversies

Qorvis Qorvis Communications is an international Washington, D.C.-based public relations, advertising, media relations and crisis communications firm. It was acquired by the Publicis Groupe in January 2014, and became Qorvis/MSLGroup. Qorvis provides ...

, a U.S. subsidiary of Publicis, has represented the country of Saudi Arabia since the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

and has been accused of helping to

whitewash Whitewash, or calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, 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 used. ...

its record on human rights. More recently, the writer

Ken Klippenstein Ken Klippenstein (born February 1, 1988) is an American journalist working at ''The Intercept''. Prior to joining ''The Intercept'', Klippenstein was the D.C. Correspondent at ''The Nation'' and previously a senior investigative reporter for the ...

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 **

(BBH) **Glickman Shamir Samsonov **

** Publicis New York **Publicis Worldwide **Publicis India **Publicis Beehive **Digitas **

**Epsilon *Publicis Media ** Starcom **Zenith **Frubis ** Spark Foundry **Digitas **GroupeConnect **Blue 449 **Performics **Publicis Global Delivery (PGD) **Publicis Sport & Entertainment **

*Publicis Sapient **3SHARE ** SapientRazorfish ***Rosetta ** Publicis Pixelpark ** Publicis Sapient ***

Vertiba Publicis Sapient is an American digital consulting company, founded as Sapient in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1990 by Jerry Greenberg and J. Stuart Moore. On February 6, 2015, Sapient became a fully owned division of French advertising giant Pub ...

**vivaki *Publicis Health *Specialized Agencies **Médias & Régies **PMCI (content and innovation) ** LionVault (Web3 Specialist Group) **

**Prodigious Brand Logistics (including Translate Plus Limited) ** Publicis Healthcare Communications Group **

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

External links

*
Official website: Nurun
{{CAC 40 companies 1926 establishments in France Advertising agencies of France Holding companies established in 1926 CAC 40 Companies listed on Euronext Paris Holding companies of France Public relations companies