Publicis Groupe

Paris-based Publicis is one of the 'big six' advertising and media services conglomerates.

Its activities include creative advertising, media and campaign planning, public relations and marketing. The group operates in Europe,Asia, the Americas and other parts of the world through through two networks - Saatchi & Saatchi (acquired in 2000) and Publicis Worldwide - and standalone units such as Nelson Communications. It boasts 170 offices in over 100 countries, with around 38,000 employees.

Japanese print and advertising group Dentsu has a substantial stake (15% as of May 2002) in Publicis.

The group dates from 1926, when Publicis was founded in Paris by Marcel Bleustein as a print advertising agency. It expanded into radio advertising (including operation of France's first commercial station prior to 1939) and operation of a chain of cinemas. After 1946 it expanded into the UK and Germany before buying existing advertising groups based in the US and creating new groups.

In March 2002 Publicis, Bcom3 and Dentsu announced agreement about merger of Publicis and Bcom3 (in practice a US$3 billion takeover by Paris) to create the world's fourth largest advertising group in the world. A "strategic, long-term partnership" between Dentsu (which had held 21% of Bcom3) and Publicis was announced at that time.

Bcom3 encompassed Leo Burnett, D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles, Manning Selvage & Lee, Bartle Bogle Hegarty, and Starcom MediaVest.

The expectation was that the expanded group would gain 49% of its US$4 billion revenues from North America, 37% from Europe and 14% from Japan and the rest of the world. It would be the largest advertising group in Europe and third largest in the US.

According to Mind.advertsising.com

Publicis Groupe has forced its way into the top ranks of the world's leading marketing organisations through a string of canny acquisitions. Having learned painful lessons from a disastrous and short-lived alliance with FCB during the 1990s, the group's acquisition of Saatchi & Saatchi in 2000 proved far more harmonious. Even more impressive was the agreed takeover of Bcom3 two years later, which gave the French group a strong position in both the US and Japanese markets. After a shaky start, Publicis has shown itself to be a worthy rival to established giants WPP and Omnicom. Advertising Age rank Publicis Groupe as the 4th ad organisation worldwide in 2004 with revenues of $4.8bn.

Acquired a 50.1% stake in Freud Communications in June 2005.

holdings

Publicis Bcom3 Burrell Communications Group Fallon Worldwide Frankel & Co

• Freud Communications

Nelson Communications Publicis Worldwide Publicis & Hal Riney Saatchi & Saatchi

• Leo Burnett

D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles

• Manning Selvage & Lee

Bartle Bogle Hegarty Starcom MediaVest Zenith Optimedia Group (75% held by Publicis, 25% held by Cordiant) Medicus Group Publicis Consultants Publicis Dialog Burrell, Conill Publicis Sanchez & Levitan Bromley Communications Lapiz New-A Vigilante Pangea Relay Publicis Prakit Publicis-Basic (Philippines) Publicis-Eureka (Singapore) Mojo Partners Publicis Capurro Publicis Unitros Hal Riney Evans Group Publicis Technology Casadevall-Pedren Publicis Welcomm (South Korea) Publicis Ad-link (China) Publicis Zen Publicis AMA Publicis CB Publi-graphics Publicis Dialog New York

• Gramercy Group

Lobsenz/Stevens

Further reading

• Ivan Fallon The Brothers: The Saatchi & Saatchi Story (Chicago: Contemporary 1989).
• Kevin Goldman's Conflicting Accounts: The Creation and Crash of the Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Empire (New York: Simon & Schuster 1997).
• Philip Kleinman's The Saatchi and Saatchi story (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1989).
• Alison Fendley's Saatchi & Saatchi: The Inside Story (New York: Arcade 1996).
• Rita Hatton & John Walker, Supercollector: A Critique of Charles Saatchi, (London: Ellipsis 2000).