MUMBAI: Just two weeks after the launch of Publicis90, the Publicis Groupe’s initiative to celebrate its 90th anniversary has gained a positive momentum.
The applications come from more than 90 different countries, including primarily the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Brazil, Germany and Israel as well as France, where 29 per cent of entries have been made.
The range of projects is extremely diverse and reflects the creativity possibilities of the digital world. Mobile, content and ad-tech are the most represented sectors. Among many others, some of the projects submitted are: a travel portal in India, a collaborative art platform in France, an application for taxis in Germany, a new in-store payment solution in the UK and a crowdfunding platform dedicated to mothers in the United States.
Thanks to the mobilisation of all Publicis Groupe agencies, over 50,000 people have visited the Publicis90 website from all over the world. As of 1 February, close to 1,936 people have registered to enter their projects and 795 have completed their applications to be one of the 90 projects or start-ups that will be selected and funded by Publicis Groupe.
Two thirds of the entries are pre-existing start-ups. Publicis Groupe employees represent 18 per cent of participants and six per cent are students.
Entries are open until 29 February and anyone – Publicis Groupe employees, students, start-ups, or anybody with a good idea, can submit his or her application. The 90 projects or start-ups that will be selected will benefit from funding of between €10,000 and €500,000, one year of mentoring with a Publicis Groupe executive in marketing, communication and management, and finally an invitation to participate at Viva Technology Paris, the major digital event organized by Publicis Groupe and Groupe Les Echos from 30 June to 2 July, 2016 in Paris.
MUMBAI: Just two weeks after the launch of Publicis90, the Publicis Groupe’s initiative to celebrate its 90th anniversary has gained a positive momentum.
The applications come from more than 90 different countries, including primarily the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Brazil, Germany and Israel as well as France, where 29 per cent of entries have been made.
The range of projects is extremely diverse and reflects the creativity possibilities of the digital world. Mobile, content and ad-tech are the most represented sectors. Among many others, some of the projects submitted are: a travel portal in India, a collaborative art platform in France, an application for taxis in Germany, a new in-store payment solution in the UK and a crowdfunding platform dedicated to mothers in the United States.
Thanks to the mobilisation of all Publicis Groupe agencies, over 50,000 people have visited the Publicis90 website from all over the world. As of 1 February, close to 1,936 people have registered to enter their projects and 795 have completed their applications to be one of the 90 projects or start-ups that will be selected and funded by Publicis Groupe.
Two thirds of the entries are pre-existing start-ups. Publicis Groupe employees represent 18 per cent of participants and six per cent are students.
Entries are open until 29 February and anyone – Publicis Groupe employees, students, start-ups, or anybody with a good idea, can submit his or her application. The 90 projects or start-ups that will be selected will benefit from funding of between €10,000 and €500,000, one year of mentoring with a Publicis Groupe executive in marketing, communication and management, and finally an invitation to participate at Viva Technology Paris, the major digital event organized by Publicis Groupe and Groupe Les Echos from 30 June to 2 July, 2016 in Paris.
MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe, which was founded by Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet in 1926, is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. When it all started in a little Parisian apartment on Rue Montmartre, the founder’s only staff was his secretary. He would never have thought that, 90 years later, his Groupe would be one of the three largest in the world, with close to 80,000 employees.
Back then, Publicis Groupe began just like many of today’s start-ups. It is with its founder in mind, as well as the entrepreneurial spirit of so many of its employees around the world, that Publicis Groupe has chosen to celebrate its 90th anniversary by providing mentoring, support and funding to 90 entrepreneurial projects in the digital field.
To take part, projects can be submitted via the Publicis90 platform (www.publicis90.com), which will be available online as of 18 January.
The platform will fund students, new start-ups, successful entrepreneurs or even a Publicis Groupe employee anywhere in the world, who can put forward their idea and apply for support from the Groupe. The goal is to provide entrepreneurs with the support they need to bring their projects to life, or to take it to the next level.
The Publicis90 platform will be open for submissions until 28 February. Projects will be pre-selected by region (the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe-Middle-East & Africa), with a first round of votes open to all Publicis Groupe employees (all projects submitted remain anonymous). A regional jury will then draw up a short-list from the pre-selected projects, before the final selection is made by a prestigious global jury that will pick the 90 most promising projects or start-ups.
The selected projects will be mentored by Publicis Groupe experts in marketing, communications, management and technology. They will also receive funding in the form of an investment ranging from 10,000 euros for projects about to be launched to 500,000 euros for start-ups that are already ramping up. As for selected projects submitted by Publicis Groupe employees, they will have the benefit of a special internal incubation scheme.
The holders of the 90 selected projects will be invited to participate to Viva Technology Paris, the first forum in France to bring together the people who matter most in digital throughout the world with over 5,000 start-ups. This event – created by Publicis Groupe and Groupe Les Echos – will be held from 30 June to 2 July, 2016 at the Paris Expo Exhibition Centre at Porte de Versailles. The 90 selected projects will be honoured at an awards ceremony held during Viva Technology Paris.
Publicis Groupe chairman and CEO Maurice Levy said, “Publicis90 is very much in line with the philosophy of Publicis Groupe and its founder, Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet. The idea is to help young entrepreneurs achieve their goals. Not just through investment but also by putting Groupe resources at their disposal for a year. Rather than look back and pat ourselves on the back for 90 years of history, we have taken the forward-looking approach of extending a helping hand to young entrepreneurs.”
MUMBAI: Recording a holiday message for his employees is a tradition for Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Lévy. And complying with the tradition, that’s just what he did this year too… ’cept this year’s holiday greeting video from Lévy found a wider audience amongst netizens, with its witty take on skippable advertisement.
To the television audience, advertisement breaks are an excuse to flip through channels and look for a different entertaining program. When Video On Demand (VOD) platforms gained traction amongst digital audience, the ‘Skip Ad’ feature soon became a popular one, with YouTube taking the lead.
Being an advertising agency itself, it is ironic how the company’s CEO took to ‘Skippable Ads’ to deliver his message to employees. The idea was to bank on everyone’s habit of skipping ads to go to the content and do exactly the opposite! Confused? Don’t be… Read on…
“Times are too tough to play around so don’t expect anything funny or any technological tricks. I’ve long suspected that only a handful of you are actually paying attention to what I have to say. Although it’s often tempting to skip the ads and get to the content, this time you should be glad to skip me and watch some ads,” says a poker faced Lévy in a YouTube video.
However, 28 seconds into the video the humour quotient is just about to hit the roof as instead of the traditional ‘Skip Ad’ button that one is used to seeing on the video screen, there’s a… wait for it… ‘Skip Maurice’ button! However, this is “just a ploy” as Lévy continues his speech while crashing each ad spot and it must be said that for a septuagenarian, he totally rocks and how!
Should you choose not to skip Maurice, he’ll continue his address from behind his desk. But if you’re the inquisitive kind (like us) then you would’ve definitely ‘skipped Maurice.’
And therein lies all the fun! Watch him play cameo, especially in a shampoo advertisement, which adds to the comic relief of the entire concept. From spoon feeding yoghurt to a woman, washing his shirt, starring in a shampoo commercial a la L’Oreal (touché), cleaning his teeth in a toothpaste ad to appearing inside a sink for a liquid cleanser ad, Lévy enthrals the audience while also highlighting the company’s plans to enhance the power of one in the coming year.
In this 2:55 minute video titled ‘The Skippable Wishes,’ Lévy takes us through the agency’s benchmarks in 2015, through a series of advertisement, which he spontaneously crashes in.
“2015 has been a kind of bumpy ride. It’s been kind of tough for us. Nevertheless, we’ve fared pretty well in some of our operations and the most difficult part is behind us. More importantly, we have set ourselves up for a promising future,” he starts, as he talks about the company’s expectation from their Sapient acquisition, the “media palooza of which we have won more than we have lost,” the Cannes Lions wins and the highlights of the agency’s San Francisco seminar.
It must be added here that Publicis recently lost Procter & Gamble’s media planning and buying account in North America to Omnicom as well as the L’Oréal media account in North America to WPP. Hence, for Lévy to say that 2015 has been a “bumpy ride,” would be nothing but an understatement.
But these losses aside, Lévy goes on to say that 2016 will be a great year and that the agency has all the ingredients for it. “We will leverage the power of one across the group and our teams are excited about it. 2016 will the year of no silo, no solo, no bozo,” he says emphasising that there will be more transparency within the different departments and implementation of united effort within the company.
“All the group’s leadership is in line and is already putting this into action. We have seen the fruit of this approach through the outstanding creative achievements and campaigns. I’m counting on you. I can’t wait to fast forward to 2016 to show our clients the potential of the transformed Publicis Group and the power of one,” he says.
As was reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, Publicis recently undertook a major client-centric restructuring for 2016, wherein the agency will be breaking down its disciplines into four distinct ‘solution hubs’ with each client that will be led by a chief client officer. And that’s exactly what Lévy speaks about here.
He concludes the video by dedicating his wishes to the victims of Paris terrorist attacks on 13 November.
At the time of filing this report, the video on Publicis’ website was almost nearing 50,000 hits. If innovation and disruption is the name of the game, then this latest salvo from the agency’s CEO himself wins it hands down.
PS: There’s a strategically placed coffee mug on his desk, which says, “Yes I am the BOSS!”
Well, Mr Lévy, after watching this video, we have absolutely no doubts about that!
MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe is undertaking a major client-centric restructuring of its business model, which will see agency breaking down its disciplines into four distinct ‘solution hubs’ with each client that will be led by a chief client officer.
With effect from 2 January, 2016, the change also includes a new role for Leo Burnett’s APAC chairman and CEO Jarek Ziebinski.
The Groupe’s disciplines will now be organised across four solutions hubs namely Publicis Communications, Publicis Media, Publicis.Sapient and Publicis Healthcare.
Publicis Communications will be led by CEO Arthur Sadoun and will comprise all creative networks: Publicis Worldwide, MSL, Nurun, Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett as well as BBH and Marcel. It will also include the production hub, Prodigious.
Publicis Media will be led by CEO Steve King and will bring together Starcom Mediavest, ZenithOptimedia, Vivaki, Performics, MRY, Moxie or RUN and all the associated entities. All clients will benefit from the economies of scale and research efforts, key elements in this field.
Publicis.Sapient is a platform designed for tomorrow’s world: a world of digital platforms. Led by Alan Herrick as CEO, this hub includes Sapient Consulting, SapientNitro, DigitasLBi, Razorfish and all the associated entities. Clients fully benefit from R&D investments, cutting edge technology solutions and the Groupe’s leading position in e-commerce, as well as new tools that will transform their marketing approaches and their business models.
Publicis Healthcare led by CEO Nick Colucci is a fully integrated Health and Pharma solution. It covers all of the Groupe’s clients’ needs, from a new product launch to the transition to generic branding, including digital applications and sales force management.
Each Brand, for instance Saatchi & Saatchi, ZenithOptimedia or DigitasLBi, will keep expanding, with its own culture and specific approach to creativity and services. The identity and the success of each of the Groupe’s brands will be preciously preserved and nurtured.
The Groupe generates more than 90 per cent of its revenue in about 20 countries. As a result, many other countries don’t get the attention they rightfully deserve and the Groupe footprint is often too fragmented. This is why all of these countries will now be managed through a dedicated Groupe entity, Publicis ONE, with will be led by Ziebinski as CEO.
In the Publicis ONE countries, all entities will be reunited under one roof and one management team. This will ensure a better coordination of all client services while respecting strictly confidentiality rules. These structures will attract great talent, both through their scale and comprehensiveness.
Businesses all over the world, no matter their industry, are continuously faced with the upheavals brought on by digital and the constant evolutions affecting our society, the way we work, communicate and consume. In order to better advise and serve its clients, Publicis Groupe decided to radically modify its business model by putting the client at the heart of its organisation.
The idea consists of reversing its current structure, built around the concept of worldwide networks, by breaking down silos in order to offer clients the Groupe’s entire know-how and expertise through the “Power of One”: all Publicis Groupe capabilities will be available to each of its clients – in a simple, flexible and efficient way. A bit like a smartphone: powered by sophisticated technology but very easy to use.
From now on, the Groupe will gauge its performance using a new standard: client service, led for each client by a chief client officer. This person will be responsible for the entire range of services and skills the client can benefit from, no matter the discipline or the country. Whenever possible, the dedicated teams will be gathered under one roof.
The teams of chief client officers will be supervised by a Groupe chief revenue officer. Laura Desmond will fulfil this newly created role. The mission will be to simplify the way clients access the range of solutions, without duplication or delay, and to accelerate the Groupe’s growth and development. Laura Desmond will also be responsible for the Groupe’s growth (new business and future developments).
MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe and Facebook have come together to host an event that addresses brands in the banking, financial services and insurance categories (BFSI).
The event named, ‘Financial Services Forum,’ will address the key trends in the industry, share consumer insights, challenges and solutions, case studies and recent progress in the measurement area.
The event will be held on 4 November, 2015 at the Trident, Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai.
Zenith Optimedia Group chief executive officer Anupriya Acharya said, “These are exciting times for both the BFSI sector and digital media! The Indian government’s push on added licenses for banking to promote financial inclusion and the call for a Digital India provides the perfect setting for a forum like this. Our digital marketing brands have an extensive experience in the BFSI segment and have in fact made much progress on even testing out how platforms like Facebook can make a difference to this segment, which has not been very intuitive so far. I keenly look forward to some interesting learnings being shared at this forum.”
“The Financial Services Sector in India was amongst the first industries to adopt digital. The consumer’s shift from desktop to mobile requires a paradigm shift. This forum is the coming together of experts from across the spectrum – marketers, media and creative agencies, technology partners, and publishers – to leverage the power of personalised marketing at scale to drive awareness of new and existing services, grow businesses and deliver extraordinary customer service for banks, insurers, credit card issuers or any other part of the financial services ecosystem,” added Facebook India managing director Kirthiga Reddy.
Starcom MediaVest Group chairman Hanley King said, “Driving real world business and marketing deliverables today has to be driven by large and complex consumer data sets. Facebook is at helm of this form of marketing. We have been able to leverage its user data and its ability to customise marketing efforts through custom audiences and website integration to drive tangible sales uplift and build deeper consumer relationships to improve lifetime value of customers. The direction that we are seeing Facebook taking by introducing audience data based solutions such as Atlas is inline and core to our principle of driving precision marketing at scale. We hope through this event we help our clients in the BFSI space to move further down the path of precision marketing and get excited about the possibilities the platform has to offer.”
MUMBAI: Orange chairman and CEO Stephane Richard and Publicis Groupe chairman and CEO Maurice Levy along with Gerhard Cromme, have signed a letter of intent with a view to creating a European multi-corporate venture capital fund – IrisNext – on a global scale for start-ups.
The letter was signed on the occasion of Franco-German conference on digital at the Elysee Palace.
The goal of IrisNext is to become one of Europe’s leading venture capital funds through funding from major international groups of French, German and international origins, as well as from institutional investors.
IrisNext will mainly invest in European start-ups to help fund their growth, not just in the early stages but all throughout the phases of growth. The fund will focus its investments in entities involved in all aspects of corporate digital transformation. Among the start-ups concerned, IrisNext will be funding pure players, but also new business models built around digital technology, as well as new tools and technologies taking on the challenge of this transformation (e.g. big data, cloud, artificial intelligence, digital innovations, robots, etc.).
The fund will be managed by Iris Capital, assisted by German VC fund Capnamic, with an initial closing scheduled in 2016.
To ensure the success of this venture, Publicis Groupe and Orange have committed to provide additional funding of €75 million each. With the support of Cromme, who has joined this project in a personal capacity and will sit on the Supervisory Board of Iris Capital, they will use their networks and influence to convince other German, French and European groups to invest in IrisNext, in order to endow the fund with the required dimension while optimizing opportunities for European start-ups. Institutional investors will also be invited to invest. Furthermore, public bodies in the field of corporate financing in France and Germany will also be solicited for additional funding to ensure the fund reaches the critical mass it needs.
In view of the very active presence of the large Anglo-Saxon and Asian venture capital funds, the parties involved in this agreement consider it indispensable to leverage the Franco-German axis in order to bolster the European venture capital sufficiently for it to support start-ups, particularly in the later stages of growth, and in doing so, to help anchor them in Europe.
The IrisNext project is a follow-up to the Orange Publicis Ventures funds, which were launched in 2012 and contributed some €300 million to the funding of the French and European digital ecosystem. These funds, which are also managed by Iris Capital, have helped promote the emergence of an innovative, multi-corporate investment model that is mutually beneficial to both parties: the start-ups receiving funding and the groups who learn from these innovations. Close to 60 start-ups have received funding from Orange Publicis Ventures, including firms such as Netatmo in the IoT (Internet of Things), Talend (software), Scality (high capacity storage), Adjust (mobile analytics) and Mister Auto (e-commerce).
MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe has acquired South-Africa based The Creative Counsel Group (TCC), which is an integrated below-the-line agency providing marketing and activation solutions.
Founded in 2001 by co-founders and joint CEOs Ran Neu-Ner and Gil Oved, The Creative Counsel Group boasts over 1,500 employees and works with clients such as Unilever, Clover, Vodacom, Microsoft, Brandhouse and Tiger Brands.
TCC offers holistic services including creative, strategy and execution of go-to market strategies and activations, large-scale conferencing and events, mass-market insights and strategies, loyalty partnerships, merchandising and retail shopper marketing.
Furthermore, the addition of TCC will specifically strengthen and complement Publicis Worldwide, offering more transformative experiences to clients and their brands through promotional and experiential capabilities at scale, essential to client business development. Complementing the existing structure and expertise of Publicis Groupe’s multi-door operation in Africa, Publicis Africa Group, which now counts agencies across 35 countries, TCC bridges existing digital and traditional disciplines, brands to reach their consumers wherever they may be.
The Creative Counsel Group will come under the remit of Publicis Worldwide – headed by global CEO Arthur Sadoun.
Neu-Ner and Oved will report to Publicis Africa Group CEO Kevin Tromp.
Sadoun said, “With the addition of The Creative Counsel, our clients will have access to the most innovative ways to promote, engage and educate their target markets about their products and services. This strategic move positions Publicis Worldwide as the leading creative network in Africa, a key continent for our future development.”
Tromp added, “The combination of TCC’s scale, massively entepreneurial culture, and intimate understanding of the African consumer at every level, is an excellent complement to Publicis’ global communication sophistication, deep digital orientation and multi-national mentality. This union creates the most powerful activation and experiential entity on the continent, focused on bringing brands to life in a culturally relevant fashion, for our clients and their consumers.”
Neu-Ner and Oved added, “The focus is shifting away from the brand and towards the consumer. We’re about touching the heart and mind on a very real level, in a personalised manner, be it on-the-ground, digitally or any other way that results in consumers changing the way they act or transact. The fun part is that this ‘non-traditional’ form of advertising is ever evolving and ultra-dynamic. We wake up every day wondering what are we going to do differently today versus yesterday. Becoming part of Publicis Worldwide enables us to scale our offering and unique blend of conceptual and executional abilities on a global scale. Publicis Worldwide are the masters of merging digital, creative, strategy and new age thinking and therefore, for us, they are the bigger brother we always wish we had.”
MUMBAI: Razorfish Global, part of Publicis Groupe, has acquired Sydney-based 2DataFish, the Adobe data analytics and marketing optimisation consultancy in Australia and APAC.
The acquisition strengthens Razorfish Global’s Intelligence Practice by adding significant commerce and data analytics capabilities and makes it the only Adobe partner in Australia and the wider APAC region that can provide end-to-end cloud marketing services at scale, including systems integration, data analytics, media and content platforms, creative and experience design.
It is the latest milestone in a strong growth period for Razorfish Global in Australia, with recent major client wins, including Foxtel, eBay and Bank of Queensland. Razorfish Global is a global strategic partner of Adobe, while 2DataFish is the first analytics consultancy in the region certified as a global Adobe analytics specialisation partner.
Specialising in online testing, content optimisation, analytics, audience segmentation and tag management, 2DataFish was founded in 2010 by Steven and Kim Hann, who will both continue in the business as co-directors.
Current 2DataFish clients include Telstra, Virgin Australia, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, Fairfax Media, Suncorp Group, Energy Australia, Dick Smith, IAG and GE Capital to name a few.
“We’re pleased to welcome 2DataFish to the Razorfish Global family and Publicis.Sapient platform. This move positions us to accelerate growth in the Australian market while building on a clear competitive advantage in our Intelligence Practice through the addition of world-class talent, data analytics and customer intelligence capabilities, technology platforms and intellectual property,” said Razorfish Global international CEO Michael Karg.
“2DataFish significantly boosts our data analytics capabilities, which are critical to our ability to help clients transform their business. Clients will now benefit from intensely specialised skills across data, technology, insights, commerce and media that result in a truly holistic solution,” said Razorfish Australia managing director Doug Chapman.
2DataFish founder Steven Hann added, “We are excited about the possibilities that our combined talents can offer clients and proud to join forces with the talented team at Razorfish Global.”
2DataFish will complete its move into Razorfish Australia’s Sydney offices by the end of August 2015 and will maintain a separate brand name at this stage.
MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe has appointed Saatchi & Saatchi worldwide chief operating officer Chris Foster to the newly created role of senior vice president global clients.
“Our clients are facing serious challenges due to technology and innovation in this ever changing world. Chris Foster will help our clients to extract the best from our talents and our formidable assets through integrated solutions. Chris has been deeply involved in the strategy and operations of several Groupe clients. His track record for growth and collaboration has defined his tenure and makes him perfectly suited for this role at this time,” said Publicis Groupe chairman and CEO Maurice Lévy.
Foster will report to Publicis Groupe chief strategist Rishad Tobaccowala and will begin in his Paris-based role on 1 September, 2015.
Currently responsible for the performance and operations for seven of the top 10 countries in the Saatchi & Saatchi network, and for significant global client relationships and management. He has been a senior leader at Saatchi & Saatchi since 1999 in North America, Asia Pacific and Greater China, as CEO of Fallon USA 2008-11, and as a member of the Global Leadership Team since 2011. He is an economics and philosophy graduate from the University of Western Ontario.
