Publicis Groupe doubles down on end-to-end focus

Publicis Groupe ANZ CEO Michael Rebelo tells The Growth Agenda about his plans to double down on end-to-end services as the market refocuses on brand marketing.

Atomic 212° chairman and partner Barry O’Brien and Publicis Groupe ANZ chief executive Michael Rebelo

Publicis Groupe is “the only network or consultancy” capable of offering clients full end-to-end marketing services, according to the network’s chief executive for Australia and New Zealand, ­Michael Rebelo.

Mr Rebelo’s comments follow the group’s acquisition of Australia’s largest independent media agency, Atomic 212°, which he said aims to further bolster its end-to-end credentials by expanding the breadth and reach of its media business. Publicis Media also includes Spark Foundry ANZ, Starcom Australia, Zenith Australia and MBM New Zealand.

“We are the only holding company that has creative media, digital transformation, digital market­ing agencies, a data core ID platform, shopper marketing, a production company and e-commerce businesses, all in the one stable, all under one P&L, that can build an end-to-end team for clients,” Mr Rebelo said.

“There isn’t any other holding company or consultancy group that can do that.”

His comments come as the highly competitive advertising and marketing industry fights for shrinking budgets while managing declining margins and rising costs. Rival businesses such as Accenture Song have positioned firmly around the ability to provide end-to-end marketing services across its consulting and marketing services business.

Companies are seeking greater integration from the advertising and marketing services and the ease of one network managing all elements of their marketing business. The explosion of digital media channels has propelled a broader shift to integrated marketing services, requiring agencies to abandon silos and create more holistic approaches. These models favour the network holding companies, which house multiple agency brands and can operate as a one-stop shop for clients. “The growth that we’ve seen over the last five years has really been because of our connector platform,” Mr ­Rebelo said. “We have clients that come in and will wholesale engage us to do everything: creative, media PR, shopper data. They might come in and engage us for creative work, and then we’ll have conversations around, say, the media engagement for example.

“It’s not a hard sell, though. We look at clients and look at their needs. And if they’re not getting that from somewhere else, we’ll be more than happy to show them how we can do that.

“That’s the growth we’ve seen and that’s the growth the group has seen globally as well, and that will continue.”

Mr Rebelo said the acquisition would enable Publicis to offer more services through Atomic 212°, with the agency’s strengths in data and analytics a significant opportunity for the group. He said it would also work vice versa, “hopefully” with Atomic clients such as Origin, Great Wall Motors, BlueScope Steel, BMW and Bupa serving as potential new business opportunities across the group.

“If Atomic clients need creative services or production capabilities or digital marketing, then they’ll have a plethora of options to choose from,” he said.

“That connected culture is at the heart of Publicis Groupe since our transformation in 2016.”

The acquisition is a significant strategic move for Publicis’ media division, which now ranks third for market share for its media business, behind WPP’s GroupM and Omnicom Media Group. The media division is currently ranked number one on the COMvergence Barometer report and was number three on the 2023 RECMA report.

Media services have been a significant area of focus for marketers with the rise in popularity in Principal Media, where agencies buy media from publishers and then on-sell it to clients. This approach has been criticised for the lack of transparency for clients that are unable to see who is getting the deal.

Both Publicis Groupe and Atomic 212 use the Principal model, and Mr O’Brien said in future media trading would be a mixture of the agency’s existing deals and Publicis Media deals where it was best suited.

The Atomic acquisition is the latest in a series of deals by Publicis, which included including MBM Media and Affinity ID, all of which aimed to broaden the group’s services across the end-to-end spectrum.

Experts are predicting a year of further consolidation in the industry following holding company Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG at the end of last year. According to Mr Rebelo, the market is also set for a strong refocus on brand.

“Last year we saw a lot of big pitches happening in the marketplace,” he said.“When that’s happening, it’s usually because and the pitch brief usually ends up being, ‘give me your view on our brand strategy, or our brand platform’.

“And that that tells me that clients are going to be investing in brand. Again.”

“You don’t go through that process change to go back to doing performance-driven advertising. You do it because you’re going to reinvest and relaunch the brand.

“So my prediction for 2025 is, there’s going to be a return to top of funnel to look at how we stimulate growth and create magnetism.”