Publicis Groupe Chief Talks 'All Time High' Results and Climate Crisis Response

Despite uncertain economic conditions globally, Publicis Groupe has forecast a stronger financial year than predicted with potential organic growth of up to +7% following an “all time high” second quarter (Q2) that has seen the agency network deliver organic growth of 10.3%. The business published its Q2 results delivering revenue of $3,131 billion (3,073 billion euros) with a reported year-over-year growth of 21% during a period which had new business from clients such as McDonald’s media account in the U.S., Pepsi’s media account in China as well as its creative in India, KFC’s media in the U.S. and the Siemen’s global creative account. With 3,267 clients on the books, the company is now employing 94,000 members of staff, having added around 7,000 during the first half of the year, growing the workforce by 13% since 2019. This has meant personnel costs have increased by 22.5% in the last year to reach $3962 million (3,888 million euros) at the end of June. Fixed personnel costs were recorded at $3,440 billion (3,375 billion euros), representing 57.5% of net revenue. The rising total of project work has also led to an increase of freelance by $56 million (64 million euros), representing $237.5 million (233 million euros) overall for the year so far. Organic revenue growth continued to be driven by Publicis’ Northern American performance, up by 9.3% in that region, followed by 12.3% growth in Europe, 10.1% in Asia Pacific, 14.5% in the Middle East and Africa and 17.3% in Latin America. Some are going faster and some are going deeper but everyone today realizes that greenwashing won't do it anymore.Arthur Sadoun, chief executive of Publicis Groupe Arthur Sadoun, chief executive and chair of Publicis Groupe, has long cited the performance of digital transformation business Publicis Sapient (+19.1%) and data business Epsilon (+13.7%) as driving the post-pandemic performance of the business, which he told Adweek was “accelerating further,” especially in the U.S. “We are capturing a disproportionate share of where our clients are investing at the moment, which is first party data, digital media and business transformation,” he continued to explain while also citing the new business performance globally. An increasing forecast Explaining the reason for growing the forecast to potentially 7% growth he added that the company felt “confident” for the second half of the year despite economic uncertainty and claimed that the performance of the business over recent years proved that “we know how to manage difficult times.” In terms of how he planned to handle the issue of inflation, Sadoun revealed that almost 43% of employees had received a salary increase since the beginning of the year. He also cited the company’s global services, its AI management tool Marcel, a will to “constantly adapt” structures as well as the managing of salaries to keep things under control. “For the moment we do not see any impact of inflation in our revenue and the impact is also likely to be limited in H2,” he added of whether clients would expect to see a rise in costs this year as well. With Europe experiencing some of the hottest temperatures on record, Sadoun tackled the question of whether it was the responsibility of advertising networks to drive change within their client behaviors, something he said was happening while also citing the sustainability focus being implemented within Publicis as well. The company itself has already committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2030 while i9t has been reviewed on its Environmental, Social and Governance efforts by eight different agencies: Bloomberg, MSCI, S+P Global, SustainAnalytics, Vigeoeiris, SustCo, EcoVadis and ISS-OEKM. Advertising and the climate crisis As to the work on behalf of clients, he added: “We can help them communicate better, but what they do, and being at the heart of the transformation they have to bring in order to really help the planet, but with Sapient we can help them make the right business decision and transformation decision in order to make sure that this fight against climate change is something that is meaningful and at the core of their business plan.” He added his belief that clients were taking the matter of the climate crisis “very seriously” whether it was for the good of the planet or for the good of their business. “I don't see that we have one client that doesn't understand that drastic changes needed and with all the events we have seen recently they are actually pushing for that," he continued on the issue of advertiser response to the climate emergency. "We have to be fair with them. Some have to communicate more than others for sure. Some are going faster and some are going deeper but everyone today realizes that greenwashing won't do it anymore.” Meanwhile, on the continued welfare of Ukrainian employees displaced by the invasion of Russia into their country, Sadoun claimed that Publicis was continuing to work with a third-party company to oversee their wellbeing on a daily basis. Earlier in the week, rival network Omnicom reported a revenue of $3,567 million for the quarter with organic growth of 11.3% and operating profit of $541.6 million. Publicis Pushes Diversity Efforts in Media Through DIME Marketplace