Do you have some time to kill today?
You could watch the Lagavulin ad consisting of 45 minutes of Nick Offerman sipping Scotch by the fire, or you could watch something even more mind-numbing: Maurice Levy addressing his employees and the public for 20 minutes about the new, improved, silo-free Publicis Groupe.
We didn’t have time to watch the whole video yesterday, but here you go.
Some basic highlights:
- The Sapient acquisition was a totally awesome idea that has proven very profitable
- Publicis clients can’t figure out how to grow while also spending a lot less money on marketing
- Levy’s goal is “to be the admired force for business transformation driven through the alchemy of creativity and technology”
He then breaks down every single word in that sentence, which is really the same thing people have been saying for at least 15 years: client work has to be both creative and tech-friendly.
He’s aware that some people might think the Publicis hydra has a few heads too many and that the bureaucracy “generates useless delays” due to its “multiple points of contact.” He also claims that Publicis now runs “the only fully-integrated health and pharma solution,” perhaps unaware that Omnicom is focusing on the same industry but hasn’t yet created an “innovation hub” to deal with it.
Also: he reminds viewers not to forget to congratulate the people who just got promoted. As for everybody else, well…he’s counting on you. Do it for him, please.
One thing we still don’t understand is how the new structure will eliminate those silos and prevent the holding company from being “hindered by internal obstacles”–especially within all the agencies that it owns. We also feel like the “no silo, no solo, no bozo” catchphrase could be stronger, somehow.
That’s probably why Maurice is a powerful chief executive and we are just lowly trade bloggers.