London-listed WPP loses the global advertising crown to its French rival
- Publicis owns the British advertising agencies Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Saatchi & Saatchi
- American companies Netflix, Burger King and Walmart are among Publicis’ customers
France’s Publicis Groupe is on track to surpass the London-listed company WPP be the world’s largest advertising agency by the end of 2024, according to broker estimates.
Publicis posted revenues of €10.1 billion (£8.4 billion) in the first nine months of 2024, while Ogilvy and Wavemaker owner WPP earned €9.8 billion.
Consensus estimates from financial research platform Visible Alpha expect the company to achieve revenues of €13.9 billion this year, compared with €13.5 billion for WPP.
It will be the first time that a French holding company has been the largest advertising company and it comes two years before Publicis celebrates its 100th anniversary.
Publicis, headquartered on the iconic Champs-Elysées in Paris, is the parent company of British advertising agencies Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Saatchi & Saatchi.
It also organizes the annual VIVA Technology conference dedicated to startups, with speakers at the latest edition including Elon Musk, LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
The group’s extensive customer base includes French brands Renault, Cartier and supermarket chain Carrefour, as well as US giants Netflix, Burger King and Walmart.
Rapper’s Joy: Snoop Dogg Appears in ‘The Wishes’. a film announcing that Publicis is the largest advertising agency in the world
The group has celebrated its place at the top of the advertising world with a short video featuring CEO and musician Snoop Dogg, and star of the Paris Olympics.
Publicis was founded in 1926 by Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, a furniture salesman widely credited with introducing radio advertising to France.
After World War II, when he fought in the French Resistance, he rebuilt the company by making deals with big corporate names like Shell, Colgate-Palmolive and Sopad-Nestlé, and started the first French polls.
Under his successor, Maurice Levy, Publicis joined WPP, Omnicom and Interpublic as one of the ‘Big Four’ advertising agencies when it bought Bcom3 in 2002 for $3 billion.
Publicis attempted a $35 billion merger with America’s Omnicom early last decade that would have made the enlarged company the largest advertising company in the world.
However, the deal fell through due to tax and legal issues, opposition from China’s antitrust regulator and disagreements over who would hold key leadership positions.
During the turmoil, the two companies lost many of their high-profile customers to rivals, with WPP gaining on Vodafone, Marks & Spencer, GlaxoSmithKline and Comparethemarket.
Under Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP became the world’s largest advertising agency by ruthlessly acquiring smaller companies and expanding its reach into emerging markets.
In its latest full-year results, Publicis increased its organic net sales by 6.3 percent thanks to better-than-expected trading towards the end of the period.
Total net sales rose 4.2 percent to €13.1 billion, helped by a double-digit percentage increase in Europe and a strong performance in North America, its largest market by sales.
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