Publicis

Publicis Groupe (euronext|PUB, nyse|PUB) is a French multinational advertising and communications company. It is one of the big four global advertising holding companies (the others being Omnicom, Interpublic and WPP). Its current president is Maurice Lévy. Publicis Groupe S.A. provides traditional advertising, media services, and specialized agencies and marketing services SAMS) to national and multinational clients. Its traditional advertising services principally involve the creation of advertising for products, services, and brands. It also include strategic planning involving analysis of a product, service, or brand compared to its competitors through market research, sociological and psychological studies, and creative insight.

The company’s advertising programs involve television, magazines, newspapers, cinema, radio, outdoor, electronic, and interactive media. The company’s SAMS services include direct marketing/customer relationship management services; sales promotion, healthcare communications, multicultural and ethnic communications, corporate and financial communications, human resources communications, public relations, design services, interactive communications, events marketing, sports marketing, and production and pre-press services. Its media services include media planning, media buying, and media sales. The company conducts its operations in approximately 196 cities in 104 countries. Publicis has strategic alliances with Dentsu, Inc. The company was founded by Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet in 1926 and is headquartered in Paris, France.

As of 2006, the main subsidiary companies of this group are:

*Publicity
**International agencies
***Leo Burnett Worldwide
***Digitas
***Publicis Worldwide
***Saatchi & Saatchi
**"Multihub creative networks"
***Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH): Publicis holds a 49% stake.
***Fallon Worldwide
***ARC Worldwide
***Freud Communications
**Regional agencies
***Beacon communications
***Buehler Partners
***Kaplan Thaler Group
***Publicis Graphics - http://www.publicisgraphics.com
***Publicis & Hal Riney
***Burrell Communications Group
***Duval Guillaume Group

*Media
**Starcom MediaVestGroup
**ZenithOptimedia
**Médias & Régies Europe
*Pre-media/Production
** Capps Digital

*26 June 2008 - also see http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121442818542904653.htmlIn the latest effort by major ad-holding firms to strike alliances with top Internet companies, Publicis Groupe SA on Wednesday unveiled a new digital-advertising system that links together technologies from Google Inc., AOL, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. The system connects Publicis's media-buying agencies with the ad space sold by the Web giants. Publicis's new tool is powered by Google's ad-serving technology. It is the first initiative to be rolled out by the VivaKi Nerve Center, a new Publicis unit focused on creating ad technologies to be used by all Publicis agencies. (end)

On 21 December 2006 Publicis announced a bid to acquire US-based e-marketing company Digitas. The all-cash deal, which valued Digitas at US$1.3 billion, markedly increased Publicis' presence in the online advertising market as its importance grows relative to "old media" advertising. [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/business/media/21digital.html?ref=worldbusiness]

External links

* [http://www.publicisgroupe.com/site/index.jsp?language=EN Publicis Group]
* [http://www.publicis.com/ Publicis Agency ]
* [http://www.publicis-usa.com/ Publicis USA]
* [http://www.publicisgraphics.ae/ Publicis Graphics Dubai, UAE]