Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun blames the industry’s weakening perception on rivals more than tariffs

Publicis Groupe Chairman and CEO Arthur Sadoun took the holding company’s latest earnings report as an opportunity to address ongoing economic concerns for the overall agency business and to take some potshots at WPP, which he partly blamed for souring perceptions of the ad industry. Paris-based Publicis posted a 9.4% increase in first-quarter net revenue to €3.535 billion ($4.01 billion). Organic revenue growth of 4.9% slightly exceeded analysts’ expectations of 4.5% growth. In an interview, Sadoun said he was confident Publicis’ new business strength will offset any industry headwinds that could be sparked by potential tariffs, reaffirming Publicis’ 2025 organic revenue growth target of 4% to 5%. He noted that client caution is more likely to affect long-term investments than short-term marketing efforts. “Our clients are cautious and they are right to be cautious, but they are also very competitive because they are looking for every growth opportunity,” Sadoun said. Having already weathered COVID, war and inflation, clients “are used to managing uncertainty. And they know that reducing too much of their spend will actually result in loss of market share, which would be very hard to win back,” he said. Sadoun cited Publicis’ strong new business performance, which included 12 significant recent wins, for boosting first-quarter results. Some of those wins included Coca-Cola Co., Sam’s Club, Uber, Goodyear, LinkedIn, Subway, Kimberly-Clark and Abbott Laboratories. Also read: Tracking the industry’s response to the economy Defending the industry Sadoun also refuted the notion that he has heard from analysts and other experts that the ad industry as a whole is struggling. While Publicis’ revenue rose in the first quarter, its share price declined 16% and continued to weaken in April. “We are actually a growing industry,” Sadoun said. Sadoun blamed the weakening perception of the industry on competitors’ lagging earnings—he cited WPP’s recent warning specifically—rather than the effect of tariffs. “Despite a couple of players that are doing negatively at the moment … not only are we a growing market, but we are in shrinking competitive landscape,” said Sadoun, referencing the upcoming Omnicom-IPG merger that would reduce the number of holding companies in the industry. All four major agency holding companies saw their shares drop during the first quarter, with WPP’s falling the most, by more than 25%. WPP said it was unable to comment by deadline. Also read: 19 ad leaders on the tariffs and economy Data wars Sadoun, whose company recently announced plans to acquire Lotame, a data provider that adds more identity data to Publicis’ current data stack, compared its strategy to WPP’s recent acquisition of InfoSum, a data collaboration company known for its data clean room offering. In WPP’s announcement of the buy, CEO Mark Read and GroupM CEO Brian Lesser called the InfoSum acquisition a move away from identity-based data solutions to a more federated learning model, which focuses on keeping consumer data anonymous and in one location while still providing insights. Sadoun called data clean rooms a “commodity” and claimed that a clean room without the proper data is just an “empty shell.” “Clean rooms need to be powered by identity. If you want to find a new source of growth, if you want to connect the data with the media, and if you want to measure performance,” Sadoun said in the interview. “If you don’t have a connected identity, you can’t do those three things.” “What we have built, and now have accelerated via InfoSum, is a new technology standard for data-driven planning, buying and measurement,” responded GroupM’s Lesser, adding that “legacy identity data is quickly becoming irrelevant, as it is only actionable in a smaller and smaller number of channels. It is not useful in the large social media networks, not useful on most short-form video, and not useful amongst influencers.” “We already have more data than the competition and routinely drive better performance in head-to-head tests,” said Lesser. “This is the future, not the past.” “What is clear is that WPP and [Publicis] have very different strategies,” Sadoun said. “We have invested in data with Epsilon, while they have been divesting with Kantar. And these different strategies have led to very different business outcomes.” In January, WPP announced its plan to sell its stake in Kantar Media, and there have been reports that other parts of Kantar may also be up for sale. Also read: Tracking agency account reviews

Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun blames the industry’s weakening perception on rivals more than tariffs

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