Pernod Ricard has hired Publicis Groupe as its U.S. media agency as the owner of Jameson, Absolut and other alcohol brands invests in more automated marketing.

The holding company formed a bespoke unit called Publicis Santé for the account, which resides inside its Performics performance marketing division. Publicis replaces incumbent Wavemaker, part of WPP’s GroupM, which has held the Pernod account since late 2020. MediaLink was the consultant on the competitive review. 

Pernod Ricard spent $392 million on U.S. advertising and promotion in the 12 months ending June 30, 2021, according to the latest estimates from the Ad Age Datacenter.

Publicis will oversee media planning, buying and measurement while assisting Pernod as it invests more in so-called dynamic creative optimization, which refers to the practice of personalizing advertising in real time using data on the audience and environments in which ads are served. Pernod uses its in-house team to develop content for the automated ads. 

Publicis will “be helping identify strategic opportunities for dynamic creative optimization, which we're pursuing robustly across the portfolio,” Kristen Colonna, VP for Pernod’s marketing accelerator team, said in an interview. The unit was formed when Colonna joined Pernod in January 2021 after serving as chief strategy officer at Omnicom’s OMD USA. 

The accelerator team includes about 30 people, plus roughly 15 freelancers who oversee media, in-house creative, ad tech and consumer data strategy. “We have the ability to really unite all of those forces for the best possible consumer experience. And I really think that [Publicis] is the perfect strategic thought leader to help us take that ambition and deliver,” Colonna said.

Wavemaker did not participate in the review, which Colonna described as a “mutual decision,” adding that the agency had come aboard prior to the formation of the accelerator team. “It was time to assess what solutions were out there as our group became frankly more integrated and ambitious about its agenda. And that provoked the review,” she said. Publicis beat two other finalists that Pernod declined to disclose.

“Pernod Ricard has a truly unique set of assets—powerhouse brands, cutting-edge in-house capabilities, a depth of proprietary research, tech, and more," said Sean Peters, Chief Strategy Officer of Publicis Media. "We’re thrilled to leverage our Power of One model to deliver even greater outcomes from their marketing investment.”

The agency move comes as Pernod continues to spend more on media. “Since I've joined and a bit prior, we've come close to tripling our investment in media,” Colonna said, adding that it “is one of the biggest bets we're making as a driver of our growth. So our trajectory is on an upward momentum.”

Pernod has piloted the dynamic creative optimization approach on six of its brands, including Jameson, Absolut and The Glenlivet. 

“It’s really been a combination of personalized messaging and contextual targeting,” Colonna said. “We've used our insights about what we know drives consumer choice to guide those pilots and some hypotheses about how to get more relevant and more personal with consumers. And every test has been a smashing success with lifts in metrics across the board from intent [and] ad recall to landing page visits to click-through rates.”

For Jameson the company has personalized ad messages that include cocktail suggestions based on occasions. For instance, people attending sporting event tailgates get ads customized for that.  

“We're not just plastering the world with ad campaigns, we're delivering unique solutions to consumers based on those signals and their needs,” Colonna said.

Pernod earlier this month reported global organic sales growth of 11% for its most recent quarter.