Publicis Groupe has agreed to acquire retailer media platform CitrusAd for an undisclosed sum, giving the holding company a major play in a global retailer advertising space lifted in the past year by the pandemic-fueled explosion of e-commerce and impending end of third-party cookies for targeting.
Publicis Chairman-CEO Arthur Sadoun said in a statement that the deal gives his company “a strong competitive advantage in a channel that by 2025 should surpass traditional TV spend.”
CitrusAd is an Australian-based software-as-a-service platform that lets brands buy media on and off retailer websites, relying on first-party shopper data from multiple retailers. It operates across 70 retailers in 22 countries and six industries serving more than 4,000 brands concentrated heavily in packaged goods but also encompassing office, apparel and other general merchandise marketers.