Welcome to Ad Age Datacenter Weekly, our data-obsessed newsletter for marketing and media professionals.

Publicis Groupe’s very good 2022—and surprising forecast for 2023

“Publicis Groupe posted double-digit revenue growth for the second consecutive year and predicted single-digit growth for 2023, which would exceed analysts' expectations,” Ad Age’s Alexandra Jardine reports.

The details: “In 2022, net revenue of 12,572 million euros was up almost 20% from 2021. Despite the uncertain economy, the holding company reported that organic revenue—which strips out the impact of acquisitions, divestitures and currency fluctuations—was up 10.1%, ahead of analyst expectations and Publicis’ own forecast calling for 8.5% growth. In the fourth quarter, Publicis’ net revenue jumped by 18% to 3,462 million euros, and organic revenue increased by 9.4%.”

Essential context: Arthur Sadoun, Publicis CEO and chairman, told Jardine that the fourth quarter growth came down to two factors: the “even better than expected” performance of its Epsilon and Sapient divisions, and the fact that clients had not cut their budgets significantly, as per some predictions. “We have not seen a major change in our client behavior,” he said. For 2023, Jardine adds, “The Groupe is currently predicting organic growth of 3% to 5%. That is well above the flat predictions currently given by analysts due to the macroeconomic environment, said Sadoun.”

Keep reading here.

The NFL’s top TV advertisers leading up to the Super Bowl

According to TV ad measurement firm iSpot.tv, these were the top 10 brands advertising on TV during the 2023 NFL Playoffs leading up to the Super Bowl, as ranked by estimated national TV ad spend:

1. Verizon (est. $64.7 million)
2. Progressive (est. $45.1 million)
3. Geico (est. $34.9 million)
4. Chevrolet (est. $33.7 million)
5. State Farm (est. $29.9 million)
6. TurboTax (est. $29.1 million)
7. Apple iPhone (est. $27.6 million)
8. Hyundai (est. $25.9 million)
9. GMC (est. $24.8 million)
10. T-Mobile (est. $24.7 million)

Meta trims its ad budget

Facebook parent Meta Platforms cut worldwide ad spending by 11% to $2.65 billion in 2022, the company’s first-ever decline in ad spending, according to Ad Age Datacenter’s Bradley Johnson, who traces spending back to Facebook’s early days in 2009.

The spending cut came as Meta recorded its first-ever drop in annual revenue.

Keep reading here.

Macroeconomic news and data in a nutshell

• “Jobless claims unexpectedly drop to lowest level in 9 months,” per Fox Business.

• “US Firms Scale Back Hiring Amid Inclement Weather, ADP Data Show,” from Bloomberg News.

• “Fed hikes rates by 0.25 percentage points, with inflation easing,” The Washington Post reports.

• “Forget Pandemic Puppies. Meet the Inflation Chicken,” from The New York Times.

• “The U.S. Consumer Is Starting to Freak Out,” from The Wall Street Journal.

Don’t miss: “Layoffs and budget cuts—tracking economic moves and news,” Ad Age’s continually updated blog covering how the marketing industry is bracing for a recession.

The pressure to buy into retail media networks (RMNs)

“Retail media networks might be all the rage for retailers, yet brands buying the media aren’t quite as eager as the retailers selling it,” Ad Age’s Adrianne Pasquarelli reports. “A new report from the Association of National Advertisers analyzes the growing retail media trend. The report, which surveyed 138 ANA members, 80 of whom use retail media networks, over the summer, called advertisers ‘reluctant buyers’ who feel forced into a ‘have to buy’ situation when they invest their budgets with retail media.”

The details: “Some 88% of those surveyed said they are ‘somewhat or heavily influenced” by retailers to advertise on their networks,” Pasquarelli notes. “In addition, advertisers’ spending in retail media comes at the expense of budgets for shopper marketing, brand marketing and trade spending, the report found.”

Essential context: “Ad revenue from retail media is expected to reach $52 billion this year and $61 billion in 2024, the ANA said, citing data from eMarketer,” Pasquarelli adds.

Keep reading here.

Ad Age Best Places to Work 2023

In his introduction to Ad Age’s Best Places to Work 2023 package, Ad Age Datacenter’s Bradley Johnson writes,

The best practices at the Best Places to Work turn out to be pretty straightforward:

Fair pay. Solid benefits.

Recruit and retain a diverse workforce. Keep staffing levels adequate so team members and teams can do their best work.

Provide good training and keep employees in the loop on how the business is doing. Tilt work-life balance a bit more toward life.

Easy to say—and hard to do. Ad Age Best Places to Work 2023 honors 50 companies for a job well done last year amid the challenges of a tight talent pool, uncertain economy and ongoing effects of the pandemic.

Dive into the full package here.

Just briefly

• “GoodRx to be barred from sharing health data for ads under proposed FTC settlement,” per CNBC.

• “Black-owned media ad inventory will be available in new programmatic marketplace,” from Ad Age.

• “8 Strategies for Chief Data Officers to Create—and Demonstrate—Value,” from the Harvard Business Review.

• “Microsoft is chill with employees using ChatGPT—just don’t share ‘sensitive data’ with it,” Business Insider reports.

+ ICYMI: “Fear of ChatGPT, plus the top 5 video creators for younger audiences: Datacenter Weekly,” the Jan. 27 edition of Ad Age Datacenter Weekly.

The Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2022 report

“For the first time, the world’s two biggest advertisers are internet companies—one from the U.S., the other from China,” Ad Age Datacenter’s Bradley Johnson writes in the introduction to the Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2022 report. (Find out which companies he’s referring to here.) There’s a lot to WLA 2022, but the Datacenter team has come up with a bunch of entry points to help you begin your own deep dive:

• “WLA 2022—What’s inside”
• “WLA 2022—10 key stats”
• “WLA 2022—Category, region and country”
• “WLA 2022—25 biggest advertisers, ranked”
• “WLA 2022—Ad spending growth over time”
• “WLA 2022—Cautious growth as a recession may loom”
• “WLA 2022—Big spending gains and cut”

The newsletter is brought to you by Ad Age Datacenter, the industry’s most authoritative source of competitive intel and home to the Ad Age Leading National Advertisers, the Ad Age Agency Report: World’s Biggest Agency Companies and other exclusive data-driven reports. Access or subscribe to Ad Age Datacenter at AdAge.com/Datacenter.

Ad Age Datacenter is Kevin Brown, Bradley Johnson and Joy R. Lee.