“We invested $10 billion in data and technology over the last decade, while our competitors have invested roughly the same amount in share buybacks,” Sadoun said.
Publicis will continue to invest between $100 million and $900 million in 2025 in areas like first-party data, production, digital media, and in technology that “bring new kinds of innovation for our clients to differentiate, and a new source of growth for us,” Sadoun said.
This includes Core AI, a connective AI layer Publicis is building across its tech stack. The firm will invest roughly $20 million over three years to build it out.
“At the moment where AI is knocking at every door … you can’t afford to spend years integrating more of the same for the sake of cost efficiency,” he said. “You need to focus on innovation, on bringing the best talent, on building new go-to-markets, and basically, on reinventing this industry.”
Talent for grabs
As talent at Omnicom and IPG question their futures at the new combined entity, Publicis is betting it can entice a handful of them over with a more secure offer.
It’s already started to work: Since news of the merger broke, Publicis has recruited Geoff Calabrese as chief commercial officer and Matt McNally as global CEO of Publicis Health, both from Omnicom.
“For talent, now you have two very different journeys in this industry: Omnicom vs. us,” Sadoun said. “On one side, and they said it very clearly, you have a series of restructuring and job cuts to bring together more of the same. And on the other, it’s a growth journey.”
Publicis shared during its earnings report that its employees received a 7% raise last year on average and its bonus pool is €540 million, which leads the industry.
Of the 200 staff cuts it made late last year across its digital agencies, Sadoun said: “We have some agencies that are not performing, that we have to rescale, for example, if you lose a client. And then there are people that we believe are not following what we think is important for us, for example, coming back to the office three days a week,” he added.
“When Publicis grows, people know that they will grow. And we believe that, particularly at this moment, culture is super important,” he said.
