Data is at the center of Publicis’ value with clients, says Gautier Picquet

It’s been a standout year for Publicis, winning high-profile accounts — including the likes of Mars, Coca-Cola, Subway, Pfizer and Hershey.

Gautier Picquet, the CEO of Publicis Connected Media, says that long-standing focus on data is paying off. In a conversation with The Current Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Paterik, he also discusses how economic uncertainty is changing the way brands approach advertising and what marketing transformation looks like in France right now.

How would you describe the media landscape in France? Are there nuances to its growth trajectory compared to other countries in Europe?

In France, we love to say that we are particular. So clearly, I would say we are in the resilience area. We are maybe not the fastest-growing country in Europe, but there is a fantastic year of transformation and revolution.

In the past, France was a little bit too concentrated on its own territory. And now we are moving fast. There’s a lot of digital growth. That drives the market because it drives the growth to our clients. It’s a big move of transformation and cultural revolution with digital and commerce, etc. And at the same time, we need to respect French laws and the fragmented but fantastic media landscape we have in France.

Publicis embraced data early and with a lot of enthusiasm. How has that paid off?

You’re right, we embraced it thanks to the vision of our chairman and CEO, Arthur Sadoun. In 2019, we acquired Epsilon. It was clearly a huge transformation. And with Sapient, we bring the technology part.

Clearly, we’ve put data for a long time as the center of our proposition to our clients. Since the beginning, what’s most important for us is to drive the growth of our clients and clearly to protect their future.

Now, after years of integration, we are able to connect creativity, media and tech through the data.

Data is the best thing for today, but also how we will prepare thanks to the tech and especially AI.

Publicis has won a number of accounts recently. Do you think the media side of the business plays a role in that front end to bringing clients in the door, or are you coming in later?

At Publicis, we say it’s a combination of different parts. We need the tech, and thanks to Sapient, this is a business transformation. We need media, we need data and we absolutely need creativity.

Our job is to provide you emotion, our job is to convince you. Our job is to invent an image. It’s a vision. Publicis clearly is able to serve our clients for the expectations of today, but also to prepare for the future of marketing transformation.

This has been a year of economic uncertainty globally. You work with a lot of brands. How is it changing the way they approach advertising?

Most important is always to stay close to our clients. You always need to be near them, to listen to them, to understand what is their challenge and what are their barriers. In this year of uncertainty, we need to understand how to balance the short term and the long term.

So what is important is clearly to be much closer to our clients. Our boss loves to say it’s more than friends, it’s a client. I love this sentence because yes, we can have friends, but if we are able to develop a fantastic relationship with a client, it is like a friend. We need to understand how we move with them and find the right balance.

You might check in with your friend once a month, but your client, you can’t go that long.

Every day, every day. Keep your client close to you every day, keep the doctor away.

Several years ago, CMOs were really focused on social media, growing their brands through that space, and programmatic was maybe a nice to have. Today, would you call it a nice to have or a need to know?

Today what is important is connecting all the dots. This is exactly the DNA of Publicis Connected Media. We need to learn to break all silos. For marketers, what is important is to connect everything: influencer, creator, commerce, CRM, media, paid, earned, shared and owned.

It’s important to be sure we have a holistic vision. It’s no longer a nice to have. It’s more battery to connect everything. We have to be sure we can create the value of this connection and after always help the clients achieve their goals.