END OF AN ERA
AFTER YEARS of advertising industry speculation, the world’s third largest marketing communications business, Paris-based Publicis Groupe, has announced the successor to 75-year-old chief executive Maurice Levy. Creative director Arthur Sadoun, 45, is taking over, marking the end of an era. Maurice Levy was in charge for 30 years, during which time the Publicis headcount rose from 3,000 to 80,000.
Maurice became only the second person to lead Publicis when he was appointed in 1987, stepping up from IT director after 16 years. He set about boosting the expansion drive started by company founder Marcel Bluestein-Blanchet.
One year into the role, Maurice risked his life for the company when fire broke out in its Champs-Élysées head office. He rushed into the burning building to save precious magnetic tapes that held all of the business records.
This was an early act of unswerving loyalty to Publicis and despite flames ripping through the building on a Thursday, Maurice’s heroism meant that it could be operational again after the weekend.
Under his stewardship, ever-active Publicis acquired more than 60 advertising production, media buying and marketing agencies around the world in just a decade.
BIG NAMES
By now, subsidiaries include big name operators such as Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi, Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Starcom USA. It has offices in over 100 countries. Last recorded annual revenue was over $10 billion.
The 2015 takeover of global marketing and technology services provider Sapient Corporation created the world’s largest digital network. There has been further diversification through specialist communications group Publicis Healthcare, comprising 12 agency brands and more than 60 offices.
There was one that escaped the Publicis clutches, however. The proposed merger with the Omnicom Group of New York – and just about everywhere else – would have given birth to advertising’s number one by revenue. Nine months of intense negotiations led to nothing and the much-anticipated alliance collapsed in 2014.
Problems had centred on complex tax structures, divergent corporate cultures and tensions between Maurice and his Omnicom counterpart. The merger would have been worth $35 billion.
DIGITAL LEADER
Retirement was already on Maurice’s agenda. Disappointed that the Omnicom deal crumpled, he pushed back his exit, not wishing to leave Publicis in the shadow of failure. Instead, he concentrated on leading the business towards digital transformation. As part of the strategy, he paid $3.7 billion for digital trailblazer Sapient.
That was instrumental in the conclusion that withdrawal could be planned in the knowledge that all was well at Publicis and the future had been safeguarded.
Along the way, Maurice, Moroccan born, New Jersey educated, became a Commander of the French Legion of Honour, was awarded the distinguished service medal of the International Advertising Association and proclaimed leader of the decade at the Grand Prix Des Agencies De L’Annee.
In 2008 Maurice was bestowed with an international leadership award by the Anti-Defamation League, recognising his continued stance against intolerance and injustice.
But Publicis has been his life’s work. Today’s group has a market capitalisation in excess of $14.7 billion and is unrecognisable from the company that Maurice took over in 1987. It is a gigantic act for new boss Arthur Sadoun to follow.
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