Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Publicis Groupe S.A.
STORYBOARD- Arthur Sadoun-Chairman & CEO,Publicis Groupe
We speak to Arthur Sadoun-Chairman & CEO,Publicis Groupe.
About Arthur Sadoun
In a March 2025 interview, Sadoun discussed the advertising industry's shift toward artificial intelligence and data, stating that "our biggest challenge is to take all these people into this new era of advertising dominated by artificial intelligence, by data where once again these great creative ideas remain at the heart but everything around these ideas has changed." He also described advertising as a "people business" and noted that the industry operates in a state of "permanent uncertainty," requiring agility and a clear compass. In a June 2020 message to Publicis employees, Sadoun addressed the killing of George Floyd and subsequent protests, saying "this is bigger and deeper than we think" and that "actions are more important than words." He called for the company to "imagine, design and execute new ways for Publicis to fight racism and create more opportunities for the black community." In a 2013 interview, Sadoun described the advertising business as one where "you are always two phone calls away from disaster," adding that he believes communicators are "the worst advisors for politicians."
Transcript (18 segments)
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Host0:17
Publicis is Maurice Lévy. Despite leaving the CEO position, he is still a part of the company as chairman of the supervisory board, which represents the founding family. In our last interview, he spoke about his retirement and his vision for India in the coming two years. Now, you announced that you're going to retire in May 2017. Tell me, between now and May 2017, what would you like to see change here, especially in India? Specifically to India...
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Maurice Lévy0:43
India has already changed quite markedly. If you compare to my last trip in December 2013, there is a lot of things which have changed and growth is back. So what I would like to see changing is a bit less of red tape. It is really one of the diseases of India which is holding India back. If you could be less bureaucratic, this would work beautifully. Infrastructure is something on which India needs to invest. It is abnormal to be locked in traffic jams. If you look at the country, there are so many assets that you have that if you can sustain that kind of growth, invest in housing, you will have a lot of millions of people, 100 million people out of poverty and taken to middle class, and that would be the dream I would like to see happening because you are investing in education, you are investing in many areas. So if you do these two or three things, India would be...
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Host2:00
Hello and welcome to a special episode of Storyboard. A couple of years ago I interviewed Maurice Lévy when he came to India and I badgered him on when he would retire and he told me he would do so in May 2017. It's not May 2017, it's not June 2017, but Maurice Lévy kept his word. And today we have an exclusive conversation with Maurice's successor. It's a fantastic conversation and with every sort of sign that I see, he's very much Maurice Lévy. Thank you so much for talking to us. Thanks to you. Bonjour. So to begin with, where is the traditional agency business headed?
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Arthur Sadoun2:39
If you want to understand the traditional business of our industry, you need to understand where our client sits at the moment. And wherever you are in the world, maybe a bit less in India but still, they are facing the same problem: low growth, need for efficiencies, and a huge problem of brand trust. And all of them need to transform their marketing and their business model in order to perform again. So our industry now is looking for the best way to be their partner in their transformation. And I want to believe that as Publicis, we have a unique positioning to do it.
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Host3:17
No part of the problem definition is companies are looking for lower costs everywhere, whatever cost head. And then there's pressure from procurement on the old agency business. How do you deal with that?
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Arthur Sadoun3:31
I think that if we think that this is going to stop, we are full of it. It will continue. The pressure on cost is coming for a lot of reasons and we have to take it as a given. The big question then becomes how can we raise sales and make sure that we increase the top line while taking into account the fact that they need to find these kinds of efficiencies. And here again, I think that technology and the way we can transform marketing on one side and transform the business model of our clients on the other, and do that in an interconnected way, is the best way for our industry to continue to have a value.
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Host4:07
Interconnected brings up power of one. You're speaking about power of one. You're also speaking about the need for speed. You're saying speed is going to be one of the most important facets of this business in the future. Aren't these two in contradiction to each other?
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Arthur Sadoun4:21
No, they are not. Power of one and speed are not in contradiction. Let me spend a second on the power of one because it's a very important notion. What is important to note today is that the brand is the experience and the experience is the brand. Any consumer experience is what defines the way we need to work with our clients. So you can't afford to work in silos anymore. You need to make sure that creative, media, and technology work together. And this is what we have done with the power of one. We have erased all our silos to make sure that we can come with an end-to-end solution to each of our clients. Speed is actually a way of accelerating this process. And this is what I'm trying to bring. We know that the power of one is the right formula for our clients and it's starting to get momentum. Then the question becomes how can we scale it fast in order to address the challenge of our clients.
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Host5:17
No, but almost. But like we keep talking about the example of a large ship, you know, to turn it takes time and so on. So that's how I visualize power of one. It takes time to turn or navigate. So how are you seeing that differently? Why are you saying you will be fast when my view is that by definition it perhaps can't be fast?
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Arthur Sadoun5:33
First of all, it will take time. I'm not saying the opposite. You need to go fast if you want to accelerate, and this is exactly what we're going to do, but it will take time. My feeling on that is very simple. If we want to transform Publicis, we need to transform the relationship we're having with our clients, and we need to make sure that we bring them big ideas that are fostered by the alchemy of creativity, technology, and media. And to do that, wherever we transform the relationship with one client, we are adding and accelerating the transformation of our own group. It's by transforming the relationship that we will transform our group.
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Host6:14
One of the words you've been using frequently is technology. You keep saying technology. Now just explain to me why technology is not a word you're throwing around. How we're going to see it manifest in Publicis group of the future.
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Arthur Sadoun6:26
First of all, I think that technology, yes we use the word a lot, but if there is one communication group in the world that has been really investing seriously in technology, it is Publicis group. It was true with Digitas, with Razorfish, with Rosetta, and it's even truer now with Sapient. Why is technology so important? At the end of the day, it is through the alchemy of creativity and technology that we can bring the level of transformation our clients are looking for. It is by making sure that through data and through platform we're bringing big ideas that will be right and working for each of our clients, that they will actually bring value to the consumer journey. And it is through our technological expertise that we will digitally transform their business model.
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Host7:12
Yeah, you know all this has a cost. And we spoke right at the beginning of this interview how there's a pressure on costs from the client side. So how do you reconcile now, for example, when you're talking technology, digital, social, and so on, they all have new talent, new cost, new skill sets on the people front. So how do you reconcile that your increase cost with a client who's not willing to pay more?
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Arthur Sadoun7:36
The question there is how big is the buyer, and how can we make sure that we will not just give them more for less but we actually partner in their overall transformation instead of being only a communication partner. So obviously, on our core business, we will have to reduce our fees and find a way to be more efficient. But then we can increase our relationship and make sure that the service we're bringing is more integrated, with a scale that is bigger than the one we were used to having.
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Host8:06
So now define for me, use the phrase core business. What is the core business? What is it today and tell me what the core business will be 5 years from now.
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Arthur Sadoun8:14
The way I see Publicis is that we have to stand for one thing which is transformation. It's a word that is very used, but if you look at what we have in terms of assets and talent, we are the only group in the world that can really tend for the transformation of our clients. Why? You won't find another company in the world that is credible at scale on one side the CMO and on the other the CIO. We are the only company that can work with both credibly and actually bring the right level of transformation to their company, thanks to creativity and technology. This is what makes us unique and this is what I think will make the difference in the year to come.
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Host8:58
Now, while we talk about technology, we can't not talk about Facebook and Google. So what is your relationship with Facebook and Google? Is it friends, is it enemies, a mixture, or nothing new that you want to create?
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Arthur Sadoun9:11
No, they are both actually. They are both and this is the problem of our world. You know, our direct competition which are the holding companies are sometime indirect and sometime direct competition like management consulting or IT. They are at the same time competitors and sometime partners. And it's true for Facebook or Google. They are great partners in a lot of ways and there is a lot of things we should do with them. But at the same time, they are having a kind of thought leadership on our client that could be competitive with what we bring. They can go to our talent as we do, and we know that the war for talent is obviously key. So we have to find this new way of working in this new world where you can be sometime partner, sometime competitor, as long as it is in the interest of the client. It's fine.