Publicis Groupe has announced a simplified structure and new leadership positions for its media arm, Publicis Media. “We are driven to get to the future first. Publicis Media is a fresh opportunity to simplify our organization, invent more modern approaches to gain efficiency, introduce structures for greater collaboration and effectiveness, and drive new levels of scale and client value,” says Steve King, CEO of Publicis Media, in a press statement.
Publicis Media’s structure will cover Top 20 markets, organized by three regions and led by Tim Jones, regional CEO for the Americas; Iain Jacob, regional CEO for EMEA, and Gerry Boyle, regional CEO for APAC.
At a global management level, Adrian Sayliss will become chief financial officer for Publicis Media, Séverine Charbon will become the chief talent officer for Publicis Media, and John Sheehy will oversee Global Clients for Publicis Media.
Under the new structure, Publicis Media will consolidate its six global agency brands – Starcom, Mediavest, Spark, Zenith, Optimedia and Blue 449 into four global agency brands. Those four global agency brands are as follows:
- Starcom and Zenith will each continue to operate as global agency brands
- Mediavest | Spark will be a third large global agency brand
- Optimedia | Blue 449 will be brought together to form a global challenger brand
Publicis Media’s structure will cover Top 20 markets, organized by three regions and led by Tim Jones, regional CEO for the Americas; Iain Jacob, regional CEO for EMEA, and Gerry Boyle, regional CEO for APAC.
At a global management level, Adrian Sayliss will become chief financial officer for Publicis Media, Séverine Charbon will become the chief talent officer for Publicis Media, and John Sheehy will oversee Global Clients for Publicis Media.
A global brand president will lead each agency with Lisa Donohue as global brand president for Starcom, Vittorio Bonori for Zenith, Brian Terkelsen for Mediavest | Spark, and Andras Vigh for Optimedia | Blue 449. These global brand presidents will be responsible for leading clients, driving growth and enabling best work.
Additionally, there will be four US CEOs with Chris Boothe becoming CEO of Mediavest | Spark, Dave Ehlers of Optimedia | Blue 449, Lou Rossi continuing at Zenith and Lisa Donohue continuing as US CEO for Starcom until a successor is named. All US brand leadership will report into Tim Jones, CEO of Americas.
Dave Penski will become chief investment officer for Publicis Media in the US overseeing all media investment and media vendor partnerships, and will report to Jones. Publicis Media’s US consolidated investment power, estimated at $39 billion and 33 percent market share, makes Publicis Media the largest media buying entity in the US, according to RECMA’s most recent Overall Activity Ranking Report.
Seven centralized ‘Global Practices’ will power Publicis Media to standardize approaches, scale quickly and deliver connectivity, consistency, that span geography, agency brands and clients.
These Global Practices will be:
- Data, Technology & Innovation led by Stephan Beringer
- Content led by Belinda Rowe
- Trading & Buying led by Simon Pardon
- Performance led by Michael Kahn
- Business Development & Communications led by Lauren Hanrahan
- Business Transformation led by Richard Hartell
- Analytics, Research & Insight led by Steve Simpson
In this new model, the agency network names of Starcom Mediavest Group and ZenithOptimedia Group are retired to better enable a flatter organizational structure.
VivaKi capabilities will be fully integrated into Publicis Media’s Global Practice model. Performics will remain Publicis Media’s global performance marketing brand and scale across all agency brands.
The reorganisation of Publicis Groupe’s media capabilities into a Publicis Media hub is part of Publicis Groupe’s transformation efforts previously announced. Publicis Groupe is organized into four solutions hubs: Publicis Communications led by Arthur Sadoun, Publicis Media led by Steve King, Publicis.Sapient led by Alan Herrick and Publicis Health led by Nick Colucci. These four hubs are connected through a chief revenue officer organization, led by Laura Desmond.
“The new Publicis Media imagined by Steve King is fully equipped to fit the future and best serve our clients. A leaner and simpler structure will bring more value to our clients and will further accelerate our growth,” adds Maurice Lévy, chairman & CEO, Publicis Groupe.
