Ad giant Publicis Groupe open to acquisitions here

French advertising giant Publicis Groupe is open to acquisitions in India in areas like tech, data and commerce, a top executive told ET.

The advertising behemoth has identified the digital technology business as the next growth area even though media and creative services still account for the majority of its revenue.

The company's digital technology business includes marketing agency Digitas India, digital transformation agency Indigo Consulting, and ecommerce division Publicis Commerce.


"Anything in the new-age space where we feel we have a gap and there is a company that might bring that to the table, we are open to acquiring," said Amaresh Godbole, CEO of Publicis Groupe India's digital technology business.

While clarifying that the company doesn't have specific acquisition targets currently, he said that the companies doing work in commerce and the direct-to-consumer (D2C) space are potential acquisition targets.

"Data, technology and commerce have driven extreme growth for Publicis globally, and it also goes back to some of the acquisitions that the group made. It acquired SapientNitro in tech, Epsilon in data, Profitero, and CitrusAd in commerce," he noted.

According to Godbole, FY23 was a watershed year for the digital technology business. Digitas India posted the best top-line and bottom-line results to date, Indigo Consulting turned around and is on track to deliver double-digit growth, while Publicis Commerce grew 5X on a strong base.

While chief marketing officers provide most of the funds for traditional advertising firms, chief information officers and chief commercial officers do the same for Publicis Group's digital technology business, Godbole said.

"Unlike traditional advertising, which is looked at as a cost item, the work that we do for clients is looked at as a channel investment," he said, adding that the ticket size of tech projects tends to be bigger, and the revenue per headcount is much higher.

Godbole also pointed out that Publicis was one of the first to invest in artificial intelligence (AI) with Marcel in partnership with Microsoft.