Arthur Sadun, that is. Publicis’ CEO proudly declared at the beginning of HoldCo’s presentation to investors on February 3 that the company has “outperformed the industry for six consecutive years, and the gap with our peers continues to widen.”

Still, as of today’s close, Publicis’ stock price was trading at just under 80 euros, well below its 52-week high of 108 euros, but still up from its 52-week low of just over 72 euros. After Holdco announced a healthy organic growth rate of 5.9% for the year, all regions in which the company operates (including mature Europe) showed growth of more than 4%, with operating margins on track at 18.2%. And it showed free cash flow of €2 billion (another reason to think it’s still in the M&A game).

Why would Wall Street penalize these numbers? As Digiday’s Seb Joseph wrote in last week’s Future of Marketing press conference, “This reaction felt less like a verdict on a company and more like a judgment on the category it still falls into. This is ironic, since no company has been more vocal about positioning itself as structurally different from other holdcos than Publicis Groupe.”

lack of creative vision

First, Wall Street doesn’t seem to be buying into Holdco as a platform idea. At least that’s how Jay Patisal, vice president and senior agency analyst at Forrester, sees it.

“Obviously it is [stock] “This decline does not reflect the really strong performance that Publicis has produced as an individual holding company. It reflects investors’ views of the broader category and market,” Patisal said.

The problem of Wall Street’s understanding or lack of understanding of Holdco is even more serious, Patisal argued, and he defended the agency quite passionately.

“I think what this boils down to is that there is a complete lack of creative vision in the investor market for what marketing, advertising agencies and creatives do for businesses,” he said. “Ask a holding company about its strong performance in relation to its competitors, and it shows that they don’t understand the value of what all these companies are producing and the impact it has on their business. They can only look at very simple financial reports within their own business and not look at the broader picture of how agencies create value and how marketing creates value.”

As Patisal said, it’s a matter of losing intangibles. “Intangibles are the product of creative problem solving, such as a company’s reputation, employee culture, and intellectual property,” he said. “This is exactly what agencies do. Clearly, the investor market doesn’t understand the differentiating power of marketing, branding and creativity. They can only judge by what they see.”

Tom Denford, who founded and runs the consultancy ID Comms and works with all holding companies, took a more optimistic approach to the gap between perception and reality for holding companies through the prism of Publicis’ performance.

“There’s a renewed sense of caution now priced in. Investors are still not completely convinced that agencies will change their primary commercial model,” Denford told Digiday. “Investors believe some agencies will reduce their income from traditional fees and increase their income from resales (such as principal-based media buys), but investors believe this may involve new risks that are not yet fully understood.”

The principal raises his head

And there you have it — another disconnect between Holdco and Wall Street, only this time the holding company is a little dishonest. In response to an analyst who asked about the disconnect between clients, where 18% of media spend is done through major media channels, but Publicis’ results do not show that, Mr Sadun claimed that Publicis derives just 1% of the group’s revenue from major media and that it is done in a “fully transparent way to the clients… so they know exactly what is going on”. However, he refused to provide details.

Still, if you ask any consultant or analyst who watches holding companies, they’ll tell you that Publicis, as well as Omnicom and WPP, are expanding their margins into mainstream media for profitability reasons. These consultants will certainly point out that while Holdco may claim to be transparent with its clients about its use of principal, and may even say what media it has purchased, it never tells clients what it bought that media for and how much it is priced at.

To be fair, clients don’t seem to care all that much about using principals as long as they deliver the desired audience and don’t go over budget.

Bottom line: Holdco and Wall Street remain far apart in the value they believe they create for shareholders. It will be interesting to see how Omnicom’s stock price moves when WPP, Dentsu, and even Havas, which just swallowed IPG, report their FY2025 results in the next four weeks. Judging by Publicis’ performance, things may not be pretty.

color code by numbers

Considering the political instability in this country, and indeed the world, there is no shortage of polarizing content on television and social media. How does it affect advertising? It’s been a subject of debate for a long time. Ad tech company Synexus I mean, that’s not a good thing. Based on eye tracking and consumer sentiment research, Synexus research found that ads are placed next to polarizing content.

• generate Attention decreased by 25% (even if visibility is the same)
• Generates more than twice as many negative brand perceptions
• Significantly reduces spontaneous recall (22% vs. 33%) increased recall when compared to ads shown alongside non-polarizing content (36% vs. 47%).

takeoff and landing

• Havas Media Networkin combination with innosianupdated media mission modern media groupHyundai, Kia, and Genesis brands. The scope of the renewal is Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and Latin America (Canvas Worldwide will continue to cover North America).
• Omnicom’s Hearts & Science won weight watcher‘ We provide media planning and buying for nine markets: Western Europe, Australia/New Zealand and Canada.
• horizon nextPart of Horizon Media acquires AOR duties for flooring company empire todayfollowed by a review.
• shenan reedappointed global chief media officer at General Motors IAB Tech LabHe is the first brand executive to serve on the board of directors of .
• Personnel changes: Dentsu promotes James Bailey from CEO of iProspect UK to CEO of Dentsu Media UK and Ireland… media plus hired stephen lee Appointed as the first Head of Data & Analytics from cross mediaHe previously served as Managing Director of Audience and Data Strategy for North America at . Also adopted Media Plus matt desaro As a media group director, essence media com He was a group director… Brainlabs’ Exverus hired christy walowski He will be Group Media Director for the Premier Nutrition Company team. one There she served as Director of Comprehensive Planning.

direct quote

“This test is designed to help us understand what value advertising brings to our users. Everything we do together should reflect that and our advertising principles. That’s why we ask that the material you create:

• Focus on ChatGPT user value, not promotions.
• Keep your message simple and informative, based on facts.
• Avoid language that frames this as a “launch” or broader product announcement. ”

— From OpenAI documentation shared with key agencies when planning to test ads on the ChatGPT platform.

speed reading