Paris, France – Global advertising agency, Publicis Groupe, has announced that it has acquired CitrusAd, the SaaS platform based in Australia that helps retailers monetize their digital page views. The acquisition aims to create the industry-first global retail media offer based on real identity.
CitrusAd, which has a presence in 22 countries and 6 industries, optimizes brands’ marketing performances directly within retailer websites. It provides technology to more than 70 retailers globally and over 4,000 brands are utilizing their self-served platform.
Under the acquisition, Publicis Groupe will be combining CitrusAd’s onsite expertise with its data-tech platform Epsilon’s offsite retail media offering, both powered by the CORE ID, positioning the agency to lead the new generation of identity-led retail media, with transparent measurement validated by transactions.
Publicis Groupe’s CEO and Chairman Arthur Sadoun commented that they are delighted to welcome the CitrusAd team to Publicis, as their developed technology, coupled with Epsilon’s CORE ID, will enable CPG brands to grow faster and retailers to generate new sources of revenue to win in a platform world.
He added, “It will also give Publicis a strong competitive advantage in a channel that by 2025 should surpass traditional TV spend.”
Publicis Group believes that the merger will also provide its clients with three decisive competitive advantages in e-commerce, namely, growth, customer understanding, and consolidated measurement.
The move will enable its clients to accelerate their growth in this dynamic channel, by increasing conversion rate and maximizing return on ad spends. They will also be able to access superior customer understanding based on first-party data from retailers, equipping them for a cookieless world.
In addition, brands will be able to reach their customers both onsite (in-retailer ecosystems) and offsite (in publisher ecosystems), and measure in real-time the consolidated performance of their media investments, whatever the channel of conversions.
“Retailers and brands are entering uncharted territory as retail media grows and having Publicis supporting CitrusAd in its efforts, I know that our customers will reap the benefit of a century’s worth of media expertise combined with high-quality technology and a team of retail media experts,” said Brad Moran, the co-founder and CEO of CitrusAd.
