Tag: Publicis Groupe

Singapore – Global advertising agency and public relations company Publicis Groupe in SEA has appointed Sujith Rao, former managing director of Reprise Digital, to be its new managing director of Publicis Commerce. This move aims to accelerate the Groupe’s commerce offering in the region and further unlock client growth. 

In his new role, Rao, who will be based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, will be working with Publicis Groupe’s network of agencies and practice areas across SEA. He will also be orchestrating a deeper connection between the Groupe’s commerce strategy and solutions with its creative, media, performance, and production capabilities, delivering data-driven end-to-end consumer journeys that are optimised towards sales and business growth for the clients. Rao will be reporting to Ian Loon, who recently expanded his duties as chief transformation officer for Publicis Groupe SEA.

Aside from his previous role at Reprise Digital, Rao also held roles at Travelguru.com, Cbazarr.com, and IPG Mediabrands. He brings a wealth of experience with a proven track record of growing new revenue streams through the launch of innovative products and solutions, rooted in data and analytics. 

Commenting on his appointment, Rao said, “I am excited and honoured by the opportunity to work across multiple markets, brands, and capabilities, driving the evolution of Publicis Groupe’s commerce offering in Southeast Asia. Our global investments, locally relevant solutions, and the Groupe’s Power of One ethos are the perfect framework for crafting bespoke digital commerce innovations, and I am ready to get started on this journey with our clients.”

Meanwhile, Loon shared, “We are delighted to have Sujith captain and grow our highly ambitious Publicis Commerce journey. His credentials as a solutions architect, problem solver, and people connector will enable the Groupe’s ongoing transformation agenda while delivering innovative commerce solutions that marry brand building and conversion for our clients across the region.”

Singapore – Global advertising company Publicis Groupe in Singapore has promoted Joanne Theseira, the current managing director of Publicis Communications, to be its new CEO of Publicis Communications in Singapore, where she will take on executive responsibility for Leo Burnett, Publicis Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi, Prodigious, and MSL. 

In this new role, Theseira will also champion the continued development of clear and ownable client, business, and employee positionings for the agencies under her stewardship. She will ensure that they are evolving in line with clients’ needs and reflective of the way consumers are engaging with brands today.

Additionally, Theseira will take on the newly created role of chief growth officer for Publicis Groupe SEA, and will report to Amrita Randhawa, CEO of Publicis Groupe Singapore and Southeast Asia. She will be leading Power of One accounts expansion, powering new business development, and managing the profile of Publicis Groupe in SEA. Theseira will also work closely with the Publicis Groupe SEA market CEOs and Practice leadership across APAC to deliver on the growth agenda.

Speaking about her appointment, Theseira shared that she believes that a strong and positive talent-centred culture is integral to the business of creativity, and this opportunity to hone and harness their different creative agencies is one that only Publicis Groupe can offer.

“Driving growth across Southeast Asia gives me an incredible canvas to scale and shape the future of our agency offerings and make a meaningful impact on our industry and our clients. I’m excited to get started,” she said.

Meanwhile, Randhawa said that Theseira’s passion for the creative business is addictive, and the clarity of her vision for their creative communications agencies and her determination to make the Groupe the fastest growing in the market is energising and impressive. 

“Joanne has demonstrated a strong capability to build high-performing teams and attract both clients and outstanding talent into the Groupe which makes her uniquely qualified to make an impact in this role,” she added.

Singapore – Publicis Groupe in Asia-Pacific has announced that it has appointed Suzy Goulding as the new head of sustainability for Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa for MSL Group. She will lead the strategy development and steer sustainability efforts for clients handled under MSL and support an integrated approach to ESG-related endeavours.

Goulding brings her expertise in strategic communications, sustainability, and social impact from her previous work at MullenLowe salt, where she was the Asia Pacific managing director for both the strategic communications agency and its specialist practice, MullenLowe Sustainability, which she launched three years ago. 

She has focused the past six years of her career at MullenLowe salt on expanding her expertise in sustainability and social impact, working with brands and clients across APAC and MEA. Prior to her work at MullenLowe salt, she established and managed the agency, Umami Collective, providing expertise in corporate communications, technology PR, thought leadership, and more to produce meaningful changes both within and outside of businesses.

Margaret Key, CEO for APAC and MEA at MSL said, “Suzy will be a fantastic addition to our team as our Head of Sustainability. As seen with the launch of Salterbaxter in Australia, we are driving a differentiated, compelling approach to ESG that leverages technical expertise and strategic communications. Suzy is the ideal leader to drive this novel approach to ESG on behalf of clients across Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.”

Meanwhile, speaking on her new role, Goulding said, “I am delighted to be joining MSL at a time when the need for brands and organisations to drive sustainable change could not be more critical. I believe that most companies want to become better, but lack the knowledge and confidence to take meaningful and impactful action.” 

She added, “I’m looking forward to working with Margaret and her teams across APAC and MEA to help clients make sustainable changes with conviction and communicate their actions in a way that is honest, transparent, and credible.”

Singapore – Global financial services company Standard Chartered has awarded to Publicis Groupe its global creative mandate, ending TBWA\’s 18-year streak of handling said account.

The global account will be led out of the Singapore office. Through the win, Publicis Groupe will be working on Standard Chartered’s wide-ranging communications mandate covering creative, digital and production services.

Claire Dixon, group head of corporate affairs, brand and marketing at Standard Chartered, said, “Following a rigorous pitch process, we have made the decision to award the mandate to Publicis Groupe. We are confident that they will be the right partner to take our narrative to the next level, by pushing our creative and digital boundaries.”

She also added, “We are thankful to TBWA\ for their support during the past 18 years to bring Standard Chartered’s brand to where it is today.”

Meanwhile, Amrita Randhawa, CEO for Publicis Groupe Singapore and Southeast Asia, commented, “It’s refreshing to be given the opportunity to work with a brand with such a purposeful belief, which was so clearly reflected in all the people that we met through this process.” 

She added, “It’s a privilege to be shaping a global brand of this stature and ambition out of Singapore and I could not be prouder of the team behind this win – they are absolute champions. We look forward to bringing the best of Publicis Groupe to bear on the business.”

The recent win comes after Publicis Groupe’s consolidation of the Singapore Tourism Board business in January 2022, and its spate of wins this year that includes Singtel in Singapore, L’Oréal in Southeast Asia and PepsiCo in APAC.

Australia – Global advertising agency and public relations company Publicis Groupe in ANZ has appointed Jason Tonelli, the current CEO of digital agency Razorfish, to be its new CEO of ROI agency Zenith.

Tonelli will be continuing to lead Razorfish until the end of the year while his replacement is recruited. He will be moving into his new position at Zenith in January 2023.

In other roles at the Groupe, Tonelli was previously Publicis Media ANZ’s chief digital and technology officer, and executive director of technology, digital and content at Starcom Australia. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Audited Media Association of Australia.

Commenting on his appointment, Tonelli said that with a heritage of strong leadership and talented specialists, he could not be more honoured to lead Zenith and succeed Nickie Scriven, who has done an amazing job progressing the agency to where it is today. 

“The opportunity ahead in what we can do for clients is enormous. Working across the full spectrum of media communications, Zenith delivers insights that lie at the intersection of consumer, category, and brand – attributing every budget to stronger business outcomes, and more personal brand experiences,” he added.

Meanwhile, Michael Rebelo, Publicis Groupe’s CEO for ANZ, shared that Tonelli’s depth of experience in media, data, technology and creative solutions has made him a key member of their executive leadership team, and most recently, he relaunched Razorfish to position the business as a progressive digital marketing transformation agency, while as chief product officer, he strengthened their agencies’ capabilities in the core areas of commerce and attention. 

“Over the past ten years and in the various roles, Jason has held across the Groupe, he has shown himself to be a successful and strategic leader focused on building a strong culture and driving business outcomes for clients – making him perfectly placed to take Zenith to its exciting next stage of growth,” said Rebelo.

Just recently, Publicis Groupe has launched its sustainability consultancy ‘Salterbaxter’ in Australia. This offers solutions to help organisations in the country turn their sustainability promises into progress.

Australia – Global advertising agency and public relations company Publicis Groupe has launched its sustainability consultancy ‘Salterbaxter’ in Australia. This offers solutions to help organisations in the country turn their sustainability promises into progress.

Salterbaxter provides end-to-end sustainability consultancy services, from materiality assessments, ambition modelling, goal-setting, and strategy development, to implementation roadmaps, creative activations, communications, and reporting. 

The Australia in-market team will be led by Skye Lambley, CEO of Herd MSL. Its local team including Stuart Wragg, Karen Dunnicliff, and business transformation consultant, Rebecca Zemunik, will be working closely with the global Salterbaxter advisory team through the Centre of Excellence and Salterbaxter’s global managing director, Kathleen Enright, to deliver best-in-class work.

Michael Rebelo, Publicis Groupe’s CEO for ANZ, commented that he is excited about the opportunity to help organisations drive meaningful progress and accelerate their sustainability journey.

“Although ANZ businesses are investing heavily in sustainability strategies, if they don’t bring credibility and creativity together from the outset, they won’t create the level of engagement needed to drive action, deliver on their targets and build reputation and revenue. That’s why it’s important to have Salterbaxter in the market,” said Rebelo.

Meanwhile, Lambley noted, “Our ability to leverage deep consulting expertise from world leaders in this space, coupled with local specialists, is exactly what Australian businesses need.”

Additionally, Salterbaxter Australia will bring to market a new data tool, ProgressPoint, that pinpoints exactly where a business needs to focus its time and investment to accelerate progress toward a more sustainable future and unlock growth and ROI from sustainability. This new tool also offers an understanding and measurement of sustainability performance, proactivity, and reputation, as well as the interplay between them.

Publicis Groupe said that there are plans to bring the Salterbaxter sustainability offering to other markets across APAC and the Middle East.

Australia – Global advertising agency and public relations company Publicis Groupe has announced new senior leadership elevations. The appointees are Jason Williams, the new head of creative excellence at Publicis Groupe for APAC & MEA, and Andy Fergusson, the new national executive creative director at Leo Burnett Australia.

This shift recognises Williams’ contribution to Leo Burnett Australia over the past 15 years, where he is currently chief creative officer. In his new role, Williams will be reporting to Natalie Lam, chief creative officer at Publicis Groupe for APAC & MEA. He will be focusing on elevating the creative output of the company’s clients, and will continue to collaborate with Publicis Groupe Australia, bolstering the creative firepower of each market in APAC & MEA by connecting creatives, technology, media, and data experts to global brands and opportunities. 

Together with a regional team led by Lam, Williams will also contribute to initiatives that connect, inspire, and strengthen the creative community, from monthly creative sessions to mentoring programmes and inspiration sessions.

Commenting on his elevation, Williams said, “When Natalie first mentioned the possibility of moving into a role that champions creative bravery and business changing ideas across 60+ agency brands, it seemed too good to be true. The chance to unite the Groupe’s most ambitious clients with a squad of creatives, future-thinkers and makers, while still staying connected to the Leo Burnett family – it’s a dream role for me.”

Lam also commented, “Jason is a creative heavyweight in Australia and the global Leo Burnett network, now we are lucky to share his creative firepower with all of Publicis Groupe APAC & MEA and with many more markets, clients and teams. I’m thrilled to have the chance to partner with him to deliver even stronger business impact and creative excellence, as well as shape the overall creative vision for Publicis Groupe to be the best modern creative powerhouse with many exciting initiatives for a connected community of 4,000+ creatives,” says Lam.

Meanwhile, Fergusson will now be responsible for the creative product across Sydney and Melbourne. He will now be working closely with Emma Montgomery, CEO at Leo Burnett Australia, and Catherine King, chief strategy officer at Leo Burnett Australia to lead the agency’s growth.

Fegusson first joined Leo Burnett Sydney in 2020 and has been instrumental in the agency’s new business and creative wins, including the launch of ‘Feel New’ for Destination NSW and the recent Grand Prix-winning Suncorp campaign, ‘One House to Save Many’. Prior to joining Leo Burnett Sydney, he has led accounts across the US, Asia, and Australia during a 10-year stint at Droga5. 

On his elevation, Fergusson commented, “I’m beyond excited about the opportunity to help shape the future of Leo Burnett in Australia, alongside Emma and Cath. We have such great creative momentum right now across both offices. And with a bunch of truly ambitious clients, and a really strong talent pool, I think we are well placed to continue that momentum.” 

He added, “Jason leaves us with a strong culture of creative consistency, and I look forward to building on that. We wish him nothing but the best as he steps up to bigger and better things in the Groupe.”

Meanwhile, Montgomery noted, “Jason has been foundational to the creative success of Leo Burnett in Australia and we are thrilled to see this success recognised in this new role. We are also delighted to have Andy expand his creative leadership to take on the National ECD role. Andy’s progressive thinking and generous style, partnered with our borderless creative team, set the scene for an exciting next chapter.”

Paris, France – In a bid to further educate its clients about the inner workings of the metaverse and Web3 technology, global advertising agency company Publicis Groupe has unveiled its new avatar interface named Leon, and appointed him as its chief metaverse officer.

Leon, who resembles the lion evident in the Publicis logo, was unveiled at this year’s Viva Technology. The appointment of Leon builds on the expansive set of existing capabilities, skillsets and talent that currently resides within Publicis Groupe, with a focus on deep Web3 expertise in both blockchain use cases – inclusive of NFTs, smart contracts and decentralised applications – as well as metaversal technologies like VR/AR and artificial intelligence.

During the announcement video, Leon showcased its expertise as a Web3 native, and he has strong grounding across communication disciplines and is a metaverse expert.

Arthur Sadoun, chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe, said, “The metaverse isn’t a destination, it’s a real-time learning moment for all. It requires interrogation, education and experimentation. We are committed to being on that journey with our clients, to help them understand what it means for their business and to bring them the existing Web3 capabilities in the Groupe across data, media and technology. Leon embodies that as an avatar and will help our clients navigate this new channel and progress every step of the way.”

Meanwhile, Marco Venturelli, chief creative officer of Publicis France, commented, “The metaverse is an endless, unknown territory to explore with creativity. To truly innovate we have to experiment and learn as we go. Leon’s mission is to motivate all of us to be brave and progressive; because the earlier we move, the further we can go.”

Agathe Bousquet, president of Publicis Groupe in France, said, “We want to support our clients, innovate with them and showcase the best achievements. In terms of the metaverse our clients have questions about creative, production, rights, commitments… We needed an expert to answer that. That will be Leon’s role.”

Bangkok, Thailand – Publicis Groupe Thailand is moving its leadership structure to a co-CEO one, with current CEO Songkran Sethesompobe joined by Sorada Sonprasit, currently CEO of Brilliant & Million, and Paruj Daorai, currently Managing Director of Digitas Thailand.

The move to a co-CEO structure in the market is in line with the scale of the Groupe’s business in Thailand, aligned with the ambition in the coming years to make Thailand a real focus for Groupe transformation and acceleration, as well as representative of the potential in Southeast Asia of Thailand as a market.

Both Sorada and Paruj will report to Amrita Randhawa, CEO of Publicis Groupe, Singapore & Southeast Asia. The appointment is effective 1 June with the outgoing CEO overlapping for a smooth transition till the end of June. 

Sonprasit started Brilliant & Million after an illustrious career working with companies like American Express and Citibank. Always ahead of her time, she saw a huge opportunity for digital in 2007 and started Brilliant & Million. And in 2018 once again saw the immense potential of taking the agency to the next level by integrating Brilliant & Million into Publicis Groupe.

Meanwhile, Dorai began his career in advertising as a copywriter. From a small agency in Bangkok to a degree in graphic design in the US and stints in ad and design firms across the USA, Paruj came home to Bangkok to start the second phase of his career working at D’Arcy (DMB&B), Lowe Bangkok and Ogilvy & Mather Thailand. A move to the Leo Burnett Group Thailand shaped up the third phase of Paruj’s career. Moving from CD to ECD to launching Digitas Thailand.

Lastly, Songkran joined Publicis Groupe as CEO of Leo Burnett Thailand in April 2011. Together with his team, he has led Leo Burnett Thailand to become one of the most recognized and awarded agencies in Thailand. In May 2016, Songkran was appointed Country Head of Publicis Groupe Thailand.

Speaking on the new endeavour, Randhawa said, “I am delighted to see Sorada and Paruj step up into this role. Both are leaders who have been ahead of their time in developing digitally-led services for clients and work really well in partnership with each other, making them a very strong choice as we continue to transform the Groupe and its services in Thailand. I would also like to thank Khun Jod for his many years of service to the Groupe and for building strong relationships with our people and our clients. He is a trusted voice who will be missed.”

Paris, France – Global advertising agency and public relations company Publicis Groupe has announced the acquisition of Profitero, a global SaaS e-commerce intelligence platform. Through the acquisition, Publicis Groupe will combine Profitero’s industry leading product data and analytics with the Groupe’s retail media, data, and commerce solutions to offer unmatched capabilities for brands to maximise their online sales.

Profitero’s solutions provide actionable insights and product visibility to more than 4,000 brands and 70 million products on more than 700 retailer websites, in over 50 countries every day. 

In addition, said acquisition will allow Profitero to access the necessary resources and capabilities to expand on its analytics core. As a result, it will become the first global commerce platform to truly empower brands by using predictive intelligence to deliver the best product experience, optimise content, increase results of organic search, compare prices with competitors, monitor product availability and track customer ratings and reviews, among other features.

“As the lines between offline and online shopping blur due to digitally-influenced sales, Profitero’s ecommerce and omnichannel analytics offering allows brands to anticipate, activate, and automate the next best action to fuel profitable growth for each item of their product catalogue,” Publicis Groupe said in a press statement.

Profitero will remain a product-focused company within Publicis, led by CEO Bryan Wiener and president Sarah Hofstetter. Wiener will report to Publicis Groupe Chairman and CEO Arthur Sadoun.

Sadoun said, “By adding Profitero to our existing assets, we are now uniquely positioned across the four key pillars our clients need to connect, to capture an unfair share of the exponential growth in online sales. With us, our clients will seamlessly understand people, how they shop better than anyone else, thanks to Epsilon; optimise their online product catalogue thanks to Profitero; maximise their online spend with retailers thanks to CitrusAd and the scale of Publicis Media.”

He added, “And they will be able to deliver unique, creative, customer experiences, through platforms backed by Publicis Sapient’s engineering expertise. I am delighted to welcome Sarah, Bryan, and their outstanding team of experts to the Publicis family.”

Meanwhile, Wiener commented, “This is the best of both worlds as we retain our entrepreneurial spirit as a product-led organisation while benefiting from the Publicis Groupe’s diverse capabilities and scale. This brings immediate value to our clients and employees with increased product and technology investment, infusion of new media and content activation capabilities and tapping into the Groupe’s global talent to fuel our continued growth.”