Publicis has chosen to be the naming sponsor of the first Best Growth Initiative of the Year award as part of the CMO Awards. Why were you keen to support this accolade?

Michael Rebelo: Unlocking growth in a volatile and uncertain environment is hard. We know, as we strive for that with our clients every day. Recognising the marketing leader and teams that use their smarts, bravery, influence and instinct to achieve that was important for us, as we know just how much marketing teams are investing of themselves to achieve sometimes the impossible. 

You took over leading the Publicis Groupe in January 2019 after a career working across and building agencies locally and globally. What do you view as the biggest shift in the way you do business as an agency partner with clients over this time?

The biggest shift I have seen is around connectivity. Like many marketing leaders today, the scope of knowledge required to fit the right pieces of the marketing puzzle together has increased significantly. Today you need to be able to connect brand, creative storytelling, media, influence, commerce and loyalty – and ensure that it is informed by data and audiences in a seamless way for customers.

Over the last five years, we have aligned our own strategy with this shift to make certain that our clients’ evolving priorities are at the heart of the way we have orchestrated, connected and platformed our business. We have built an organisation that shapes itself around the current volatile environment to ensure that adaptability and trust, underscored by the ability to connect capabilities, has become the foundation of the partnerships we undertake, maintain and grow. 

Publicis has made 7 acquisitions in just the last year, one of the global leaders when it comes to acquisitions across the agency and consulting space – it’s a list that includes one of Australia’s biggest indie media shops, Atomic212. Where has the emphasis been in terms of capability building, and how do these acquisitions fit into Publicis’ formula for growth?

Ultimately, it's about identifying the specialisms we need to get to the future faster; or what we can weaponise in the market for our clients and ourselves; and how we can connect these two things with each part of our connected platform of businesses.

The most recent and timely example that speaks to this, is the acquisition Lotame, which has further fueled the Publicis ID. We now have access to 21 million IDs across Australia and New Zealand, strengthening our ability provide unmatched insight for clients. This can be deployed across the marketing chain for clients externally, while transforming their relationships with customers internally. This provides them with a new way of transforming marketing from within their own business.

Atomic 212 is another great example, as a powerhouse in its own right. The agency’s data, analytics and digital capabilities have been a fantastic addition to our already strong media offering within the Groupe. But it’s also about how the team plugs into and connects with our other 25 business units that takes their clients, the agency and the Groupe to the next level. It also helps that they’re great humans.

AI is a key area of acquisition and investment for agencies as well as marketers – Publicis is investing hundreds of millions globally into AI capability. Where do you anticipate the next advancements in marketing and advertising will arise in terms of efficiency as well as effectiveness (could answer this short-term, then long-term)?

Marketing transformation will be one of the first stops for the AI juggernaut to gain real traction. In the short term, areas like production, media operations and creative technology will see the fastest adoption, unlocking new perspectives and opportunities. We have already seen this locally, with our integrated production and technology studio PXP and Publicis production teams having created tangible AI solutions that are transforming how we work with clients in this space.

When it comes to the long-term, it’s not just about the AI technology stack you have, but also what data that you can own, leverage and feed into them.  We know that the best AI strategies will be intertwined with the strongest data strategies. Our recent acquisition of Lotame, coupled with our other investments in digital transformation and identity, will allow our clients to not only leverage their own data, but also Publicis’, within their own environments.