Publicis Groupe is confident of its prospects against an Omnicom now boosted in size with the acquisition of IPG.
CEO Arthur Sadoun, in a briefing of investment bank analysts after releasing 2025 results, says Publicis will outperform the industry for a seventh year in a row in 2026 on organic growth, while increasing margin, earnings per share and free cash flow.
The France-based global group posted “very strong” organic growth of 5.9% in the December quarter and forecasts full year organic growth of 4% to 5% in 2026.
Sadoun was asked by analyst Nicolas Langlet of BNP Paribas about the completion of the Omnicom and IPG merger.
“How would you characterise your sustainable edge on Connected Media? Where do you think Publicis is structurally ahead? And are there any areas where you actually see Omnicom architecture pushing you to accelerate your own rollout?” Langlet said.
Sadoun was at first reluctant to discuss Omnicom.
“I don't want to comment too much on the acquisition of IPG by Omnicom,” he said.
"What I can tell you is a couple of points. First, the drastic reduction of the competitive landscape that we anticipated has become a reality pretty early in 2025.
“You understand that we have been a large beneficiary of this. Again, what matters here are the numbers and not the press release. They show how we have been able to capture a disproportionate part of new business and win market share.
“Second, again, I think that Omnicom is definitely a strong player, it was before this acquisition. It's still a strong player.
“The big difference between Omnicom and us is that we are investing in new capabilities that can help our clients grow in this AI world. They are consolidating more of the same. Axiom has been with IPG for the last 10 years. It's not that we have not been pitching against Axiom for the last 10 years.
“I don't think there is absolutely any change in terms of assets. The only thing that is changing, but that, I would say, is a bit back to the future, is that the new Omnicom is roughly the size of what WPP when I started. Actually, the gap is a bit lower. But as (Omnicom CEO) John Wren, himself, would say, scale matters to a certain extent.
“And by the way, you need to have scale where it matters, which is media where we do data, where we do influencer, where we do commerce, where we do and countries where it really makes a difference, like the US and China, where we are leading.
“But scale doesn't make you win. I love this expression from John, that says it gets you to the stadium, but it doesn't make you win. And so, now it's really going to be about who has the best model, who has the best talent, who again can differentiate with our capabilities which we are again making the demonstration this year.
“And there is a very strong new business pipeline coming in 2026. We have good opportunities for Publicis, and we feel very confident that we're going to gain market share again.”
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