Publicis Groupe, clearly outstripping its competitors for growth, is getting the bulk of its revenue from media but the global advertising group is also seeing fundamental change in the engine room of its creative shop.
Intelligent Creativity, generating about 25% of net revenue, recorded “mid-single-digit” growth in the September quarter, unlike the negative market trend.
“This performance was supported by significant growth in production and creative wins,” Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun told analysts in a briefing.
The France-based company has been out performing in the pitch league generally, not just creative.
Publicis earlier this month upgraded its full year outlook after posting better than expected organic growth of 5.7% in the September quarter with net revenue of Euro 3.259 billion.
In the first 9 months of 2025, net new billings across the group added up to $US6 billion, close to what the whole company achieved for the full year in 2024.
Retention among top 100 clients has been above 98% for the past five years, while average revenue with the top 200 has grown by nearly 50%.
For Intelligent Creativity, one third of revenue now comes from an AI-enabled production platform that is growing “double digits".
“Within Sapient, AI is at the core of everything we do, positioning us for renewed growth as soon as client CapEx spending resumes,” said Sadoun.
“This AI-powered revenue mix fits perfectly with our client needs and allows us to lose less and win more.”
Analyst Laura Metayer of Morgan Stanley asked Sadoun what was the key value-add that was making the creative business grow so strongly.
Sadoun said he was very satisfied with the performance of the creative business.
“Although it represents only 25% (of total business), it is actually growing,” he said.
The AI production platform is a clear demonstration that you can grow with content production.
“Today, everyone can deliver cheaper, faster and better content,” Sadoun said.
“You can do it in your basement with basically ChatGPT, if you want. So it's pretty easy.
“What makes it very difficult is to make this content, what we call intelligent meaning … allowing for every piece of content that you push to a client to know if it's working or not.
“And this is where we're winning in that not only we deliver better, faster and cheaper content on an AI platform, but we are able to connect it to our data to make it work harder in terms of business outcome for our clients.
“And the truth is this is an area where we are growing because we are winning market share. We are basically winning pitches. And by winning pitches, we are also increasing our pie here versus competition.
“But what I think is very reassuring for any investor here is that one third of our creative business is already 100% AI empowered and the rest is winning market share and getting transformed.”
AI has also changed the landscape for clients.
“Looking ahead, our head start in AI gives us a unique opportunity to accelerate even further. First, it will make us even more indispensable as a key transformation partner to our clients,” Sadoun said.
“They are currently facing a marketing landscape that is more fragmented and complex than ever, where tech giants are spending billions on new AI technologies and infrastructure, multiplying the number of platforms and channels and making it harder to reach and engage with audiences.
“As a result, none of our top clients allocate more than 4% of their total marketing spend to a single platform. In fact, across our top 20 clients, the average spend on their largest platform is just 2%.
“The reason why we are winning today and the reason why we believe we are a category of one is that we made the investment in data and technology that allow us to leverage AI and create a massive competitive advantage at the moment.”
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