Following the silo-less restructuring of Publicis last year, the holding company has created a new structure for its media brands forming Starcom, Zenith, Mediavest|Spark, and Optimedia|Blue 449. The development will see the end of agency networks of Starcom Mediavest Group and Zenith Optimedia.
Even as details of the development’s ramifications in the region is not clear yet, the new structure will impact Starcom Mediavest Group given that Zenith and Optimedia have been working as two separate entities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
“We are driven to get to the future first. Publicis Media is a fresh opportunity to simplify our organization, invent more modern approaches to gain efficiency, introduce structures for greater collaboration and effectiveness, and drive new levels of scale and client value,” said Steve King, CEO, Publicis Media in a press statement, commenting on the new global structure.
“The new Publicis Media imagined by Steve King is fully equipped to fit the future and best serve our clients. A leaner and simpler structure will bring more value to our clients and will further accelerate our growth,” added Maurice Lévy, Chairman & CEO, Publicis Groupe.
Publicis Media’s structure will cover Top 20 markets, organised by three regions and led by Tim Jones, Regional CEO for the Americas, Iain Jacob, Regional CEO for EMEA, and Gerry Boyle, Regional CEO for APAC.
At a global management level, Adrian Sayliss will become CFO for Publicis Media, Séverine Charbon will become the Chief Talent Officer for Publicis Media, and John Sheehy will oversee Global Clients for Publicis Media.
Publicis Media will consolidate its six global agency brands: Starcom, Mediavest, Spark, Zenith, Optimedia and Blue 449 into four global agency brands, which are:
• Starcom and Zenith will each continue to operate as global agency brands
• Mediavest | Spark will be a third large global agency brand
• Optimedia | Blue 449 will be brought together to form a powerful global challenger brand
Each agency will be led by a Global Brand President. Lisa Donohue is named Global Brand President for Starcom, Vittorio Bonori is Global Brand President for Zenith, Brian Terkelsen is leading Mediavest|Spark as its Global Brand President, and Andras Vigh is Global Brand President for Optimedia|Blue 449. The Global Brand Presidents will be responsible for leading clients, driving growth and enabling best work.
In this new model, the agency network names of Starcom Mediavest Group and ZenithOptimedia Group are retired to better enable a flatter organisational structure. Publicis Media will deliver client value through combined scale and capabilities of our media agency brands.
VivaKi capabilities will be fully integrated into Publicis Media’s Global Practice model. Performics will remain Publicis Media’s global performance marketing brand and scale across all agency brands.
The reorganisation of Publicis Groupe’s media capabilities into a Publicis Media hub is part of Publicis Groupe’s transformation efforts previously announced. Publicis Groupe is organised into four Solutions hubs — Publicis Communications led by Arthur Sadoun, Publicis Media led by Steve King, Publicis.Sapient led by Alan Herrick and Publicis Health led by Nick Colucci—which are connected through a Chief Revenue Officer organization, led by Laura Desmond, which will deliver client satisfaction across Publicis
Groupe’s entire range of services.
