London-listed WPP to lose global advertising crown to French rival

The French Publicis Groupe is on track to surpass the London-listed company WPP as the world’s largest advertising agency by the end of 2024, according to broker estimates.

Publicis posted turnover of €10.1bn (£8.4bn) for the first nine months of 2024, while WPP, owner of Ogilvy and Wavemaker, earned €9.8bn.

Consensus estimates from financial research platform Visible Alpha expect the company to achieve sales of €13.9 billion this year, compared to WPP’s €13.5 billion.

It will be the first time a French holding company is the number one advertising business and comes two years before Publicis celebrates its centenary.

Publicis, headquartered on Paris’ iconic Champs-Elysées, is the parent company of British advertising agencies Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Saatchi & Saatchi.

It also organizes the annual VIVA Technology conference dedicated to startups, whose speakers at the last edition included Elon Musk, LVMH president Bernard Arnault, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

Among the group’s extensive client portfolio are the French brands Renault, Cartier and the Carrefour supermarket chain, as well as the American giants Netflix, Burger King and Walmart.

The group has celebrated its place at the top of the advertising world with a short video featuring its CEO with musician and Paris Olympics star Snoop Dogg.

Publicis was founded in 1926 by Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, a furniture salesman who is widely credited with introducing radio advertising to France.

After World War II, when he fought in the French Resistance, he rebuilt the company by signing agreements with large corporations such as Shell, Colgate-Palmolive and Sopad-Nestlé, and initiated the first opinion polls in France.

Under his successor, Maurice Levy, Publicis joined WPP, Omnicom and Interpublic as one of the ‘Big Four’ advertising agencies when it bought Bcom3 in 2002 for $3 billion.

Publicis attempted a $35 billion merger with U.S.-based Omnicom early last decade, which would have made the expanded company the world’s largest advertising business.

However, the deal collapsed due to tax and legal issues, opposition from China’s antitrust regulator and disagreements over who would fill key leadership positions.

During the turmoil, the two companies lost many of their high-profile clients to their rivals, with WPP gaining Vodafone, Marks & Spencer, GlaxoSmithKline and Comparethemarket.

Under Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP became the world’s number one advertising agency by relentlessly acquiring smaller companies and expanding its reach into developing markets.

In its latest annual results, Publicis increased its organic net revenue by 6.3 percent thanks to better-than-expected trading activity towards the end of the period.

Total net revenue rose 4.2 percent to €13.1 billion, helped by a double-digit percentage increase in Europe and strong performance in North America, its largest market in terms of sales.