Advertising company Publicis Groupe has decided to merge creative networks Publicis Worldwide and Leo Burnett into a singular creative brand, called ‘Leo’.
Publicis Groupe announced the merger, which will serve to “drive exponential creativity in the age of AI for the world’s biggest global brands.”
This “constellation,” as it is referred to by the company, will combine the powers of 8,000 creative employees from Leo Burnett with 7,000 from Publicis Worldwide, across 90 countries.
Led by co-presidents Marco Venturelli and Agathe Bousquet, and chief strategy officer Gareth Goodall, Leo is backed by the team that helped Publicis Conseil achieve the Cannes Lions 2024 Agency of the Year.
This merge aligns current trends and state of the market, as AI surges through the advertising and creative industries.
In an interview with Campaign, Carla Serrano, global chief strategy officer at Publicis Groupe, said the merger will bring “together human ingenuity and the potential of AI to tackle today’s complex business challenges.”
AI For Creativity
This is not the first move Publicis Groupe has made to adjust to the growing prevalence of AI. The company invested in a €300 million AI initiative.
With this commitment to AI helping bolster significant revenue growth in 2024, and a 5.8% organic revenue increase year on year in Q3, the agency reported.
Arthur Sadoun, CEO of Publicis Groupe expressed how this unification of AI and creativity fosters expansion, explaining: “In today’s world, [creative efficiency] is also about more collaboration and more access to capabilities. That’s exactly what Leo stands for.”
