Publicis Groupe presents a united front, bringing together all of its expert business units, according to analysis by global consultancy Forrester
The latest Forrester Wave report on Commerce Services puts Publicis in the lead against most competitors on strategy.
“Publicis Groupe assembles capabilities across media, communications, transactions, technology, and data into a commerce strategy under a single executive,” said Forrester.
Publicis has kept up an industry leading revenue growth rate while some others in advertising have struggled.
The company reported organic growth of 5.3% in the March quarter, helped by new business wins and a rebound in the tech sector.
“This matrixed organisation brings a united front to client engagements, global delivery, platforms, and acquisitions, giving it a critical mass to deliver total commerce services,” said Forrester.
“Compared with others evaluated, Publicis shows strategic strength in partner ecosystems, with significant capability to help clients optimise sales through marketplaces like Amazon, Mercado Libre, and others.”
The France-based global advertising group has acquired commerce products including global ecommerce intelligence software Profitero and the retail media specialist CitrusAd.
“Among the providers we evaluated, Publicis shows strength in retail media, content, and analytics, helping retailers build media networks and helping brands generate content, target audiences, and optimise their retail media performance,” said Forrester..
Forrester said Publicis is a good fit for complex organisations with a full spectrum of marketing and commerce needs, particularly in food, consumer goods, retail, automotive and banking
Also among the leaders in the Forrester Wave is Omnicom Group.
Forrester said Omnicom excels with the Omni platform powering retail media performance.
Omnicom Group has acquired its way to a dominant position in the market, with digital commerce business Flywheel Digital and Credera, a global consulting firm with deep technology expertise.
“Its enhanced portfolio keeps creativity and content at the core, but it’s now strengthened with more data and performance-based experiences,” said Forrester.
“Supported by its strong Omni platform and its surprisingly (to us) large commerce and technology workforce, Omnicom is accelerating into commerce.
“It can now help clients build a total commerce experience, for example, funded partly by savings in media performance and tying fees to business outcomes.
“Compared with others evaluated, Omnicom shows strategic strength in its partner ecosystem, offering extensive commerce platform support and marketplace presence.”
On WPP, Forrester says the world's largest advertising group shines with flexible creativity anchored by its Open platform.
WPP aggregated its commerce services under the VML brand, bringing together Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R and working with sister agency GroupM for media investments.
“Through this unified approach, WPP brings its performance marketing and commerce technology, strategy, and organisation capabilities together to optimise total commerce experiences,” said Forrester.
“Compared with others evaluated, WPP excels in overall commerce strategic strength, hitting on all cylinders, leading with genAI innovation in its Open platform, and rocking the technology and marketplace partner ecosystem.
Forrester said Accenture stands out with an expansive commerce portfolio with commerce revenue is double that of any other provider evaluated.
“This portfolio combines the experience capabilities of Accenture Song and the technology capabilities of Song and Accenture Consulting to serve B2C and B2B companies with front-end and back-end commerce services,” said Forrester.
“Accenture has so far not focused on retail media services at the level of its peers. Accenture continues to add capabilities by acquiring specialists around the world, with the goal of helping companies blend total commerce experiences and operations into a single operating model.”
However, moves in Australia, poaching senior staff away fromInitiative, indicate that Accenture song is strengthening its media services.
Forrester also identified Merkle and IPG as strong performers.
"Merkle delivers with performance-driven commerce but is still early in its journey," said Forrester.
"With its strong roots in performance marketing (Merkle) and commerce platform builds for B2C and B2B clients (Isobar), Merkle leads commerce services in the dentsu network."
Forrester said IPG bridges creative and commerce execution but lags in managed services.
"Interpublic Group (IPG) is just getting started with new commerce leadership and a newly minted commerce practice that unifies capabilities from its agency network to help customers scale their marketing and commerce operations," Forrester said.
"The flipside of this multiagency model is, it’s sometimes a challenge getting specific agency resources allocated quickly. Compared with others evaluated, IPG shows strategic strength across the board without excelling in any areas except for talent development."
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