Show ’Em Who’s Boss
No CEO wants to fall behind in the AI race. Publicis is turning that fear into a selling point.
The holding company saw consistent net revenue growth in Q3, up 5% from the first half of the year, and notably won PepsiCo’s business last month.
Funny note about that PepsiCo deal: Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun tells Adweek that consolidation among agency holding companies can actually make it easier for Publicis to win a company’s business when it already serves that company’s competitors. He declined to explain, though, why Publicis withdrew from Coca-Cola’s pitch after landing PepsiCo.
These days, Publicis has been pitching CEOs directly, Sadoun said during the holdco’s Q3 earnings call on Tuesday morning, rather than pitching CMOs, as is generally the case. AI is central to that pitch.
Most CEOs “understand that if they want to continue to lead their company,” Sadoun said, “they need to understand AI.”
AI investment is a “major concern” for many CEOs, Digiday reports, citing a Harris Poll survey from earlier this year showing that 80% of chief execs believe their jobs are at risk if their AI initiatives don’t succeed.
In the meantime, brands are still eager to spend big and prove AI’s worth, which is why pitching to CEOs is “a new market reality,” said Sadoun.
An Axe to Grind
Norway’s data protection authority fined Xandr (now Microsoft Advertising) 92 million crowns (which translates to roughly $10 million) for relaying sensitive sexual orientation data to advertisers via an integration with Grindr, Reuters reports.
Although this is the largest-ever penalty levied by the Norwegian regulator, it’s a relatively modest sum all things considered.
But putting the amount aside, the fine does represent a “valuable precedent.” At least that’s how it’s being framed by noyb, the consumer privacy advocacy org co-founded by Max Schrems, which has been a major thorn in the side of Big Tech.
The ruling matters because Norway rejected Xandr’s claim that it could rely on Grindr’s assurance that users had consented to their data being used for ad targeting or personalization.
But even if Grindr did obtain user consent, the Norwegian authority said Xandr had no legal basis to process their personal data or share it with advertisers and other ad tech companies.
“Once the data is out there, it is difficult to know where it ends up or how it is used,” says Line Coll, director of the Norwegian agency. “We are talking about private information that the individual has lost control over.”
Not Agentic
But back to Publicis and the bigger question behind Sadoun’s comments: What does it mean to be a client’s agent today?
Once, client conflicts helped define the advertising business. If a midsize agency landed a major national brand, it might have to drop a smaller client operating the same category.
That expectation has faded as a handful of holding companies built sprawling networks of agencies and brand accounts. “Clients fully understand that we can work with competitors when you’re at the kind of scale the top three have. That’s not a problem,” Sadoun tells Adweek, referring to Publicis, Omnicom and WPP.
He notes that ad tech vendors, consultants, walled gardens and data companies don’t share the preoccupation with conflicts that bedevil agencies. But those businesses aren’t agencies – and that distinction matters. An agency is supposed to act as its client’s agent, representing its interests. That’s the idea behind the longstanding concern about conflicts, even if it’s increasingly easy to set aside.
The agency-client relationship is changing, too. With principal media, agencies buy and resell large quantities of media rather than simply acting on behalf of their clients.
Some agent.
But Wait! There’s More!
Brands are rethinking where creator marketing fits into their media plans as some dedicate up to 30% of their budget to creators. Cool, but now they have to figure out how to measure it. [Next in Media]
Character.ai, the generative AI startup that creates chatbots based on existing characters, has filed for bankruptcy. Disney, which had previously sent Character.ai a cease-and-desist letter over unauthorized use of its IP, plans to acquire some of the company’s assets for $20 million. [Reuters]
Spectrum CMO Sharon Peters and Chief Commercial Officer Adam Ray will leave the company at the end of the year. Ray’s role will be eliminated, and Simon Cassels, Spectrum’s chief creative officer, will take over as interim CMO. [Adweek]
You’re Hired!
Max Parris joins The Trade Desk as GM of identity product management. [LinkedIn]
Thanks for reading AdExchanger’s Daily News Roundup. Want it by email? Sign up here.
