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Sadoun hails “transformative” Mercedes win for Publicis

Arthur Sadoun of Publicis Groupe (below) is appearing more often in the media than WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell these days (careful Arthur) and now he’s back, bigging up the holding company’s “global” win of Daimler (aka Mercedes-Benz).

This, says, Sadoun is the biggest Publicis win under his brief reign and testifies to the agency group’s new-found ability to deliver business “transformation.”

Publicis is opening a new agency headquartered in Berlin and named Emil after Emil Jellinek, credited with inventing the auto brand.

This will be led by former Saatchi executive Justin Billingsley, who’s now COO of Publicis Communications which oversees Saatchi, Leo Burnett, Publicis Worldwide and BBH.

Sadoun says: “A win like this would not have been possible if we hadn’t begun more than two years ago to radically change the way we work, by breaking down silos, putting our clients at the heart of everything we do, integrating Sapient and developing global initiatives like PeopleCloud and Spine.”

Up to a point Arthur. Publicis/Emil has won the Mercedes business in many markets but not the US, China or, bizarrely, Germany where it stays with BBDO.

It’s still a big loss for BBDO, including AMV BBDO in the UK, and gain for Publicis. As far as Publicis in Europe is concerned it effectively replaces Toyota which decamped from Saatchi to The&Partnership two years ago.

But Sadoun, like John Lewis, is never knowingly undersold.

2 Comments

  1. So pretty much everywhere except for Mercedes’ three biggest markets.

    “Up to a point”, indeed.

  2. One little thing: in Germany the account is not handled by BBDO but by Antoni, a new shop set up a couple of years ago for Mercedes exclusively.

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