Publicis buys ecommerce analytics company Profitero, France’s Labelium snaps up 1000Heads

Publicis boss Arthur Sadoun has been shopping again – ecommerce obviously – paying an estimated €200m for 300-strong Boston-based retail software company Profitero.

Profitero, which specialises in analytics, will be rolled in with other Publicis tech buys Epsilon (consumer data), CitrusAd retail media planning) and Publicis Sapient (platform specialist) in a bid to cover the ecommerce field.

CEO Sadoun says: “By adding Profitero to our existing assets, we are now uniquely positioned across the four key pillars our clients need to connect, to capture an unfair share of the exponential growth in online sales. With us, our clients will seamlessly understand people, how they shop better than anyone else, thanks to Epsilon; optimize their online product catalogue thanks to Profitero; maximize their online spend with retailers thanks to CitrusAd and the scale of Publicis Media. And they will be able to deliver unique, creative, customer experiences, through platforms backed by Publicis Sapient’s engineering expertise.”

Profitero CEO Bryan Wiener says: “This is the best of both worlds as we retain our entrepreneurial spirit as a product-led organization while benefiting from the Publicis Groupe’s diverse capabilities and scale. This brings immediate value to our clients and employees with increased product and technology investment, infusion of new media and content activation capabilities and tapping into the Groupe’s global talent to fuel our continued growth.”

All the former ad holding companies are in an arms race to boost their ecommerce offerings; WPP recently announced the formation of Everymile which aims to do everything, including handling logistics. Omnicom has also boosted its ecommmerce offer although it does these things more quietly, using in-house resources and smaller acquisitions.

Tech is definitely where the commercial action is these days as the digital tidal wave shows no sign of ebbing. France-based digital agency Labelium has also announced a big acquisition, the UK’s 1000Heads which joins Labelium’s other digital agencies M13h, Ikom, Tigrz, Feed manager, Arcane, StratNXT, Kiliagon, Klickoncept, Labelium Play, SmartKeyword, NXTLVL and Foo. Hardly household names but that’s where the action seems to be these days.

1000Heads employs 170 people in London, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Sydney, Melbourne, and Berlin and clients include Alphabet, Snap Inc, Diageo and Bimbo.

1000Heads CEO Mike Davison says: “The combination of 1000heads and Labelium represents a step change for both of our businesses, creating a global industry leader offering cutting edge services and solutions. By joining the Labelium Group we will become part of a dynamic team with a bold vision, and we are excited to begin working together to develop an integrated proposition.”