Publicis has knocked it out of the park yet again in Q3 2025: organic revenue slightly ahead of forecast at 5.7% with an operating margin in excess of 18% and a raised forecast for the year of between 5% and 5.5% growth. The US, the source of worries for many of its competitors, grew 7.1% following a series of media wins, mostly at the expense of WPP.
Net revenue (profit before expenses) rose to €3.5bn.
CEO Arthur Sadoun (above) says: “With no slowdown in client demand, Q3 was another very strong quarter, ahead of expectations.
“We are demonstrating that artificial intelligence at Publicis is not a future promise, it is a reality today that is driving our growth.
“Once again, we are showing our ability to win market share and position ourselves as a Category of One thanks to our unique AI-powered model..Not only did we not experience any material cuts in marketing spend, but we also saw an acceleration in demand for our AI-led products and services.
“This was visible in our Connected Media activities, powered by Epsilon, which grew high single digits thanks to our ability to connect paid media with commerce and influencer through AI. Our AI production platform grew double digits, on the strength of the increasing need for personalized content. And our ability to build agentic networks for clients as they look to de-silo their own organizations meant Publicis Sapient remained in positive territory for the second quarter in a row.
“We expect this positive trend to carry though into Q4. This makes us confident in upgrading our 2025 organic growth guidance, increasing the higher end of our forecast to +5.5%. We are also confirming a full-year improvement of our already industry-leading margin, to slightly above 18%.
“Looking ahead, we are now building for 2026, thanks to our unmatched new business track record, with net new billings for the first nine months of the year already reaching our 2024 total. As a result, we expect to outperform the industry once again next year, for the 7th year in a row.”
Sadoun can be forgiven his tone of triumph. WPP has been left in. Publicis’ wake in terms of growth despite all its talk of harnessing AI (Publicis has gained $6bn in media billings while WPP Media has lost $4bn) while about to be merged Omnicom/IPG may even find it’s no longer the biggest by some measures when the deal eventually goes through.
How can the others catch up? Maybe president Trump will help by slapping tariffs on French-owned ad agencies. Publicis will be hoping these numbers put some impetus back into its share price which has suffered, along with competitors, over fears of AI cutting revenue and margins.
