Publicis Group combines Media and Communications

The Publicis Group continues to develop its "Power of One" strategy. Having already merged units such as Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi or, more recently, the digital agency Notch Interactive at Stadelhofen to form Publicis Communications Zurich, the operational merger with Publicis Media is now taking place - under the leadership of CEO Thomas Wildberger.

"In order to ensure closer and more flexible cooperation in the service of clients, the Publicis brand will become the central platform through which all clients of the various Publicis agencies can access the group's complete portfolio of services, from creation to media and technology," says Thomas Wildberger, who at the same time announces that the new structure and thus the Publicis Group at Stadelhofen will also be led by a new management team.

In addition to Thomas Wildberger, the board includes former Notch shareholder Peter van der Touw as Chief Operating Officer, Edgar Magyar as Chief Financial Officer and Dirk Lux as Chief Media Officer.

Nicolas Baddour, CEO Publicis Communications, based in Lausanne, and Alexander Haldemann, CEO MetaDesign, will continue to report directly to Justin Billingsley, CEO Publicis Group DACH.

Evelin Wachter, Dirk Lux and Maria Brinkmann (from left)

Dirk Lux leads Publicis Media

The media arm of the Publicis Group with the established agency brands Zenith, Starcom and Performics will be led by Dirk Lux from March 1. Lux has already been in the service of Publicis Media in Germany for seven years. Until 2019, he led Zenith, the network's largest media agency in Germany, as CEO and then moved to Publicis Media as Chief Growth Officer for the DACH region. In his new role as CEO of Publicis Media Switzerland, Lux reports directly to Thomas Wildberger.

Reporting to Lux are Maria Brinkmann and Evelin Wachter, who have made a significant contribution to the success of Publicis Media in recent years and who will serve as Managing Directors with immediate effect. Brinkmann will assume responsibility for Zenith as Managing Director, while Wachter will become Managing Director of Starcom and Performics and also retain her function as Head of Digital for all media agency brands. Guillaume de Grave will take over the management of the Publicis Media office in Lausanne, also reporting directly to Lux.

Dirk Lux is convinced: "With the new structure, we finally have the setup that more and more customers want: Competent, holistic and pragmatic consulting - without annoying silos."

Reduce complexity for customers

"Marketers need partners who exemplify marketing transformation and do not operate in entrenched silos," explains Thomas Wildberger, CEO of Publicis, adding, "In the last three years, we have already taken important steps with a view to change on the customer side and brought many of our units closer together. The reason: We want to reduce complexity for our clients by bringing together the best from across the network. In this way, we can offer individual, modular and scalable services that are easy to use and flexible. With the merger of Communications and Media, we are now igniting the next stage of Power of One and thus create a setup with which we can respond quickly, flexibly and even more extensively to customer needs. I'm all the more pleased that we were able to win Dirk Lux for Switzerland, someone who is not only an absolute expert in the field of media, but who is 100 percent familiar with our way of working and has already used it successfully several times."