Publicis Groupe is shopping for marketing services agencies, especially CRM shops.
That’s what Chairman-CEO Maurice Levy told The Wall Street Journal last week.
Early this year, Publicis merged four marketing-services agencies—including Frankel and promo shop Arc (formerly Clarion)—to form Arc North America, with plans to add more (March PROMO).
The new agency has estimated revenues between $100 million and $110 million and as many as 600 staffers in five offices, each handling promotions, direct (via Semaphore Partners) and interactive (via Leo Burnett’s iLeo division).
“We endeavor to quickly become best in class with the holy trinity of promotion, direct and interactive marketing,” Arc North America CEO Dick Thomas said.
Publicis wants to make a series of small acquisitions worldwide, primarily CRM (in the U.S. and Europe) and sales promotion (Europe) and possibly P.R. in the U.S., The Journal reported. Levy also is shopping in Latin America and Asia-Pacific.
Meanwhile, Arc North America promoted Frankel veterans Eric Salas to VP-account director in its San Francisco office and Leslie Clifford to VP-group planning director in Chicago. Salas continues to work on the Visa USA account and adds new-business duties. Clifford also works on new-business development and program development for United Airlines, AT&T Wireless and Centers for Disease Control.
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