Publicis acquires Mars United Commerce to support full-funnel marketing

Brief description of the dive:

• Publicis Groupe has acquired marketing firm Mars United Commerce as part of its push to offer full-funnel marketing services, according to a press release. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but The Wall Street Journal reported the deal was valued at about $600 million.
• Mars United Commerce, formerly The Mars Agency, is the world’s largest independent trade marketing firm, providing retail consulting, trade media expertise and shopper insights to more than 100 top brands. The 52-year-old agency employs more than 1,000 people worldwide.
• The deal extends Publicis’ strategy to build its marketing services portfolio through acquisition. In July, the group bought Influential, the world’s largest influencer marketing firm.

Diving Insight:

Knowing how to influence consumer behavior at every stage of the purchase journey is critical as media fragmentation and the challenges of managing data and activation intensify. With the acquisition of Mars United, Publicis Groupe says it will be able to improve its end-to-end commerce marketing with better strategy and insights, more efficient media and better measurement. Mars United has offices in cities including New York, London and Toronto and has worked with clients including Samsung, Walmart and Conagra Brands.

Publicis plans to combine Mars United’s expertise with its existing assets. For example, Epsilon’s first-person identity data, combined with Mars United’s proprietary shopper data, aims to provide greater insight into the purchase journey and create more opportunities to change consumer behavior. Publicis bought Epsilon’s data marketing business for nearly $4 billion in 2019, and the unit has become a key part of its growth narrative.

Similarly, Publicis Media’s scale, combined with Mars United’s understanding of the retail organization, will provide customers with richer insights into “winning the last mile of purchase,” according to the announcement. Finally, combining Profitero Publicis’s sales and e-commerce operations data with Mars United’s own information will provide a deeper understanding of their commerce marketing performance, both online and offline. Software provider Profitero is Publicis’ latest acquisition, starting in 2022.

“With the acquisition of Influential this summer and now Mars, Publicis is uniquely positioned to help our clients understand both current and potential consumers, and connect that insight at an individual level to the new media channels that contribute most to their business: connected TV, commerce and creators,” Arthur Sadoun, CEO of Publicis Groupe, said in a statement.

In July, Publicis Groupe announced it would buy Influential, which operates a network of more than 3.5 million creators (including 90% of global influencers with 1 million or more followers), for an estimated $500 million. The holding company has also recently amassed several major media assignments, including media responsibilities for The Hershey Company in the U.S. and The Lego Group globally. Publicis also won more responsibilities from Pfizer, which it had previously split with Interpublic Group.