How Indian agencies under Publicis Groupe performed in 2020
As per Publicis Groupe’s global financial results for H1’20 (Jan-June), India had shown a growth of +3.6%. However, the pandemic did slow down the growth of several of its agencies
The Covid-2019 pandemic had a serious impact on businesses across the globe and the A&M industry was no exception. Almost all the networks witnessed a dip in their profits and operating revenues during the year. Publicis Groupe, however, had managed to ease the blow globally, recording net revenues of 9,712 million euros (Jan-Dec) in 2019. Coming to India, for the period of April 2020 to March 2021, here’s a breakdown of the network’s performance. The data has been collected from the information provided to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs by a few companies under the Groupe registered in India.
Publicis Communications generated net billings of Rs 44.25 crores in the year ending March 2021, while the net billing in the FY’20 year was Rs 68.05 crores.
PR and social media firm 20:20’s operational revenues were Rs 32.05 crores as compared to 37.38 crores in the previous fiscal. The profit for the year was 10.49 crores in FY’21 and 12.13 crores in FY’20.
Integrated communications solutions provider Beehive’s net billings amounted to Rs 4.62 crores over 16.67 crores of last year. The profit for the year decreased to 79.34 lakhs from 96.41 crores in FY’20.
George John Advertising’s operational revenue slumped and reached Rs 13.81 lakhs from 57.32 lakhs. For L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, the net billings were Rs 44.63 crores as compared to 57.13 crores in FY’20. Profit for the year improved to reach Rs 8. 11 crores from 5.02 crores.
BBH Communications clocked Rs 20.31 crores in operational revenues compared to 28.24 crores in the previous fiscal. The profits for the agency were 18.02 lakh over 32.83 lakhs.
Ecosys OOH advertising’s net billings stood at 3.58 crores over 6.48 crores for the year ending March 2020. The profits went down to 85.29 lakh from 1.21 crores.
On the other hand, Saatchi & Saatchi’s operational revenue improved to reach Rs 37.96 crore in FY’21 as compared to 26.54 crores in the previous fiscal. Its total profit increased to reach Rs 15.41 crores as compared to 4.62 crores in FY’20.
Orchard Advertising’s operational revenues dipped to Rs 10.74 crores from 16.09 crores. However, the company's profits went up to Rs 1.22 crore as compared to losses of 6.45 lakhs in the previous fiscal.
Responding to queries raised by exchange4media.com around the overall indicators for Groupe’s performance in the country, a Publicis spokesperson refrained from sharing details citing, “We do not comment on billings or numbers per entity in a specific country. Having said that, at a Groupe level, we are clocking strong double-digit growth for India in Calendar Year 2021, over Calendar Year 2020. The numbers shared are not reflective of the overall collective financial performance of the group in India which is managed as a country, not by brand; it only looks at certain entities taken in isolation and for a dated period.”
As per Publicis Groupe’s global financial results for H1’20 (Jan-June), India had shown a growth of +3.6%. The public information regarding the complete year’s performance does not explicitly mention India’s numbers, however, the APAC region as a whole is said to have witnessed a dip of 7.4% between January and December 2020.
While the year was certainly difficult for the group, it also managed to add some premium businesses to its portfolio throughout the year including Bharti Axa Life & General Insurance, Hero, PharmEasy, and Emami’s Navratna.
Meanwhile, Starcom India, part of Publicis Groupe India, has ranked #1 in new business in RECMA’s New Business Balance Report for 2021. RECMA is a global independent research firm that evaluates media agencies worldwide. Starcom has gained the top position in competitive pitch wins across Consumer Products (CPG), New-Age, and App Economy which includes clients in auto, D2C, fintech, e-commerce, gaming, etc.
