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Summary and extracts
1 Market overview
1.1 Introduction
A communications agency handles all or part of a customer's internal or external communications.
- Internal communication: this helps unite employees around the company's values, successes and future objectives. It reinforces the feeling of belonging to the structure through media such as an Internet site, an intranet or reserved newspapers
- External communication: this enables the company to promote itself and project a positive image to its target customers. To achieve this, it relies on media such as social networks, poster campaigns, paper/TV ads, sales brochures, etc.
However, the term "communications agency" can conceal a variety of realities. These structures may operate in communications, but also in advertising and marketing. Very often, these activities are intertwined, as the customer requires several services that the agency is able to provide.
As a result, some agencies can handle the entire communications process for their clients, while others have more specific areas of expertise.
The world of communications is, by its very nature, a volatile and changing one, which is both trend-setting and conservative, as conformist as it is anti-conformist. In this unstable world, however, the underlying trend is clearly identifiable: social networks are playing an increasingly important role in lifestyles and consumer choices. Digital advertising revenues are set to rise by 39.6% between 2019 and 2023.
After a difficult covid period, communications agencies have been posting sales growth since 2020, until they exceed 2019 revenues in 2022. By 2023, agency sales were 10% higher than in 2019.
1.2 A global market full of promise for years to come
While it's relatively complicated to compile data specific only to communications agencies worldwide, it is possible to identify certain market trends thanks to the size of the global market.
Evolution of communication sector figures World, ****-****, billions of dollars Source: ****
Since ****, the global communications market has shown a historic growth rate ...
1.4 A domestic market emerging from a period of turbulence
After a few difficult years for the communications and advertising market, the market has resumed impressive growth and exceeded its **** level, meaning that the French communications market has been catching up since ****. In ****, advertisers' advertising spend reached **.* billion euros, up +*.*% on ****. Despite an economic context marked by weak growth, the market ...
1.5 The health crisis has undermined investment in communications
The Covid-** health crisis has had a rather negative impact on communications spending in France in general, and this has been felt across a number of advertising networks.
Impact of the Covid-** epidemic on television advertising spend France, ****, % (***) Source: ****
All the major television groups have suffered from the consequences of Covid-**, ...
2 Demand analysis
2.1 Leading French advertisers
Advertisers are the natural and most instinctive clients of communications agencies. Here are the top ** French advertisers for ****. [***]
In ****, the soft discount chain Lidl, traditionally in the lead for several years, will give way to E.Leclerc, another food retailer. The latter, which occupied second position the previous year, hasincreased its ...
2.2 A sacrificed expense item?
In ****, the economic crisis, a consequence of the health crisis, led to a drop in business investment.
Investment by non-financial companies France, ****-****, % (***) Source: ****
Business investment plummeted in ****. While the graph presented does not only reflect variations in corporate communications spending, it is an interesting indicator to show that in ****, we ...
2.3 Publiphobia: a decline in consumer attention
In recent years, consumers have developed a certain rejection of brand communication and advertising campaigns.
This manifests itself in a decline in consumer attention: weary of advertising hype, consumers no longer assimilate information, and no longer wish to be solicited as much.
Share of Internet users using an ad blocker France, ...
2.4 Digital communication trends
Digital marketing is becoming an increasingly important part of corporate communications budgets. Cumulative net digital revenues from TV, press, radio and DOOH reach *** million euros, recording growth of *.*% compared to **** and far surpassing **** figures with an increase of **.*%.
Digital media account for **,*** players, **% of whom are exclusive to digital. Paid Social ...
2.5 Demand trends and news
Let's take a look at some of the trends and news shaping communications demand.
CSR in decline
Investment in other media grew by *.*%. Direct marketing, in particular direct mail and unaddressed printed matter, declined due to direct competition from digital media. Events continued to grow strongly, reaching **-**% of pre-**** levels ...
3 Market structure
3.1 The different types of communications agency
There are many different types of communications agency, each fulfilling different missions, but sometimes complementing each other.
Among these different types of agencies, some have more general or more specific skills, depending on the product to be delivered to advertisers and end-customers.
Major integrated players
French groups such as Publicis and ...
3.2 An increasingly concentrated market
Here's a look at recent trends in the number of communications and advertising agencies.
Number of advertising agencies in France France, ****-****, in number of establishments Source: ****
Companies registered under activity code **.**Z "Advertising agency activity" are included here.
The number of advertising agencies has been steadily declining since ****, except for ...
3.3 Communications agencies, a symbol of Parisian macrocephaly
Here's a breakdown of the workforce of communications agencies in France:
The Île-de-France region dominates, accounting for **% of the national workforce in ****. However, the COVID-** crisis and the development of telecommuting practices have largely changed practices in this area: in ****, **% of the national workforce was based in Paris, so there is ...
3.4 Typology of communications agencies by size
As well as being based all over France, communications agencies vary in size and sales profile.
Distribution of number of employees by communications agency France, ****, % Source: ****
In ****, nearly three-quarters of companies registered as communications agencies had fewer than ** employees. The French fabric of this activity is therefore overwhelmingly made up of ...
3.5 Strategic challenges for the value chain
The value chain of the communication and advertising market will most certainly be governed in the years to come by :
Advertisers' spending on media communications
As we saw in *.*, the sales of communications agencies depend to a large extent on the dynamism of economic activity in the broadest sense. If the ...
4 Offer analysis
4.1 From general agencies to the most specialized
While generalist agencies generally define themselves as being able to support their customers in their advertising and marketing activities, from conception to completion, others focus on much more restricted areas of expertise. This is the case of specialized agencies.
Among our areas of expertise, we can find agencies specializing in :
Editorial ...
4.2 An offering that adapts to the new digital reality
The growing importance of digital and new types of media in corporate communications and advertising strategies has had a number of consequences for the advertising agency market.
Competition has changed:
A new type of competition has emerged, driven by consulting firms, which now offer products and services that are similar in ...
4.3 The need to integrate new skills
It seems necessary for communications agencies to extend their areas of expertise, and to develop in-house activities that until now they have been accustomed to outsourcing. This new form of work organization enables them to do two things:
Win as many assignments as possible from advertisers; To meet advertisers' demand for ...
4.4 Price trends
Here is the evolution of design prices for services provided by communications agencies since ****:
Trend in design prices for advertising services France, ****-****, base *** in **** Source: ****
With the exception of ****, prices were down overall (***). In ****, prices fell to adapt to the relative reluctance of advertisers to spend on advertising campaigns during ...
4.5 Numerous means of communication
Communication agencies operate in a wide range of media, with each agency, or each department of a large communication agency, specializing in a particular medium.
First of all, there are the * historical media:
Television Cinema Radio Print media Outdoor advertising
These * media offer a wide variety of communication possibilities for brands ...
5 Regulations
5.1 Advertising regulation and self-discipline
Advertising is protected by copyright, trademark law and unfair competition.
VisitBook Iof the French Intellectual Property Code concerns copyright.
The mere fact of creation gives rise to intellectual property rights over a work: "The author of a work of the mind enjoys an exclusive intangible property right in this work, enforceable ...
6 Positioning the players
6.1 Segmentation
Here's a list of the main players on the French market.
- Publicis Groupe
- Havas Groupe (Groupe Vivendi)
- WPP
- Omnicom Media group France
- Kwanko
- MGA France
- Edelman
- Meero
- Spaag
- Altavia Group
- dentsu France
- Mnstr
- Eskimoz
List of charts presented in this market study
- Sales trends in the communications sector
- Communication market sales
- Size of the global PR agency market
- Size of the global advertising agency market
- Growth in the size of the communications market
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Latest news
Havas launches 400 million euro investment plan - 19/06/2024
- Havas employs 23,000 people worldwide.
- - Publicis: $8.1 billion to acquire Sapient and Epsilon.
- - IPG: $2.3 billion for Acxiom.
- - Dentsu: 1.5 billion for Merkle.
- - Omnicom: $835 million for Flywheel Digital.
- - Recent acquisition by Havas: Majority stake in creative agency Uncommon
Digital marketing: Eskimoz pursues European acquisitions - 27/02/2024
- Eskimoz, the digital marketing agency, was founded in Boulogne-Billancourt in 2010.
- - The company has acquired German competitor Semtrix, which has 50 employees and over 400 corporate customers.
- - The acquisition of Semtrix gives Eskimoz a presence in the top five European countries in terms of spending in its sector.
- - The company has had an office in Madrid since 2020, and has also acquired Milan-based Sembox and London-based Digital Uncut.
- - Eskimoz plans to reach 200 employees and sales of 30 million euros in 2023, up 50% on 2022.
- - Over the next five years, the company is aiming for sales of 100 million euros and plans to expand into the United States.
Publicis launches major artificial intelligence plan - 25/01/2024
- Publicis has a market capitalization of 22.5 billion euros.
- Publicis has around 100,000 employees.
- Publicis has 45,000 engineers, IT consultants and data experts.
- The group unveils CoreAI, an internal platform to be used by all employees.
- Publicis bought Sapient for $3.7 billion in 2014.
- Publicis also bought Epsilon for $4.4 billion in 2019.
- Publicis has data from 2.3 billion profiles worldwide and trillions of data points analyzing the commercial performance of campaigns.
Havas takes the plunge when it leaves Vivendi's fold - 14/12/2023
- Havas is expected to be relisted within twelve to eighteen months.
- The enterprise value of Havas is estimated at between 2.5 and 2.8 billion euros.
- Last summer, Havas acquired a majority stake in the creative agency Uncommon for several tens of millions of euros.
- Havas is a major player in France and the UK.
- Havas is expected to generate sales of around 2.8 billion euros in 2023.
- Havas generates 35% of its revenues in the United States, compared with nearly 60% for the Anglo-Saxon giants and Publicis.
- Havas' operating margin is just over 11%, compared with a range of 15% to 18% for WPP, IPG, Omnicom and Publicis.
Omnicom strengthens its presence in e-commerce - 30/10/2023
- Omnicom has acquired Flywheel Digital for $835 million, the largest acquisition in its history.
- The e-commerce and retail media sector is expected to generate over $100 billion in revenues by 2022, a figure that GroupM (WPP) predicts will double in the next five years.
- Flywheel Digital has over 2,000 employees and almost 4,500 customers.
- Omnicom's e-commerce and retail media competitor, Publicis, recently acquired CitrusAd for around 100 million euros, and Profitero for 200 million euros.
- Omnicom is the sector's second-largest market capitalization, just behind Publicis.
Havas to launch a new network - 20/10/2023
- Havas was headed by Yannick Bolloré for ten years.
- Net income for the year ended September 30 was 654 million euros.
- 40% of Havas business is generated in North America
- The Havas Group has made nine acquisitions in 2022 and six from 2023.
- Havas acquired a 51% majority stake in Uncommon, an independent UK creative agency.
- Havas formed a partnership with Mirakl to create the largest independent retail media network for brands and retailers.
- Havas is about to launch a new international network called Havas CX to offer clients "personalized experiences".
- Canal+, another Vivendi entity, grew by 5.7%.
- Revenues from Studiocanal, part of Canal+, rose by 23.6%.
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the communications agency market | France
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