Yves Gougoux has taken over the helm of Publicis Conseil in Paris, France’s largest ad agency and the flagship office of Publicis Group.
At the same time, he will continue to oversee the activities of Publicis Canada, the parent of Publicis-BCP in Montreal and Publicis-SMW in Toronto.
Gougoux, president, ceo and shareholder of Publicis Canada, now adds executive president of Publicis Conseil and member of the Worldwide Executive Committee to his business card.
He replaces Maurice Levy, president of Publicis Group, who is stepping away from day-to-day operation of the Paris agency.
Publicis Conseil employs more than 450 people and has annual billings of $700 million.
Publicis acquired a presence in Canada in 1996 when it bought 70% of Publicite BCP, the agency Gougoux joined as president in 1984 and purchased in 1989.
Publicis Group has agencies in 105 cities in 64 countries around the world and employs more than 7,000 people. The network’s 1997 billings were $7 billion, yielding revenues of more than $1 billion.
Sidebar: Publicis’ new-style agency
Publicis Group is experimenting with a new agency concept that got its start a few years ago in the Netherlands at Publicis Dialogue, says Maurice Levy, president of the Paris-based agency network.
Levy, who was in Canada last month to announce the appointment of Yves Gougoux as president of Publicis Group’s flagship agency Publicis Conseil in Paris, says the essential component of this new-style agency is a planning area called Media Conception.
Staffed with creative media people who are the hub of the advertising process, Media Conception chooses, or invents, the media or means for distributing the client’s message. Then it takes its ideas to the agency’s creative department, where they become the foundation of the client’s ad campaign.
Levy says the new advertising approach is a response to the increasing fragmentation of the consumer marketplace and growing availability of non-traditional media vehicles.
Levy describes Publicis Dialogue – which specializes in below-the-line advertising disciplines such as direct marketing, promotions and point-of-sale – as an ‘off-media’ agency because its approach to solving client communications problems starts with an understanding of how best to reach the consumer.
He says Dialogue has grown rapidly because of client demand for more effective use of media, adding it is now larger than Publicis’ traditional ad agency in the Netherlands.
The Media Conception concept has since been adopted by Publicis’s agencies in Germany, France and Brazil and is expected to soon come to Canada. PS
