Data Collaboration Takes Centre Stage in the Global Agency Battlefield
The acquisition of LiveRamp by Publicis has propelled data co-creation to a central position in the global agency battle to win. The holdco aims to win the data accuracy and scale race.
In the middle of May, Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun sent shockwaves through the advertising industry by announcing the acquisition of LiveRamp.
In the acquisition release, Sadoun exclaimed that the global agency holdco group was now in a position to help brands generate new data assets that the companies could not build alone. By securing LiveRamp’s identity business, Publicis could not only help brands tell them who their customers are, they could finally make data collaboration a profitable reality.
“Combined with Epsilon’s identity, LiveRamp’s collaborative clean rooms, data connectivity, market place and partner and agent network will build a leader in data co-creation that will enable clients to collaborate with greater speed, security & scale,” the announcement said. “Unifying fragmented internal and partner data to enable secure, seamless collaboration across organizations without exposing sensitive underlying data.”
Sadoun has moved to fix a major problem for brands seeking growth. The Frenchman is also delivering growth for his company, now the dominant agency holdco in the market. He announced in mid-July, in a call to analysts, that Publicis Groupe had landed six major new clients in the first half of 2026, worth around €300 million in net new revenue. He didn’t name the client wins, however, industry speculation pointed to securing media briefs with Microsoft and HP.
Data Co-Creation is a Growth Opportunity
The LiveRamp acquisition was couched in the context of helping brands win in the new agentic media and marketing world. However, Sadoun and his troops blindsided the rest of the industry by taking the data collaboration initiative - one that had so far failed to excite brands - and positioning it squarely as a data co-creation opportunity that can deliver new customer growth for its big brand customers.
He has also captured the imagination of brands who understand that there is a new advertising operating system in play, and that requires access to the best data, and an architecture that enables brands to build their own data systems, and deploy them across a new agentic AI landscape.
In an AlikeAudience blog I penned in February 2025, the data collaboration challenge was outlined. A report from consultancy firm Winterberry Group noted there were significant challenges in creating an effective data collaboration strategy.
“Garbage in, garbage out” remains a fundamental challenge in realizing the full potential of data layer investments,” the Winterberry report said. The effectiveness of leveraging data hinges on its accuracy, consistency, and validity for intended purposes. While incomplete data was once a significant obstacle, advancements in AI have mitigated this concern to some extent. However, challenges such as siloed information, inconsistent formats, outdated data, and evolving privacy regulations persist, collectively undermining data reliability and demanding immediate attention from marketers.”
Publicis, which was universally laughed at in 2019 by creating Marcel, an internal AI tool, has also bought other data companies to bridge the understanding gap between its brands and their customers.
By acquiring Epsilon (2019), Lotame (2025) , and now LiveRamp, Sadoun’s promise is that brands don’t have to worry about these problems - Publicis will enable brands to create a unified and global data stack.
Publicis Squares Up Against the Big Platforms
As New York-based education consultancy University of Digital noted a month after the LiveRamp acquisition, Sadoun is no idiot and he has a big game plan to win against agency rivals, programmatic players, and the big platforms.
“It makes sense for Publicis. They are zigging while other agency holdcos are zagging. They’re getting back to the roots of the agency holdco business model from the TV era: buy media in bulk so their clients can get lower rates versus if they were to negotiate with publishers on their own. And somewhere along the way, start taking margin on that media as well. The difference between then and now is that we live in a digital world, and data is what juices up the value of media. Data is Publicis’s media margin opportunity. Enter Epsilon + Lotame + LiveRamp.”
As the key market players tussle for a competitive advantage in the new AI-powered media buying business, Sadoun knows that being able to provide a quality data product will enable it to survive and thrive.
“Publicis wants to continue to win accounts based on their data story, wrap it all up in a performance-based buying model for marketers, double-dip on agency fees and principal-based media margin, and compete with the likes of Google, Meta, and Amazon, while taking down the likes of The Trade Desk,” said University of Digital. “They believe that making margin on as much media as possible is what will help them transform from a traditional agency holdco (that is getting squeezed from all sides) into an industry behemoth. And that data (LiveRamp) is the key to unlocking that transformation into a modern, data-driven, media buying business.”
Part of that transformation requires a new approach to data curation and synthesis. In the acquisition release, Publicis said brands will be able to generate their own proprietary intelligence by creating new data assets from unique combinations of signals and datasets, unlocking hidden insights that drive smarter strategies and a sustainable competitive AI advantage. Also, by bringing LiveRamp into its portfolio of data assets, the payoff for Publicis is likely more than just winning new client mandates, as industry newsletter Quo Vadis noted.
“Although it could be a meaningful competitive advantage to have differentiated data assets in new client pitches, we think the real value is in using the data infrastructure as a centerpiece to achieve a 10x return (or more) and gain a competitive leverage with walled gardens,” Quo Vadis wrote. The writer of Quo Vadis, Tom Triscari, also said “the future value of advertising may belong to whoever pushes the Scale–Accuracy frontier outward the furthest and fastest.”
Its global rivals, WPP Media, Omnicom-IPG, and fourth-placed Dentsu, won’t stay still as the AI/Agentic race heats up.
However, it’s not only the data collaboration and identity layer that Sadoun has been craftily building. In March, Publicis acquired AdgeAI, an “AI-powered analytics platform optimizes creative and video performance by analysing engagement and conversion data, identifying the most effective creative elements, and delivering actionable insights that guide content strategy and improve ROI across campaigns.”
Publicis said too often clients are overwhelmed by creative assets without knowing what works, what does not, whether their messaging is driving conversions and contributing to sales. AdgeAI brings predictive performance to the Publicis suite, and along with a solid identity and data platform, the holdco believes it can outflank its rivals.