Publicis Chairman: UK Ad Market Will Not Recover Until 2010

Maurice Levy, Publicis’ chairman, says the UK ad market will not recover from the financial crisis until 2010.

In response to questions about Publicis’ UK business, Levy said that there may be early signs of a recovery at the end of next year but the UK would not show real growth until 2010.

“The financial sector is so damaged [and] it has a strong impact on London and the UK economy because of its size,” he said.

Publicis Groupe has just reported a loss of €250 million so far this year due to the drop in value of the pound and the dollar.

The Groupe’s revenue was €1,105 million during Q3, down from €1,122 million in Q3 last year, though Publicis said yesterday that, adjusting the figures to take into account the drop in the values of the pound and dollar, it showed organic growth of 3.9% globally.

Levy commented: “In this context we believe our industry will face a difficult end of 2008 and a marked slowdown in 2009.”

Following Publicis’ announcement yesterday, Levy revealed plans to push ahead with the digital and high-growth markets in 2009, as well as consolidate revenue by increasing Publicis’ market share in classic creative agencies.

Publicis will also try to maintain staffing levels, according to Levy, though he could not completely rule out redundancies.

“We don’t foresee for the time being any reason why we need any kind of restructuring or redundancy on a broad basis. However, we are not excluding [needing to make cuts] on a given country or given situation basis,” Levy said.

Publicis currently employs 3,000 staff in the UK and a total of 45,000 worldwide.

Publicis Group: www.publicisgroupe.com