Arthur Sadoun, chief executive of the advertising group Publicis, was asked during the analyst call on third-quarter results on 13 October 2026 about clients that switch agencies without a formal pitch. CEOs, he said, are increasingly getting involved in the agency’s work because of AI, and he also links the growth of Connected Media to client demand for AI. Connected Media is the part of the group to which Publicis added a creator agency in France. “This has to start from the top,” he added, speaking about companies transforming with AI. The question also touched on PepsiCo, whose CEO was reported to have been personally involved in the brand’s move to Publicis, but the answer stayed general.
Sadoun did not name the clients, even when he credited the group’s technology arm with an “instrumental” role in winning the two biggest accounts of the year without a pitch. It was only the trade site exchange4media that added that they were likely Microsoft and PepsiCo. In April 2026 Microsoft moved its media planning and buying to Publicis after a closed-door review without a formal pitch. In September PepsiCo named Publicis its exclusive lead global media partner following a review of media capabilities. The One PepsiCo model brings together media strategy, buying, data and technology across more than 200 markets.
Publicis puts a French creator agency alongside media and data
Connected Media is the model through which Publicis combines media and data, and it is bringing creators into it too. In the third-quarter 2026 report it accounts for 62% of the group’s net revenue. A European example is Point d’Orgue, an influencer marketing agency bought in August by the group’s French arm. The agency exclusively represents around forty creators for French and international brands. Point d’Orgue’s creators have thus ended up in one model with Epsilon France’s data and Publicis Media’s media services.
In Czechia, money spent on creator campaigns grew faster in 2025 than any other part of advertising, according to an estimate by the Czech Association of Communication Agencies (AKA) and the agency Skillminers. The market grew by 29%. Net investment in campaigns reached as much as CZK 2 billion. Add production, agency commissions, platforms and campaign management software to the creators’ fees, and the estimate comes to as much as roughly CZK 6 billion a year.
A platform for measuring the return on influencer marketing is sold by the company Spiry, which Dima Beseda is building. His LinkedIn post about Publicis opens with the lines “CMOs just lost the most important meeting of the year. Publicis Groupe now pitches CEOs directly.” Yet Sadoun spoke of Publicis talking more directly to CEOs, alongside CMOs. Even a selection without a pitch starts at leadership level, often with a conversation between the agency’s chief executive and the brand’s CMO.
Who decides on AI in companies
Decision-making on AI in companies is moving from CIOs to CEOs. In a survey of 2,360 executives by the consultancy BCG (AI Radar 2026), published in January, 72% of CEOs described themselves as the main decision-makers on AI in their company, twice the share of a year earlier.
In September 2026 Gartner analyst Andrew Frank described the decisions of clients such as PepsiCo as buying the capabilities Publicis has assembled around campaigns. The whole framework of buying criteria has changed, he said. A stripped-down review condenses the usual 18 months to just two or three, consultant Steve Boehler calculates.
The PepsiCo review concerned media. Rival holding company Omnicom is expected to keep working for the brand on creative, sports and PR. Analyst Brian Wieser traces Publicis revenues more to its core business, such as buying media on its own account (principal media buying), than to an AI-driven rise in media spend.
PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta himself highlighted the move of the company’s media buying to Publicis in front of investors. According to Digiday, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies rarely talk up an agency to Wall Street; that is usually the CMO’s job. Laguarta sees the partnership as “an important capability for us”. Thanks to it, he said, PepsiCo will be able to invest “with much more data, much more granularity”. According to the same piece, he spoke about Publicis the way a company talks about something it has bought.
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