Despite a challenging 2022 marked by inflation, COVID-19 in China and a slowdown in global advertising spending, Publicis last year twice raised its guidance as client spending on digital marketing boosted sales.

"We haven't noticed a change in the behaviour of our customers due to inflation," Chief Executive Arthur Sadoun told journalists in a call regarding Thursday's results, echoing statements from October.

Its digital and data-driven businesses Epsilon and Sapient, the former of which was acquired in 2019, had organic growth of 12% and 19%, respectively, in 2022.

"Now, we're on the lookout for so-called bolt-on acquisitions," Sadoun added.

CLIENTS PREFER RETAIL MEDIA

Responding to a question on clients' preferences for ad placement, Sadoun said there was a transfer away from traditional television and towards smart TVs, as well as towards retail media in general and first-party data.

"There is an underlying trend towards our clients who say: instead of going to invest on CNN, we're going to go to Walmart.com because by definition it's more efficient, it's more direct, I'm building a direct relationship with my consumer."

He added that clients' willingness to continue advertising on Twitter varied on a case-by-case basis.

Publicis, which owns ad agencies Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi, hopes to navigate a global shift in advertising trends as Alphabet Inc's Google looks to phase out the use of third-party cookies.

The company recorded organic growth of +10.1% in 2022 with net revenue reaching 12.57 billion euros ($13.81 billion), against 10.49 billion in 2021.

($1 = 0.9102 euro)

(Reporting by Olivier Sorgho in Gdansk; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

By Olivier Sorgho