Leo is born, the result of the merger of Leo Burnett and Publicis Worldwide

Jane Anderson
Jane Anderson
Logotipo de la nueva agencia Leo

Publicis Groupe has announced the merger of two of its agency networks, Leo Burnett and Publicis Worldwide. The company resulting from the operation will be called Leo and, according to the group, is designed to boost creativity in the age of artificial intelligence for the world’s largest global brands.

At a time when global brands and challenges require outsized creativity to drive large-scale transformation, personalized content and connected brand experiences, Leo is designed to deliver solutions for today’s world.”Publicis Groupe said in a statement.

Arthur Sadoun describes Leo as “a modern creative constellation of award-winning talents”

The announcement was accompanied by a video starring Arthur Sadoun, CEO of the company. In it he explains that while his main competitor will spend the year carrying out an operation that seeks efficiency and cost reduction, which can be inferred as an allusion to the purchase of IPG by Omnicom, Publicis will continue betting on creativity.

Sadoun describes Leo as “a modern creative constellation of award-winning talent that combines the human vision of Leo Burnett and the innovation of Publicis Worldwide”. ensures that His proposal is “Hi x AI”, that is, human ideas and insights amplified by the power of artificial intelligence, data and technology.

As the group points out, Leo will have a creative force of 15,000 professionals, composed of the 8,000 that were part of Leo Burnett and the 7,000 of Publicis Worldwide, and will cover 90 different markets.
In this way, Leo will become part of the Publicis Groupe brand portfolio, which includes the agencies Saatchi & Saatchi, LePub and BBH, Fallon, The Community and Le Truc.

The image of Leo combines the emblematic lion with the recognizable calligraphic expression of Leo Burnett

Leo’s image combines the emblematic lion, also shaped like a sun, that characterizes Publicis, with the recognizable calligraphic expression of the name Leo Burnett. With this, the Burnett surname that has identified this agency since Leo Noble Burnett founded Leo Burnett Co. in Chicago in 1935 disappears.

Marco Venturelli, CEO and Executive Creative Director of Publicis Conseil, and Agathe Bousquet, President of Publicis France, they will be Co-Presidents of Leo. For its part, Gareth Goodall Director of Strategy at Publicis Creative, he will play the same role in the new company. And Andrew Bruce, CEO of Publicis Groupe Canada, will assume the role of President of Leo North America.

According to AdAgeLeo Burnett’s regional offices will now be called simply Leo. For example, Leo Burnett Chicago will now be called Leo Chicago. The same will happen with the offices of Publicis Worldwide, except Publicis Conseil – agency of the year at the last edition of Cannes Lions – which will retain its name. In this way, Publicis New York will be known as Leo New York.

I have never believed that creative efficiency should mean fewer brands and fewer operations. These are big ideas from creative minds that are nurtured by a strong agency culture to impact our clients’ businesses.” Sadoun points out in the statement. “In today’s world, it’s also about greater collaboration and greater access to capabilities. That’s exactly what Leo represents.”.

We have never had so many tools to better understand and connect with people. However, creativity remains, and always will be, a messy human process.“; commented, for his part, Marco Venturelli, Co-President and Creative Director of Leo. “Leo will be a truly global community of creative and strategic talents, connected to each other to create at scale in a more human way.”.