Publicis invests $500 million in creator-led marketing with acquisition of Influential

Publicis Groupe is making a serious bet on content creator-led marketing with the reported $500 million acquisition of Influential, which it calls the “largest influencer marketing company in the world by revenue.”

“Influencer marketing is revolutionizing the media and advertising industry and has become a ubiquitous growth driver for brands due to the channel’s unique ability to meaningfully connect with their customers,” Publicis Groupe said in a statement. “By 2025, social media spend is expected to reach $186 billion, exceeding global linear TV ad spend for the first time, with influencer marketing as its fastest growing segment.”

The France-based agency made $14.2 billion last year building marketing campaigns for major clients including Walmart, Cartier, Nestle, L’Oreal, P&G, and Heineken. These ads typically involve celebrities or paid actors, and deploy across traditional outlets like TV. But Publicis is clearly paying attention to the fact that influencer marketing is now a $7.02 billion business in the U.S. alone, according to eMarketer, and will only keep growing.

By acquiring Influential–which was founded in 2014 by CEO Ryan Detert and is based in Las Vegas–Publicis is tapping in a company that says it has a network of over 3.5 million creators and 300 brands, with 100 billion data points about those creators and brands, and how they make marketing work for them. Its plan is to have Influential continue operating independently under its umbrella, with its services and expertise no doubt put to use across Publicis Groupe’s dozens of subsidiaries.

“With the new creator economy set to exceed linear TV in ad spend next year, thanks to Influential we are able to fully embrace its outsized influence and put it at the service of all our clients,” Arthur Sadoun, Publicis Groupe’s CEO and Chairman, said in a statement.

To the Wall Street Journal, he added that he wants businesses to understand influencer marketing is uniquely powerful, because “what others say about their brand is sometimes more important than what they say themselves.”

Publicis says it intends to focus significant energy on connected TV and creators moving forward, embracing what it calls a “new media ecosystem.”

We’re not so sure about the “new” part of that. Creators have been working for over a decade to become a valued voice in brands’ and marketers’ eyes–and now they’re finally being embraced by the industry’s biggest players as the powerhouse they are.