Publicis Media Announces French Leadership

Jacob said: “I’m thrilled to announce Sébastien as Chairman and Gautier as CEO for Publicis Media in France. Working with our talented agency brand leads, they will deliver our promise to drive new levels of productivity, business transformation, and client value.

“In Sébastien and Gautier we have a powerful and unrivalled combination of leadership skills. Sébastien is a proven leader with strong with strong transformation abilities. Gautier is also an accomplished leader who has been instrumental in ensuring ZO was one of the best agencies in France. They will deliver our promise to drive new levels of productivity, business transformation, and client value.”

The Publicis Media leadership will oversee all in-market commercial operations. They will be responsible for scaling the strength of Publicis Media across the Group’s four global agency brands - Starcom, Zenith, Mediavest | Spark and Optimedia | Blue 449 - and the seven global practices that support those brand with key capabilities, including: data, content, trading, performance, analytics and business transformation.

Jacob added: “We are reinventing the agency model. Speed and agile capabilities are what determine client success so we have organised ourselves to bring this to market through a new powerful and simplified model for our clients.”

An industry veteran with more than 25 years’ experience, Danet has a formidable track record having worked at some of the leading agencies in France. Most recently responsible for launching Blue 449 globally, Danet has worked with ZenithOptimedia since joining in 1997 as CEO for Zenithmedia France. Quickly promoted to COO of ZenithOptimedia and subsequently CEO, he has held a number of leadership positions including Chair of VivaKi France (Publicis).

“After 10 years of incredible growth of Starcom and ZenithOptimedia France, I’m thrilled to continue this amazing journey alongside Gautier who joined me eight years ago and is such a significant contributor to our success. His promotion as CEO of Publicis Media France, is more than deserved” said Danet.

Picquet joined ZenithOptimedia France in 2009 as Deputy Managing Director responsible for some of the agencies largest clients. In 2010, he was promoted to Managing Director of Zenith and latterly he was appointed COO of ZenithOptimedia in France. During his time at ZO, he has been instrumental in driving major transformation in France, establishing the agency as one of the leading agencies in France.