MAM
Adobe and Publicis Groupe team up to deliver a global marketing platform
MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe and Adobe have announced a strategic partnership to deliver the Publicis Groupe Always-On Platform, the first end-to-end marketing management platform from Publicis Groupe that automates and connects all components of a client’s marketing efforts.
The platform will standardise on Adobe Marketing Cloud, and all agencies across Publicis Groupe will be able to create engaging content, access marketing intelligence, identify and build audience segments, deliver campaigns, and track and measure marketing performance through a unified technology and data structure.
It will be anchored in VivaKi as an open framework so that every agency can deploy and brand it uniquely for use. Agencies currently slated to access the system include BBH, DigitasLBi, Leo Burnett, MSLGROUP, Publicis Worldwide, Razorfish, Rosetta, Saatchi & Saatchi, Starcom MediaVest Group, VivaKi and ZenithOptimedia.
The collaboration is expected to drive growth across the two companies, and accelerate Publicis Groupe’s goal to make combined digital and emerging market revenue 75 per cent of its multi-billion dollar business by 2018.
“Adobe and Publicis Groupe are a powerful combination and we have been delivering marketing innovation together for more than two decades,” said Adobe president and CEO Shantanu Narayen. “The massive scale of agency services across the Publicis networks, coupled with Adobe’s unique leadership in digital marketing solutions, will enable Publicis clients to develop best-in-class digital marketing capabilities that drive growth.”
“By embarking on this journey with Adobe, a powerhouse in creative and marketing solutions, Publicis Groupe will be the first agency holding company to offer clients an integrated set of digital marketing solutions across all key marketing and creative agencies” said Publicis Groupe chairman and CEO Maurice Levy. “We are solving a core marketing dilemma for our Clients by enabling them to more personally interact with their customers and tell relevant, powerful stories at scale, while successfully navigating the complex digital landscape.”
“We are essentially creating a new operating model stitching together multi-agency services, technologies and workflows to the benefit of our clients,” said VivaKi’s chief growth officer Stephan Beringer. “By converging the forces of marketing technology, data, creativity and strategy, we eliminate silos, optimize delivery and maximize the investments made in ad budgets, talent and consumer engagement.”
The platform is scheduled to provide Publicis Groupe agencies and their clients with four solutions to solve current marketing challenges:
1. Multi-touch Attribution. The Always-On platform will move the market beyond “last click” attribution by providing options for a multi-touch model that identifies and assigns true value to specific marketing components – online and off line – that help spur customer action. Publicis Groupe agencies will be able to enhance their attribution and planning solutions with Adobe’s Master Marketing Profile and Media Mix Modeling, as well as Adobe Analytics, to measure the most effective touch-points across channels and model investments.
2. Unparalleled Audience Understanding. Always-On encompasses a data management platform (DMP) which will produce a robust set of customer profiles, segmentations and vertical insights. VivaKi will also develop a data co-op where clients, and ultimately publishers, can opt in and contribute data in exchange for even richer customer profiles, vertical insights and customer intelligence. Adobe Audience Manager and Adobe Media Optimizer will drive optimal targeting and cross-channel campaign performance.
3. Campaign/Marketing Automation. As screens and devices proliferate, Always-On is expected to automate marketing effort across multiple channels. With the goal of integrating Adobe Campaign with analytics and segmentation tools, the platform will empower Publicis Groupe agencies to drive campaign efficiency and engagement across the full customer journey to reach audiences that matter at the highest moments of receptivity. The automated integration will allow all marketing functions to coordinate efforts by acting on the same data. This includes an agreement across the agencies for cross channel campaign management for search and social buy side optimization through Adobe Media Optimizer.
4. Content and Experience Management. The digital asset management capability within Adobe Experience Manager is expected to enable teams, wherever they sit inside the network, to easily and effectively create, manage, and control valuable digital assets. From the moment an asset is created to the point of delivery, the platform will enable workgroups to create and manage assets through the entire lifecycle of global branding and multichannel distribution with a single, easily accessible digital repository.
Both Adobe and Publicis Groupe will invest in joint sales and marketing, including retaining a dedicated team of strategists and business development specialists to innovate and bring the platform to market.
MAM
VML India lands two finalist spots at Cairns Hatchlings 2026
The Mumbai agency is back in Australia with two teams, a UN brief and 24 hours to impress
MUMBAI: VML India is heading to Australia again. The Mumbai-based creative agency has secured two finalist spots at the Cairns Hatchlings 2026 competition, one in the Audio category and one in Design, making it the only Indian agency to have reached the finals in both editions of the contest since its launch in 2025.
Four people will make the trip. Senior copywriter Shilpi Dey and senior art director Raj Thakkar will compete in Audio. Art directors Shabbir and Shruti Negi will go head-to-head with the world’s best in Design. The finals take place at the Cairns Convention Centre from 13th May, culminating in an awards ceremony on 15th May.
The work that got them there is worth examining. For the Audio category, Dey and Thakkar tackled a brief for LIVE LIKE MMAD with a campaign called Inner Voice, Interrupted. Using spatial audio techniques, the campaign recreates the overwhelming self-doubt that descends after a long workday, physically panning negative thoughts left and right before cutting the noise entirely to reveal a confident inner voice. Strategically targeted at commuters via Spotify during evening rush hours, the campaign reframes the hours after work as an opportunity for personal growth and charitable action.
For the Design category, Shabbir and Negi worked on a brief for Canteen’s Bandanna Day, a campaign highlighting how cancer pushes teenagers out of their own defining moments. Using a pixelated design language to create stark contrast between a blurred world of isolation and a focused world of connection, the campaign, titled The Flipside of Cancer, shows teenagers fading into the background of birthdays, skateparks and school proms. As a Canteen bandanna appears, the blur flips and the teenager snaps back into sharp focus.
Kalpesh Patankar, group chief creative officer of VML India, made no attempt to disguise his satisfaction. “We are immensely proud to see our teams consistently excel on the Cairns Hatchlings platform since its inception,” he said. “They have masterfully tackled challenging briefs across diverse categories, demonstrating both layered storytelling and a unique creative approach. This exceptional teamwork is truly inspiring.”
Dey and Thakkar, returning to the finals after last year’s run, were candid about the demands of the audio medium. “It’s one of the most demanding mediums, where we only have a few seconds to capture a listener’s world with sound alone, so absolute clarity is essential,” they said. “The true measure of creative work is its ability to create positive change, and our audio submission was made to help those who need it most while encouraging people to silence the inner voices that hold them back.”
Shabbir and Negi, competing in Design for the first time, described the experience as “a completely different beast.” “We see it as an opportunity to showcase our expertise, raise the bar, and challenge ourselves in new ways, while also learning from creative minds from across the globe,” they said.
In Australia, the four finalists will face a live 24-hour brief from the United Nations before presenting in a live pitch session. Twenty-four hours, one brief, one shot. VML India has been here before. It knows exactly what is at stake.
