New Year. New Century. New Wishes.

New Year. New Century. New Wishes.

Groupe brings its past to life with AI and innovation,

to celebrate its first century and set a course for the next

December 04, 2025 – Paris – Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris FR0000130577, CAC 40]

From its beginnings in 1926 as a creative hot shop in Montmartre, to its international expansion, embrace of data and technology, and its position today  as the industry’s leading holding company, the least we can say is Publicis has gone through some transformations over the past 100 years. 

But one tradition hasn’t changed: the annual Wishes. 

And to ring in the new century, who better to create them than Publicis Conseil, the agency built by our founder, Marcel Bleustein Blanchet? 

Blending live action and real actors with the latest in AI production, from the Groupe’s proprietary platforms and tools, they tell the story of the pioneering spirit, endless innovations and resilience that enabled us to withstand  war, fire, economic downturns, technological revolutions and a global pandemic during our first hundred years and positions us to continue to lead and reinvent the industry as we enter our next century - whatever it may hold. 

Discover the story of the lion that never gives up

to watch the exclusive documentary on 100 years of Publicis, featuring Elizabeth Badinter, Maurice Lévy and Arthur Sadoun. 

Arthur Sadoun, Chairman and CEO Publicis Groupe commented: "2026 will be a very special year for us, as we end our first century.

A century where we have turned a small hot shop from Montmartre into the industry’s largest holding company over the last two years. 

A century that has seen the Groupe rise from the ashes - sometimes literally - three times and reinvented itself many more. 

It is this spirit of resilience that has defined us for 100 years and that is captured in our Wishes: a lion never gives up. 

2026 will also be the year where we enter our second century, the beginning of which will undoubtedly be defined by the rise of AI. This film is a human, historical and technological odyssey, that blends our best creative minds with our unmatched capabilities in AI production to embody our belief that the future of AI is our people."

About the film:

A unique ‘hybrid' project

‘A Lion Never Gives Up’ blends live action, GenAI 2D & 3D imaging to reconstitute scenes from our past, reducing the price of scene reconstruction and opening up new creative possibilities. 

A quarter of the film is live action footage, with the rest created by AI, drawing on photos, films and documents from Publicis’ own archives. 

A huge volume of visual assets 

AI prompt artists and AI archivists managed, sourced and catalogued both the volume of real images needed for a project of this size - 4,500 for 150 individual shots - and the AI-generated ones. 

A reinvented editing process: 

In a traditional pipeline, once you reach the editing stage, everything is locked in. Here, everything remained open: each shot could be regenerated from scratch.

Credits:

Publicis Conseil

Global CEO/CCO Leo - CEO/CCO Publicis Conseil - CCO Publicis Groupe France : Marco Venturelli 

Agathe Bousquet – Présidente Publicis Groupe France et Présidente de Publicis Conseil 

Alexis Ben Behe – Directeur de Création Executif / Executive Creative Director

Maud Robaglia – Directrice de Création / Creation Director

Gurvan Prioul – Creative & UX Design Director / Directeur Créatif et UX Design

Hamza Ben Maadoum – Directeur Artistique Junior

Production: Prodigious Paris

CEO Prodigious : Christopher Thiery

MD Prodigious : Caroline Petruccelli

Producteur Exécutif : Yann Dubois

Post producteur : Cédric Herbet

VFX creative Director : Nico Vogel

DOP : Nicolas LOIR 

Chef opérateur son cinéma : Damien PERROLAZ 

Directrice de production : Marie Caron 

Son : Prodigious

Producteur son : Martin Sumeire 

Mix, sound design : KOUZ

Le documentaire “L’avenir est l’affaire de Publicis » 

Réalisation Stanislas Valroff 

Production : Eddy Story

Tourné au Studio XR Prodigious

About Publicis Groupe - The Power of One

Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris FR0000130577, CAC 40] is a global leader in communication. The Groupe is positioned at every step of the value chain, from consulting to execution, combining marketing transformation and digital business transformation. Publicis Groupe is a privileged partner in its clients’ transformation to enhance personalization at scale. The Groupe relies on ten expertise concentrated within four main activities: Communication, Media, Data and Technology. Through a unified and fluid organization, its clients have a facilitated access to all its expertise in every market. Present in over 100 countries, Publicis Groupe employs around 103,000 professionals.

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