Publicis Buys LATAM-Based BR Media // Ramps Up Influencer Agency M&A
February 28, 2025 by Chris Erwin
RockWater Roundup
M&A analysis of the creator economy to make you a better operator and investor.
Today we discuss Publicis Groupe’s acquisition of BR Media Group, including the deal details, strategic rationale, valuation estimate, growing LATAM market, and why large ad agency hold co’s are buying scaled influencer marketing capabilities.
Let’s break it down…
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–TARGET: BR Media Group–
Overview
- Leading influencer marketing and content company in Latin America
- 500+ global and LATAM clients
- Founded 2012 by Celso Ribeiro and Danilo Ricchetti Basso
- 231 associated members on LinkedIn
- Based in São Paulo, Brazil
Company Highlights
- 500k+ creator network, 80% of region’s top influencers
- Clients include Unilever, Amazon, Ambev
Business Lines
- Influencer Marketing: End-to-end solutions for campaigns
- Content Creation: Produces content tailored to LATAM audiences
- Relationship Management: Offers influencer and brand relationship management
- Direct-to-Creator Services: Offers platforms and tools that support creators
BR Media Ecosystem
- MIS: IM tech platform for brands, collects data for performance marketing campaigns
- FAROL: Creator accelerator, provides consulting and content services
- SPACE: Creative studio for brands and creators
Capital Markets History
- Nov 2022: Raised $20M at $36.9M pre-money valuation, led by Bridge One (PitchBook)
- NOTE: Bridge One is a Brazilian equity investor in B2B tech and tech-enabled co’s
–BUYER: Publicis Groupe–
Overview
- Diversified agency holding company
- Largest agency holdco by net bookings
- 103K employees in 100+ countries
- Founded 1926
- Based in Paris
Stock Price
- €103.75 as of 2.24.25
- Up 3.5% MoM
- Up 5.4% YoY
Financials
(via public filings and stockanalysis.com)
- FY2024 Revenue: €16B
- FY2024 EBITDA: €3B
Valuation
- Mkt Cap: €26B
- C&CE: €3.6B
- Total Debt: €5.2B
- Enterprise Value: €27.5B
- 8.7x 2024 EBITDA
Company Highlights
- Operates in 100+ countries
- Major creative agencies owned include Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis Worldwide
- In 2024 became world’s largest advertising company by net bookings
Business Lines
- Creative & Brand Advertising: Full-service ad agencies and digital creative shops
- Media & Data: Precision-targeted media buying, audience insights, and data-driven marketing
- Performance & Commerce: Digital transformation, eCommerce solutions, and AI-driven customer engagement
Capital Markets History
- 24 acquisitions over past 5 years
- BRM marks 3rd LATAM acquisition over last few years
- 2022: acquired Retargetly, Argentina-based a data and perf mktg platform
- 2023: acquired Practia, Argentina-based tech / digital transformation agency
- 2024 M&A:
- Atomic 212 – Digital Marketing Agency
- Wibilong – Digital Marketing SaaS Platform Provider
- Picture Motion – Film Marketing Agency
- 3dids – Digital Marketing Agency
- The Mars Agency – CPG Marketing Consultancy
- Dysrupt – Social Event Management agency
- Influential – Influencer Marketing Platform (our deal writeup)
- Downtown Paris – Creative Agency
–DEAL DETAILS–
Overview
- Announced 2.18.25
- Deal details undisclosed
- Transaction close pending closing conditions and regulatory approvals
Post-Deal Operations
- BR Media Group to continue operating under Publicis umbrella
- Expected integration with Publicis’ Epsilon and AI-powered media solutions
Strategic Rationale
- Provides access to 22,000+ LATAM influencers, enhancing Publicis’ digital and influencer capabilities through BR Media’s roster of micro and nano influencers
- Strengthens Publicis’ ability to integrate influencer marketing with their AI-powered media planning, incl capabilities acquired from recent Influential acquisition
- Aligns with Publicis’ shift toward performance-driven marketing, leveraging data and measurement tools
- Complements Retargetly and Practia LATAM acquisitions, supporting Publicis’ digital capabilities in region
- Increases Publicis’ regional presence in LATAM, a fast-growing digital advertising market
–WHAT ELSE I FIND INTERESTING–
- This is Publicis’ 3rd acquisition in LATAM since 2022. The deal signals that the region is a growing priority for Publicis, and likely a market that other ad agencies will focus on. The main driver here is the rapid regional ad revenue growth. In 2024, Publicis recorded only €374M of LATAM revenues, which grew 9.7% over 2023, and 22.9% on an organic basis. Per the below chart, LATAM is Publicis’s smallest but fastest-growing geo market segment by revenue, and by a high 3-4x multiple VS its other geo segments.
Breakdown of FY 2024 net revenue by region
| EUR, million |
Net revenue |
|||
| Region | FY 2024 | FY 2023 | Reported Growth | Organic Growth |
| North America | 8,583 | 8,050 | +6.6% | +5.1% |
| Europe | 3,384 | 3,172 | +6.7% | +5.4% |
| Asia Pacific | 1,218 | 1,156 | +5.4% | +6.3% |
| Middle East & Africa | 406 | 380 | +6.8% | +7.4% |
| Latin America | 374 | 341 | +9.7% | +22.9% |
| Total | 13,965 | 13,099 | +6.6% | +5.8% |
- Estimating the EBITDA valuation multiple for BRM. Valuation info wasn’t publicly disclosed. But here’s some rough speculation → We estimated that Publicis bought Influential last year for 15x LTM EBITDA, including earnout. Influential revenue was growing fast, at 50% YoY. BRM has a similar IM platform business model to Influential, and is operating in the fast-growing LATAM market, per above market breakout data. We also know that influencer-led marketing spend is outpacing overall ad spend growth. So, once could estimate that BRM is growing at a similar rate or even faster than Influential, at above 50% YoY. Apply a slight discount for Brazil vs US due to perceived talent pool quality, proximity to global brand marketer HQs, and macro economic stability. Therefore, assuming the same strategic logic and deal structure, and holding all other variables equal, one could make the case that Publicis is paying a similar or higher multiple to Influential – I’d thus put the EBITDA multiple in 15 to 20x range.
- Agency hold co buyers are targeting IM platforms with scaled, qualified influencer networks. In 2024 Publicis bought US-based Influential for $500M (incl earnout), which boasted a network of 3.5M influencers (our deal analysis). In 2023 WPP acquired Obviously, a tech-driven IM agency. For the deal we’re discussing today, BR Media represents 80+% of the LATAM region’s top influencers. The size of these IM platforms is important since the large agency hold co’s need meaningful scale in influencer-based revenues, service capacity, and team size for the transactions to be a strategic fit as they expand their digital offerings to clients. Each agency hold co likely does $10B+ in revenue, has thousands of large global brand marketer clients, and enterprise value in the billions. Without scale in the aforementioned categories, the deals are just not material to the agency hold co’s businesses, and aren’t worth pursuing. Which raises a point about which scaled IM platforms remain. In the US, there’s Later (just bought Mavely), Grin, Aspire, Viral Nation. Curious to when those will transact.
- The buyerverse for small and medium-size IM and content performance agencies is broad, and M&A activity is ramping. Just read our deal blog. Recent deals we cover include SAMY Alliance buying Content Lab (US, APAC), Stagwell buying Create.Group (MENA), and Later buying Mavely (US).
I’m the founder of RockWater Industries. We do M&A and strategy advisory for creator economy and digital agencies. From buy / sell-side M&A and fundraising, to consumer research and go-to-market planning.
DM me on LinkedIn or email me chris @ wearerockwater dot com
