Publicis Groupe Middle East & Turkey was named the Holding Company of the Year 2025 at Campaign Agency of the Year Middle East Awards.
Sharing why the holding company was chosen as the winner for 2025, the jurors said, Publicis Groupe is “A talent-first holding company” that is “translating platform integration and AI investments into market leadership, sticky client relationships, and cultural impact.”
Tahaab Rais, Group Chief Strategy Officer, Publicis Groupe Middle East & Turkey shared his reflections after the Groupe’s win, which was one of the biggest honours of the 2025 Awards.
What does this award represent at a group level, beyond individual agency wins?
We have been winning at these consistently for the past four years now. What’s special about this particular award is what’s special about these awards overall – that they are judged independently by clients. This award for Holding Company of the Year is proof that our system works. We’ve had successful business wins, high client retention beyond the effective acquisitions and game-changing work from our company.
The award recognises our operating model where creativity, media, data, technology and transformation are designed to move together, not compete internally. It validates Power of One, embedded in us, quite frankly, being a ‘Category of One’, as a real commercial and cultural advantage – not a slogan. As our Group CEO Bassel Kakish puts it, this is about being “a talent-first ecosystem and the best integrated marketing platform in the region”. That collaborative intelligence is our win.
How have collaboration and integration shaped performance across the network this year?
Collaboration stopped being episodic and became a default behaviour. It has not just been in pitch rooms but in daily delivery, client consultancy and problem-solving. Strategy sits upstream and downstream. Media informs creativity earlier. Data and CX shape ideas, not just measurement. This integration has driven a higher win rate, stronger retention and faster speed to value. Clients are not buying agencies; they are buying into outcomes. Internally, collaboration has also reduced friction, protected talent during volatile moments, and sustained performance when the market was anything but forgiving.
The fact that we have also won Integrated Marketing Agency of the Year is recognition again from our clients of our integrated and collaborative intelligence and effectiveness; it positions us clearly in the market as the only ones who can do what we do for our clients.
Which industry shift most influenced how you operated in 2025?
The single biggest shift has been accountability. AI accelerated everything, but it also stripped away excuses. Clients no longer accept activity without impact. In 2025, we operated with the focus that every idea, tool and dollar, for our paying clients, had to prove value. That pushed us to move from marketing services to marketing transformation, from outputs to operating systems and outcomes. AI is not treated as novelty or replacement, but as infrastructure. Creativity has had to work harder, faster and closer to business results.
What role does scale play today and where does it need to be rethought?
Scale still matters, but not in its old form. Size without integration is just noise. The real advantage now is intelligent scale, shared platforms, shared data, shared talent, deployed with precision. Scale needs rethinking where it creates complexity instead of clarity. Clients want fewer partners who can do more collectively, not more partners who do less each. The future belongs to companies that feel simple and accessible to clients but powerful and big behind the scenes. Much like technology platforms.
How do you balance global frameworks with local market autonomy?
Global frameworks give us structure and muscle memory. Local autonomy gives us relevance. The balance comes from clarity of intent, not control. We use global platforms, tools and standards as accelerators, not constraints. Markets are empowered to adapt, invent and lead based on cultural truth and client reality. The Middle East and Turkey region that we represent does not need imported answers. It needs global best practice translated through lived regional understanding. That balance is where effectiveness happens.
What will define successful holding companies in the next phase of industry transformation?
Successful holding companies will not act like holding companies. They will behave like growth partners, talent platforms and transformation engines. They will invest in people before products, in learning before tools. They will simplify structures, integrate capabilities and measure themselves on client impact – not internal agendas. Culture will become a competitive advantage again. The groups that win will be the ones that make complexity invisible to clients and opportunity visible to talent.
What will matter most as the industry moves into 2026?
Trust. From clients, from talent, from partners. Trust that AI is used responsibly. Trust that creativity still has a soul and will have a role. Trust that scale serves outcomes, not margins alone. 2026 will reward companies that take clear positions, back their people, and hold themselves accountable. The industry, globally, will not be short of technology. It will be short of leadership. Those who lead with clarity, courage and consequence will shape what comes next.
