Creative

storytellersfor the Conversation Age

MSLGROUP is Publicis Groupe’s strategic communications and engagement network

Established in 2009, in a period dominated by seismic cultural shifts brought about by digital technologies and new communication channels, MSLGROUP’s narrative was shaped during what has become known as the conversation age.

Advisors in all aspects of communications, and masters in the art of conversation, we offer strategic planning and counsel, insight-guided thinking, and big, compelling ideas - with thorough execution.

With more than 3,500 people, our network spans close to 100 offices and covers virtually every discipline required for our clients to engage creatively with their audiences 24 hours a day.

Whether you’re a leader - we work with a quarter of the top-100 most valuable global brands - or a challenger, keen to be heard, our mission is to be your most trusted advisor; a source of creativity, engagement and value in today’s always-on conversation.

Advent of social media900+ million “citizens”

on Facebook

Erosion of trust at all levels, in all domains

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USR TTPeople driving the consumer experience as a result of technology. It is no longer a company-led, one-way street

A series of seismic shifts in recent years has meant that business as we knew it has been fundamentally transformed forever. Welcome to the conversation economy. Today we live in a real-time marketplace of communities where individuals have the facility to engage with other people, brands and organisations through connections, conversations and information sharing. Yet, people expect something in return for their time and attention - they will only engage if those entities offer substantial value and relevance.

At MSLGROUP, we are passionate about the science and art of listening to and engaging with people - with insight, with understanding and with a response that is helpful and valuable. We help our clients move from campaigns to narrative, from intrusion to engagement and from consumers to communities.

From “me first” to “we as a community”

From North and West to South and East

Real-time, always-on, hyper-fast

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At MSLGROUP,we are passionate about the science and art of listening to and engaging with people

We help create positive conversations and spark the coming together of loyal communities

As your trusted advisors, MSLGROUP works to:

4 Craft communications strategies Designing and executing innovative plans and brand narrative across all media channels

4 Identify emerging trendsWe listen to the relevant conversations for you, tracking emerging ideas and movements that shape your industries

4 Engage communities We help create positive conversations and spark the coming together of loyal communities around a client’s brand

4 Create insights and foresights New thinking and needs are constantly emerging and we ensure we’re connected to them to generate compelling insights and foresights that inspire and feed big ideas for your brands

4 Partner and simplify We collaborate with your most important partners and stakeholders to deliver seamless communications solutions

We use information and insight to develop foresight

Our research-driven studies give us a deep understanding of contexts, situations and people. We use this information and insight to develop foresight - to be prescient and to gauge what might happen - to help our clients stay ahead of the curve.

Recent Publications

From our food and nutrition marketing specialists comes a report that looks at the social media relationships that are providing cues for food and beverage marketers today.

Produced by our Crisis team, this e-book looks at three key interplays shaping crises today:

the interplays between mainstream media and social media, between local and global dynamics,

and between crisis planning and response.

This study from our China team identifies three types of female luxury consumers in China and highlights untapped opportunities for luxury brands to effectively engage with their target audiences.

A new quarterly magazine from MSLGROUP, based on insights into some of the most inspiring projects shaping marketing and communications today, leveraged via our dedicated crowdsourcing

platform “The People’s Lab”.INSIGHTS

ASIABangkok, ThailandCanberra, AustraliaColombo, Sri LankaDhaka, BangladeshHanoi, VietnamHo Chi Minh City, VietnamJakarta, IndonesiaKarachi, PakistanKathmandu, NepalLahore, PakistanManila, PhilippinesMelbourne, AustraliaNaha, JapanOsaka, JapanPhnom Penh, CambodiaSydney, AustraliaVientiane, Laos

NORTH AMERICAAlbany, New YorkBaltimore, MarylandCharlotte, North CardinaCleveland, OhioColumbus, OhioIndianapolis, IndianaKansas City, MissouriMiami, FloridaMinneapolis, MinnesotaNew Orleans, LouisianaOrlando, FloridaPhiladelphia, PennsylvaniaPhoenix, ArizonaSacramento, CaliforniaSalt Lake City, UtahSt. Louis, Missouri

EUROPEAthens, GreeceBarcelona, SpainBelgrade, SerbiaBudapest, HungaryIstanbul, TurkeyKiev, UkraineMadrid, SpainMoscow, RussiaSofia, BulgariaSt. Petersburg, RussiaZagreb, Croatia

LATIN AMERICABogota, ColombiaBuenos AiresCaracas, VenezuelaGuayaquil, EcuadorLima, PeruLa Paz, BoliviaMontevideo, UruguayMexico City, MexicoSan Juan, Puerto RicoSantiago, ChileSuncion, Paraguay

AFRICA+MIDDLE EASTBeirut, LebanonCairo, EgyptJohannesburg, South AfricaRiyadh, Saudi Arabia

Information contained on this global map, including names of countries, regions, cities, and border lines, does not reflect certain areas under political dispute.

OUR WORK

Case studyAMSTEL LIGHT

THE CHALLENGEThe Amstel Light brand had lost its relevance in the 15 years since it first hit the market. With declining sales, it was barely on the radar screens of its target audience.

THE SOLUTIONWhen Boston Bruins (a US ice hockey team) won the 2011 Stanley Cup, they partied hard. After a night of celebration, news leaked that the team had run up a bar tab in excess of $156,000 - with an itemised receipt to prove it. Initially the conversation was about a $100,000 bottle of champagne but the MSL New York team noticed something else. On the receipt was one bottle of Amstel Light. We knew sports fans would want to know who had ordered it…

THE RESULTSAmstel Light garnered more than 275 unique stories, 30 minutes of dedicated broadcast coverage and in the first day of the news hitting Twitter, it became a trending topic. The client reported a 4% increase in total brand awareness and a 9% increase in “favourability” amongst the target.

THE CHALLENGETo introduce the newly created entity, Essar Energy, to financial markets and support the company’s IPO in the UK with an effective and convincing communications programme. The timing of the company launch and its IPO was a key challenge - uncertain markets against a tough economic backdrop meant that investors and the media were wary of new equity offerings.

THE SOLUTIONThrough a targeted, integrated communications campaign, our agency Capital MSL positioned Essar Energy as an Indian growth and success story. We also positioned the IPO, which was the largest offering in London for several years, as a renaissance moment - a positive event for the market after the credit crunch.

THE RESULTSAt a time when other IPOs were being pulled from the market due to unfavourable market conditions, Essar Energy successfully raised approximately $2 billion with a blue-chip roster of investors. Subsequently, Capital MSL and Essar Energy were recognised by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, in the UK, taking first place in the Investor Relations category at the annual Excellence Awards.

Case studyESSAR

Case studyPAYPAL

THE CHALLENGESince its inception in 2000, e-commerce innovator PayPal has changed the way people shop online. In 2011, the company launched its vision to change the way people shop everywhere. Yet, PayPal lacked a way to illustrate the experience of paying for goods with its integrated technology to potential partners and media, whose buy-in was essential if its vision was to become reality.

THE SOLUTIONPBJS - a creative studio within the MSLGROUP family - transformed a Tribeca storefront in New York into the PayPal Shopping Showcase, a series of vignettes that put PayPal solutions into real-world scenarios, from a coffee shop to a hardware store. The Showcase offered guests the chance to learn how PayPal can create an easy and secure shopping experience for retailers and consumers.

THE RESULTSThe space created has become an integral sales tool for PayPal with multiple retailers signing on for instore and online payment test programmes. Extensive media coverage, including Forbes, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and Mashable also helped to extend the Showcase’s reach.

THE CHALLENGELaundry detergents: a deeply low-engagement product category, impossible to do PR for - or is it? We and our partners at Saatchi & Saatchi needed to prove that the new Ariel Actilift is exceptional in removing tough stains, without boring people to death.

THE SOLUTIONLet consumers do what they normally don’t do intentionally: stain brand-new clothes and then put the new Ariel Actilift to the test. Over six days, Scandinavians could try to control our customised industrial robot via Facebook and squirt real goo on over 1,000 pieces of clothing, passing by at high speed, including designer items. We placed the robot in the most public location we could think of: Stockholm Central Station. The rules were simple: aim, stain and win. If someone hit their garment, we washed it live with Ariel Actilift and sent it to them, stain-free.

THE RESULTSThis was Scandinavia’s biggest live interactive product demonstration, ever. There were 25,000 likes for Ariel’s Facebook pages in six days, 1,000+ people won clothes - and shared the event in social media. The event became a blogger and media love-fest with a total reach of well over 5 million.

Case studyARIEL

Case studyMUSÉE D’ORSAY

THE CHALLENGEParis’s iconic Musée d’Orsay - home to one of the largest collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art in the world - was being fully refurbished to showcase old paintings in a converted setting, as well as to display works never showed before. MSLGROUP’s French agency Publicis Consultants was tasked with launching the “new” museum to the French public, encouraging them to visit this national treasure.

THE SOLUTIONWe created an integrated campaign around the idea, “A new look for Orsay: have a fresh look for yourself”. Print and outdoor ads depicted close-ups of facial features and expressions in various famous pieces - sculptures, photos, paintings - with the tagline encouraging the viewer to uncover the masterpiece behind the close-up. The campaign extended to TV, radio and PR, all of which we handled.

THE RESULTSThe number of visits to the famous museum increased 25%, and for the first time in years, French visitors to the museum out-numbered tourists: 56% against 44%. The French had indeed taken the Musee D’Orsay back into their hearts.

Case studyPNEUMOVAX

THE CHALLENGEPneumovax was Japan’s only vaccine for pneumonia, specifically designed for people over the age of 65. Although pneumonia was the fourth largest cause of death in Japan, studies showed low awareness of the fact that pneumonia could be prevented thanks to a vaccine. In fact just 5% of those over the age of 65 were vaccinated for pneumonia at the time. Our mission was to raise awareness of the seriousness of pneumonia, and how the pneumococcus vaccine could help.

THE SOLUTIONWe established a quasi-public body made up of multiple organisations to carry out educational activities as part of the project. Leveraging the campaign slogan “Pneumonia is Scary! Prevention is Vital!” we developed a dedicated website and targeted the media to raise awareness and to encourage the public to use the Pneumococcus Infection Call Centre.

THE RESULTSThe vaccination rate of five in every 100 people in 2009 increased 50% in 2010 and sales of the Pneumovax vaccine also rose 50% - far beyond the original target.

Case studyGOOGLE

THE CHALLENGEGoogle was facing several policy-relevant issues within German public debate. To enhance its standing in the hearts and minds of the general public and decision makers, it became clear that the internet giant needed to highlight its strong commitment to, and distinct impact upon the German economy to date.

THE SOLUTIONOn September 27, 2011 Google presented its study “FaktorGoogle - How German Companies Use Google”. Based on a survey of over 11,000 companies, the paper provided insight into the economic impact of both Google and its range of products including AdWords, Analytics, Translate and Alerts. Working with both Google and consulting company IW, MSL Germany led a multichannel communications effort that included branding, website creation, public affairs, media relations and a press conference.

THE RESULTSMedia coverage was extensive and included Die Zeit, Financial Times Deutschland, BILD and Bloomberg. As a result of the positive outcome, Google then decided to expand the project to two additional stages cooperating with the Federal Association for Information Technology-BITKOM and a leading IT summit in December 2011.

Case studyCOCA-COLA

THE CHALLENGECoca-Cola is a household name globally, with some of the world’s best-loved brands. Yet the frankly overwhelming strength of their consumer brands can make attracting and retaining the right people challenging. A lot of brands claim “passion” as a core value, but at Coca-Cola we discovered that it’s genuinely a uniting theme among their people. And while it’s nearly impossible to define passion, let alone bottle it, our challenge was to demonstrate it to potential and existing employees.

THE SOLUTIONPlaying on Coca-Cola’s renowned “secret formula”, the team at our SAS agency in London developed a core idea and visual expression showing that while there is no single secret formula for passion, every individual at Coca-Cola has their own version of it. Our approach provided the client with a powerful system to create any number of tantalising, intriguing, relevant “formulas”, using words and images, for virtually any people-related communication.

THE RESULTSThe European Employer Value Proposition (EVP) has proven successful as a step towards a direct resourcing model and has been considered for a global rollout.

Case studyBRAND SOUTH AFRICA

THE CHALLENGEHow does one overturn negative, deep-seated prejudice? How do you re-brand a nation that’s currently seen as beset by crime and social problems, to one where opportunity, potential and growth reign supreme? This is exactly what our team was tasked with when they took on the South Africa branding and promotion campaign, during the Shanghai World Expo.

THE SOLUTIONWe needed to help deliver the message that “South Africa is open for business”. By highlighting the country's cultural appeal and economic emergence, we sought to create an association with China’s own story, fostering mutual respect, relevance and connections between both nations. This would help achieve our objectives of reinventing South Africa’s image in China, and attracting more tourists and business investment.

THE RESULTSAs well as ultimately being ranked a “top 10” country pavilion at Shanghai Expo, media articles focusing on violence in South Africa reduced by half over the campaign’s three-month period. In addition, the number of Chinese visitors to South Africa jumped 62% year on year, to an all-time record high.

LET’S START A CONVERSATION

Olivier FleurotCEOT: +33 (0) 1 44 82 47 10 M: +33 (0) 6 28 49 09 05olivier.fleurot@mslgroup.com

Bob BejanChief Development OfficerT: +33 (0) 1 44 82 46 02M: +33 (0) 6 79 26 29 21bob.bejan@mslgroup.com

Trudi HarrisChief Communications OfficerM: +33 (0) 6 13 73 83 02trudi.harris@mslgroup.com

Pascal BeuclerChief Strategy OfficerT: +33 (0) 1 44 82 47 08 M: +33 (0) 6 09 75 80 17pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com

Sophie Martin ChantepieChief Talent OfficerT: +33 (0) 1 44 82 47 13M: +33 (0) 6 74 73 09 93sophie.martin-chantepie@mslgroup.com

Renee WilsonChief Client OfficerT: +1 646 500 7610M: +1 917 687 7116renee.wilson@mslgroup.com

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