Publicis Completes $2.2 Billion LiveRamp Acquisition as Some Clients Plan Exit
Publicis Groupe has completed its $2.2 billion acquisition of data-collaboration platform LiveRamp, but the deal is already prompting concern among some marketers about who owns and operates the technology they rely on to connect data across advertising channels.
Liquid Death plans to move away from LiveRamp, a representative for the beverage brand confirmed. The decision follows a public post by Benoit Vatere, the company’s chief media and digital commerce officer, who said he intended to leave the platform and challenged other marketers to consider whether they would trust an agency holding company with their data and identity graph.
Vatere’s comments came after the acquisition closed on Monday, according to Publicis. The transaction was first announced in May. Publicis did not immediately respond to a request for comment about possible departures by brand marketers.
Neutrality concerns persist after FTC agreement
The deal’s completion followed an agreement last month between Publicis, LiveRamp and the Federal Trade Commission on a consent order intended to preserve LiveRamp’s neutrality. The regulatory safeguards have not eliminated concerns among some industry participants about the implications of a major agency group owning a platform used to collaborate on data.
Publicis’ direct agency competitors have also indicated that they intend to reduce or end their use of LiveRamp. WPP and Omnicom have signaled plans to wind down their use of the service over a period of months, adding a competitive dimension to the questions facing the platform after the ownership change.
For advertisers, the issue is closely tied to control over first-party data and the infrastructure used to connect it with partners. Publicis has said clients will retain ownership and control of their data and intellectual property, and will not be required to use particular technology partners. Those assurances sit alongside the company’s plan to combine LiveRamp’s capabilities with its own Epsilon data and services.
Publicis pitches an integrated data and activation offer
Publicis has framed the acquisition as a central part of its strategy for artificial intelligence, including development of more capable agentic frameworks for clients. In describing the combined offering, the company says advertisers will be able to bring together and activate data sets through a plug-and-play model rather than building custom integrations themselves.
Clients can use LiveRamp’s RampID and Epsilon’s Identity offering to enrich their first-party data with additional customer attributes. Publicis and LiveRamp say the combined capabilities can make billions of additional prospects addressable. That claim describes the companies’ stated ambition for the offering; the announcement did not provide a separate performance result from client campaigns.
The companies also say the enriched data can be activated across LiveRamp’s partner ecosystem, which includes publishers, technology platforms, walled gardens, retail media networks and large language models, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Publicis’ own media network is also part of the activation landscape described by the companies.
Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun characterized the product as an alternative to relying on walled gardens, which can offer scale while limiting control, or commissioning bespoke solutions that may require more time and expense. The company says existing relationships between Publicis, LiveRamp and third-party platforms can reduce the legal, integration and security work clients would otherwise face when establishing partnerships.
The acquisition therefore leaves marketers weighing two propositions: a more integrated route to connecting and activating data, and the potential concerns that arise when a major agency group owns a provider in that ecosystem. Liquid Death’s planned departure and the previously signaled moves by WPP and Omnicom show that neutrality and data governance remain practical considerations, even with the FTC agreement and Publicis’ assurances of client control.
