• by Steve McClellan , April 27, 2012

When the company disclosed full-year 2011 financial results back in February, Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Levy declared the firm’s effort a “good performance.” Revenues rose 7.3% with organic growth of 5.7%.

But for executive pay, it was an excellent year at Publicis Groupe. Not surprisingly, CEO Levy was the highest-paid executive at the Paris-based ad-marketing holding company, raking in about $4.8 million in total compensation, according to company documents. That was about a fourfold increase in his compensation versus 2010.

That was in addition to $21.6 million that the Publicis chief received this year under a deferred compensation plan that was tied to performance goals and length of service over the last nine years.

By comparison, Levy’s counterparts at Omnicom and Interpublic Group, John Wren and Michael Roth, earned about $15 million and $13 million, respectively in 2011.

Meanwhile, the second- and third-highest-paid managers at Publicis last year were operating executives: Kevin Roberts, the global CEO of ad shop Saatchi & Saatchi, and Jack Klues, CEO of the company’s media management arm, VivaKi.

Roberts earned about $4.1 million in total compensation, per the Publicis Groupe documents -- more than 80% higher than his total compensation in 2010.

Klues garnered about $3.1 million, about three times what he earned in 2010, due largely to bonuses under a “variable” compensation program.

Jean-Yves Naouri, Publicis Groupe’s COO, earned about $1.9 million last year, while company CFO Jean-Michel Etienne earned about $1.2 million.

All of the executives earned bonuses tied to performance goals as part of their pay packages. In Levy’s case, bonus pay was tied to achieving a certain level of organic growth at the company, as well as net income compared to competitors IPG, Omnicom and WPP, in addition to non-financial measures.

For Roberts and Klues, goals included reaching certain revenue levels and operating margins, as well as “qualitative assessments.”

Naouri’s incentive pay was tied to developing a plan for expansion into China and attaining revenue and operating margin growth targets at holding company subsidiaries Public Healthcare Communications Group and Publicis Worldwide.

Etienne’s incentive criteria included meeting a companywide operating margin target and net income ratio compared to competitors, treasury management and certain employee expense targets.