Publicis Groupe has acquired Mars United Commerce, which the holding company bills as the largest independent commerce marketing company in the world. Terms were not disclosed.  

All the major holding companies and consultancies have substantial commerce operations and Publicis’ latest deal signals just how critical they view the sector as a growth driver. Earlier this year Omnicom acquired Flywheel Digital from Ascential for an estimated $835 million, which it said was its largest M&A transaction to date. 

The Southfield-MI based Mars started 50 years ago as a shopper marketing specialist known as Mars Advertising. A few years ago it rebranded to the Mars Agency and then rebranded again in May of this year to Mars United Commerce, a move that the company said at the time reflected its “transformational growth into a full-service commerce marketing partner for brands and retailers worldwide.” 

It now has a workforce of 1,000 in 14 offices across North America, Europe, Australia-New Zealand and Asia. 

The company is headed by Global CEO Rob Rivenburgh, a 22-year veteran of the company who was promoted to his current role in 2021, having been North America CEO before then. He succeeded Ken Barnett, who stepped into the role of executive chairman. He is the son of founder Marilyn Barnett, who died in 2016.  

Mars has a number of recently developed products named in honor of its founder. Earlier this year it unveiled two “self-serve” tools including the Marylin Commerce Media Dashboard, designed to analyze and compare commerce marketing performance across all vendors. It also introduced the Marilyn Commerce Media Benchmark Database that provides data across thousands of past campaigns to derive benchmarks at the retailer-, category- and brand-levels, helping clients visualize the impact of their investments. 

Publicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun said the transaction would “further connect and complement our existing capabilities to deliver industry leading end-to-end commerce solutions for our clients both online and off line.”  

The transaction is the second major M&A deal for Publicis Group this summer following its agreement to acquire Influential— credited as the largest influencer marketing company and platform by revenue--in July.    

The two acquisitions, added Sadoun, position the company “to help our clients understand both existing consumers and future prospects, and connect that knowledge at an individual level to the new media channels that work hardest for their business: connected TV, commerce and creators.”  

Added Rivenburgh: “Joining Publicis Groupe will help Mars realize our vision of being the preeminent global commerce company faster and more completely.”