‘An important capability for us’: PepsiCo CEO on Publicis switch

At least one CEO wants to talk about advertising. PepsiCo’s Ramon Laguarta used a recent appearance in front of investors to champion the company’s decision to hand its global media account to Publicis Groupe.

The move came without a formal review and pulled the business away from Omnicom, which had managed it for three decades. That is a lot of money changing hands. PepsiCo spends an estimated $1.9 billion on media a year, $780 million of it in North America, according to COMvergence. The fallout spread fast. Coca-Cola, a Publicis client in North America since the holdco won that account from WPP only last year, is now preparing a review of the business, reportedly in talks with Omnicom and Dentsu.

Laguarta had his own account of the move when he spoke to investors. He described the partnership as “an important capability for us” and said PepsiCo would be able to invest “with much more data, much more granularity,” as a result. Holdcos tend to sell themselves as partners. He spoke about Publicis the way a company talks about something it has bought. 

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Welcome to Creator University: Inside the colleges building creator economy programs

Universities are beginning to formalize the creator economy 

In the past year, Arizona State launched a BA in content creation, Stanford introduced a graduate course called Mastering the Creator Economy, and Syracuse opened he Center of Creator Economy, focused on research, policy, academics and content production. 

Their approaches vary, but together they signal a shift: as the industry grows, more students are learning about it in the classroom, rather than on the fly.  

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