Top four advertising group Publicis is buying Pour Tout Vous Dire (“for everything you say”), a customer relationship management programme and website with which Unilever tries to build relationships with its French customers. It will now open up the platform to all brands, in an effort to harvest online intelligence for fast-moving consumer goods companies.
Publicis says it’s part of its digital strategy, set last year, of pulling a quarter of its sales from online by 2010. From the release: “The goal here is to build a benchmark e-CRM platform for the group’s clients that showcases brands and fosters interaction with consumers … The aim of Publicis Groupe is to turn it into the website of choice for women who want to interact with the brands they use.”
Pour Tout Vous Dire is pitched virtually as a content site, offering articles, tips and info on domestic categories from health and families to gardening and cooking. Publicis says the site is in the top six in Nielsen NetRatings’ women category in France – the programme involves over five million homes and two million online customers. The site also includes voucher coupons and other rewards.
Unilever is committing to the site for another five years. Publicis is tapping Unilever’s former CRM manager Muriel Hayat as CEO. No acquisition terms were disclosed.