Paris Spotlight: Marcel: Next Stop, The World

Emerging from the shadow of founders Fred & Farid, Marcel has been enjoying prominence both geographically – now that it’s triumphantly located by the Arc de Triomphe – and at awards shows. And the agency has further plans afoot…

When shots last visited Marcel in 2008, the agency was coming to the end of a transitional period. It had been a little over a year since the controversial Fred & Farid walk-out and although Anne De Maupeou and Frédéric Témin (now CCO at Grey Paris) had come aboard as joint creative directors and steadied the ship, its port was unknown. Housed in temporary offices in the relative wilderness of the 15th arrondissement of Paris, they’d said that they didn’t feel like part of the Publicis network.

It’s not about de l’argent

Four years of tireless work later, Marcel has been transformed. Growing from 40 to 200 staff and now very much a part of the Publicis network, it’s hard to imagine a more prominent location – at the top of the Champs-Elysées, spitting distance from the Arc de Triomphe, in the group’s French HQ – unless they set up shop at the top of the Eiffel Tower, that is.

“At that time we felt strongly that we would do it [run the agency] almost independently and in reality that’s not the case anymore,” explains De Maupeou, now chief creative officer, although she’s quick to point out that Marcel hasn’t lost its identity. “We have a very strong DNA and a very strong personality within the network.”

One thing that hasn’t changed is the agency’s philosophy of work before money, although the two must come hand-in-hand. “We’re not allowed to lose money, but what we think here now more than ever is that the work brings the money,” says De Maupeou, also explaining how clients, many of whom are apparently employing ex-agency staff, are more interested in creativity than ever: “Now the clients want award-winning work. Everyone now believes that creativity sells.”

There’s been no shortage of creativity from Marcel over the last few years as the agency has turned out numerous glittering campaigns and increased its tally of Cannes Lions from one (when De Maupeou took the reins) to more than 15.

In the last year or so its print campaigns for Rowenta vacuum cleaners and Editions Points (the Putpockets campaign), together with the Renault Espace app, the Espace 360, have been widely celebrated. It’s also produced an outstanding campaign for Nestlé-owned water brand Contrex. Titled Contrexpérience, Marcel created a series of events and the film of one of those (with a few scenes re-shot for the TVC) featured a team of women riding exercise bikes in order to power a giant LED strip show projected onto a building. It was a viral phenomenon and became the country’s third most shared viral of all time, even achieving such notoriety as to spark a spoof version in China.

The Contrex campaign, among others, has led to new clients knocking on the door, looking for the same fairy dust for their own brands. “The difficulty comes in explaining to the client we’re not going to do the same thing, we’re going to do the best for them and spend a lot of time working for them. With Contrex we spent a year working on it and had a very close relationship with the client, who had really become a partner. We have to explain that we could replicate [the relationship] but not by doing the same work,” says De Maupeou.

Beyond the accolades

There have been plaudits from the critics too. Marcel was named Agency of the Year at last year’s Eurobest, and while it’s an undeniably welcome reward for the hard work that’s been put in, De Maupeou wants more. “It’s not an accomplishment, it’s a step towards something and hopefully we can do better than that,” she says. “Now we would like to, maybe not in 2012, but in 2013, be Agency of the Year on a worldwide level, maybe in Cannes. We’re proud [of the Eurobest win], but we’ll be more proud when we’re king of the world!” she giggles.

To get to that level De Maupeou realises there is much work to do and she believes that France, and indeed the rest of the world, needs to up its game to compete with the USA. W+K in particular is an agency she aspires to compete with and an imminent influx of additional international clients will considerably boost the agency’s profile on a worldwide level. De Maupeou will be focussing more on global accounts with a new partner and help from newly promoted creative directors Eric Jannon and Dimitri Guerassimov (who have had a hand in many of the agency’s best works as copywriter and art director respectively). Fellow partners Florent Imbert and Emmanuel Lalleve will help shore up the rest of the business. The new clients and partner could not be named at the time of going to press.

A new transitional period

Once again shots has caught Marcel in a transitional period, but De Maupeou is adamant that she will be staying, despite recent speculation to the contrary. “It took me a lot of energy to develop the brand of Marcel,” she says, also assuring shots that the agency has grown away from the shadow of its founders. “It’s not Fred & Farid’s any more, but it’s not mine either. If I left, they [Publicis] would find someone else. The brands that you build are stronger than you are.” Judging by the work that the agency has created of late, it’s fair to say that more than a few brands are stronger thanks to Marcel.

Top: Anne De Maupeou deep in conversation with Marcel Bluestein Blanchet, founder of Publicis and the man Marcel is named after