Publicis Buying Captiv8 To Enhance Connected Influencer Platform

By Amit Chowdhry • Yesterday at 3:00 PM

Publicis Groupe announced the acquisition of Captiv8, which is one of the most advanced end-to-end influencer marketing platforms.

Captiv8 has a network of 15 million creators globally, covering 95% of all influencers with 5,000+ followers. With its proprietary AI-powered technology and leading social commerce suite, Captiv8 enables brands to unify, manage, and measure their influencer strategies, utilizing creators to drive commerce at scale.

Captiv8 is known as one of the best enterprise influencer platforms due to its unified data foundation, AI automation, social listening technology, and industry-leading Branded Storefronts solutions, which connect influencer, commerce, and affiliate channels in a single platform. Captiv8 is active in 120 countries, adapted to local languages and currencies, and processes over 2.5 billion social posts annually.

The combination of Captiv8’s global reach, proprietary technology, and social commerce capabilities, with Influential’s scale and client services, powered by Epsilon’s identity and activation technology, will create:

1.) The World’s Largest Creator Network – Together, Captiv8 and Influential connect brands to over 15 million creators, covering both 95% of influencers with 5,000+ followers and 90% of influencers with 1+ million followers, enabling brands to reach highly engaged audiences at a scale that matches leading social media platforms.

2.) A powerful AI Influencer Platform – Captiv8’s top-ranked Influencer platform will underpin Publicis’ global Connected Influencer offering and be powered by Epsilon’s CoreID, allowing brands to unify, deploy, and control their creator strategies and activations across social platforms, media channels, and markets.

3.) Industry-Leading Social Commerce Engine – With access to Captiv8’s Creator Commerce capabilities, creators and brands will be empowered to monetize creator content and drive closed-loop conversion across social, commerce, and affiliate channels in a single environment.

4.) Transparent Measurement for Real Business Impact – By aggregating identity, influencer, and transaction data within Captiv8’s platform, Publicis will be able to provide clients with transparent, real-time, full-funnel measurement of the business impact of creator marketing across platforms and media channels.

Captiv8 will be prepared within Publicis Connected Media and integrated with Influential to power Publicis Groupe’s global Influencer offering worldwide.

KEY QUOTES:

“Through this acquisition, we are further reinforcing our Category of One, building the world’s most powerful influencer platform by connecting the scale and service of Influential with Captiv8’s unrivaled technology, grounded in Epsilon’s connected identity.”

“This platform is a one-stop-shop for our clients’ influencer marketing initiatives. They can uniquely unite, plan and optimize creator strategies that are brand fit, brand safe, with fully transparent measurement. With what is now the largest influencer community, underpinned by the most advanced tech platform, we can ignite earned-first programs on behalf of brands, to supercharge campaigns with authentic virality and connect directly to commerce.”

“As we continue to invest in the products and services that drive true differentiation for our clients and ourselves, I’m thrilled to welcome Krishna and the Captiv8 teams to the Publicis family.”

Arthur Sadoun, Global CEO, Publicis Groupe

“Captiv8 was built to unify the fragmented creator economy – turning influence into a commerce engine that drives real ROI. Publicis Groupe shares that vision for a fully connected, data-powered future. Together, we’re not just scaling creator marketing, we’re transforming it into a global growth channel that delivers measurable impact from first impression to final purchase”

Krishna Subramanian, Captiv8 Co-Founder & CEO

“We look forward to combining the power of Captiv8’s award-winning influencer platform with Influential and providing best-in-class capabilities to all of our clients. As two leaders in the influencer marketing space, together, we bring unrivaled expertise, innovation, and transformation for our clients. We’re excited to collaborate with Krishna and Sunil to co-author the future of global influencer marketing at Publicis.”

Ryan Detert, CEO of Influential