Publicis Groupe’s acquisition of Sapient will allow it to help clients avoid being “Ubered”, and overtaken by more nimble insurgents, according to CEO Maurice Lévy.

Lévy believes the group’s recently-completed $3.7bn acquisition of digital consultancy Sapient will help Publicis get “back on growth” in 2015.

Using the analogy of taxi app Uber, which has won market share from traditional taxi operators, Lévy added the integration of Sapient will prevent Publicis from being overtaken by innovative rivals.

Speaking to EuroMediaBusiness, he said: “There are two giant forces which are converging and transforming everything. One is the fact that that we are in an era of convergence: convergence of business models, convergence of digital, convergence of tools, everything is changing quite radically the way we are doing business.

“At the same time, we are in this empowerment age of consumers. And if our clients are not taking into account these two giant forces, they are at the risk of being ‘Ubered’. This is what I call ‘Uberisation’ coming from Uber.”

The agency group today (12 February) reported a 3.2% year-on-year rise in sales in the fourth quarter 2014, with total revenue of €2.15bn ($2.44bn), helped by an improving performance in emerging markets.

Lévy said Publicis was still being affected by “negative” market conditions in Southern Europe and the UK, but said he feels “very good” about its prospects in North America.

“2014 has been a year with some difficulties. The first nine months have been quite tough, showing a growth which is not at the level that Publicis is used to, so we were quite disappointed,” said Lévy.

“The end of the year has been much better than the first nine months. It is not yet where we should be, but it is clearly a huge difference compared to what we have delivered.”