THE TF1 GROUP ANNOUNCES THE CREATION OF UNIFY, ITS NEW DIGITAL DIVISION

 

 

Boulogne, February 5th 2019

 

 

THE TF1 GROUP ANNOUNCES THE CREATION OF UNIFY,
ITS NEW DIGITAL DIVISION

 

 

• UNIFY brings together the new digital activities of the TF1 group (excluding OTT and Replay TV): the aufeminin group (aufeminin, Marmiton, MyLittleParis, etc.), Doctissimo, Neweb (Les Numériques, ZDNet, Paroles de Maman, etc.), Gamned!, Studio 71, Vertical Station and TF1 Digital Factory
• Olivier Abecassis, CEO of UNIFY, has set up his management team

 

Since 2016, the TF1 group has been engaged in a radical transformation, with the development of three strategic divisions: Broadcasting, Studios and Entertainment, and Digital.

Regarding digital growth, the TF1 group started by positioning itself in social media and influencers with the acquisition of Vertical Station (formerly MinuteBuzz) and the launch of Studio 71 France in 2017.

In 2018, by purchasing the aufeminin group, the TF1 group acquired major digital players with a massive portfolio of brands, unique female-targeted content and top-quality communities, and a diversified business model (advertising, programmatic, social media e-commerce). The acquisition of Doctissimo completed the offer with a flagship community on the “health/wellness” vertical, and buying Neweb has given the group unique expertise in shopping recommandation on various complementary themes (beauty, parenting, consumer electronics).

Finally, taking a majority stake in Gamned! enables TF1 to provide advertisers with a multi-channel, innovative and high-powered offer, allying the qualified audiences derived from its new digital platforms with the effectiveness of programmatic.

The creation of UNIFY is the logical next step following this series of digital acquisitions.

With a presence in 10 countries and more than 100 million unique visitors every month, UNIFY has become the no.1 digital group built around federating content, original productions, talents, events and services dedicated to female themes, health and entertainment. UNIFY gathers strong expertise dedicated to brands: media, e-commerce, influence, data, content, social.

UNIFY now gathers all these companies around 3 businesses:

• Publishers: aufeminin (and its international equivalents: alfemminile, enfeminino, gofeminin, sofeminine), Marmiton, Livingly Media, MyLittleParis, Merci Alfred, Doctissimo, OnMeda, Les Numériques, CNET, ZDNET, GameKult, Parole de Mamans, Beauté Test, Netmums
• Brand Solutions and services: Ykone, Studio71, Vertical Station, Gamned, Magnetism, TF1 Digital Factory
• Social media e-commerce: MyLittleParis, Beautiful Box by aufeminin, Gretel, Madeline, Joyce

The creation of this digital division will generate synergies with the TF1 group both editorially and commercially.

UNIFY and TF1 Publicité will be able to marry their know-how and expertise to provide advertisers with all-new optimised cross-media solutions.

 

“The creation of UNIFY is a new step in the transformation of the TF1 group”, emphasizes Gilles Pélisson, Chairman and CEO of the TF1 group. “By aggregating international and engaged communities, we are offering brands advertising solutions that are complementary to those we offer through our TV and video contents. UNIFY combines today leading know-hows, both in new digital usage and new technologies. I trust the expertise and innovation spirit of the UNIFY teams around Olivier Abecassis to bring to advertisers the new, efficiency driven, solutions they expect”.  

 

Olivier Abecassis, CEO of UNIFY, has assembled a new Management Committee to unlock more synergies between UNIFY entities and drive revenue growth.

The members of the Management Committee will be:

• Marie Le Guével, Executive Vice President, Chief Revenue Officer (Europe and Latin America)
• Flore Pilzer, International Managing Director, Europe and Latin America
• Christophe Decker, Executive Vice President, in charge of Products and Growth
• Céline Orjubin, Co-founder and CEO of MyLittleParis
• Nicolas Capuron, Managing director in charge of Video Production and Strategy
• Bénédicte Lenguin, Chief Legal Officer
• Anne-Laure Piron, Chief Human Officer
• Patrick Caetano, Chief Financial Officer

 

Olivier Abecassis, CEO of UNIFY says: “Thanks to its acknowledged know-how in creating content and influence, and with its expertise in data and programmatic technology, UNIFY will offer to brands original communication solutions that are adapted to their new digital performance imperatives. Our newly-constituted Management Committee will accelerate expansion in all our territories. I strongly rely on this management team and on all the talents at UNIFY.”

 

 

ABOUT THE UNIFY MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

 

Marie Le Guével, Executive Vice President, Chief Revenue Officer, Europe and Latin America

After spending the last 7 years at Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) as AMNET CEO & founder and DAN Chief Adtech Officer, Marie will be in charge of advertising revenues (direct media and programmatic) in Europe and Latam, as well as responsible for the advertising network extension, improvement of the commercial offer and international business development. Additionally, she will also drive the brand strategy and audience development of our main brands and communities (in particular, aufeminin, Marmiton, Doctissimo). Marie will also work closely with the TF1 PUBLICITE teams in order to offer cross-device proposals. Marie is board member of MyLittleParis, Magnetism, Gamned, Ykone, Netmums.

 

Flore Pilzer, International Managing Director, Europe and Latin America

In Marie’s team, Flore manages pan-European business, pursues the shift in business model and monetization of the sales countries for all brands.Flore runs our local Southern Europe and LATAM teams and business unit and develops the business lines of our aufeminin offices. Flore is board member of Ykone and Netmums.

 

Christophe Decker, Executive Vice President in charge of Products and Growth

Based on his strong background on ad tech & audience development, Christophe will oversee the scaling of our business & revenues through traffic acquisition & programmatic. He will manage marketing (data, product) teams, technology and innovation teams and will continue to be in charge of LivinglyMedia and grow aufeminin e-commerce. Christophe is board member of MyLittleParis, Magnetism, Gamned, Netmums and LivinglyMedia.

 

Céline Orjubin, Co-founder and CEO of MyLittleParis 

Céline will pursue building a strong social e-commerce business in France, Europe and Japan.  She also leads a creative team that is dedicated to reinvent the relationship between brands and consumers. Anne-Flore Chapellier will support Céline in feeding growth opportunities.

 

Nicolas Capuron, Managing director in charge of Video Production and Strategy

In addition to his current role to support the growth of Studio71, Vertical Station and TF1 Digital Factory, Nicolas will build a team to produce video content for the communities of UNIFY’s entities and brands. He will also be in charge of building the Unify group by defining its long-term strategy. Nicolas is board member at Studio71, Vertical Station, TF1 Digital Factory.

 

Bénédicte Lenguin, Chief Legal Officer

Based on her international background at Eurosport and her digital practice at TF1, Bénédicte will be a strong business partner to the executive team.

 

Anne-Laure Piron, Chief Human Officer

After spending 7 years at BETC Digital, Anne-Laure will be in charge of recruiting, developing and entertaining talents to sustain the growth of the group.

 

Patrick Caetano, Chief Financial Officer

After spending these last four years as CFO of aufeminin group, Patrick is now in charge of building a centralized financial vision of the entities.

 

 

About the TF1 group

We are the leading private-sector television broadcaster in France, with five unencrypted channels (TF1, TMC, TFX, TF1 Séries Films and LCI) and four pay-TV theme channels (TV Breizh, Histoire, Ushuaïa and Serieclub, the last of which is 50% owned). We are adding a highly effective digital dimension to our channels on MYTF1, and video-on-demand offers via MYTF1VOD and TFOU MAX.

We are also present in the production and distribution of content, mainly via Newen, through which we aim to accelerate international expansion of our production and distribution activities.

We have extended our digital footprint, in particular through the acquisition of the aufeminin group in April 2018. This led to the creation of a digital division build around well-known brands such as Marmiton, MyLittleParis and Doctissimo, all of which support strong, engaged communities.

This has enhanced our offer and our ability to deploy federating, complementary special-interest themes to reach all audiences, especially women and millennials.

The TF1 group has created a large range of businesses in key entertainment and leisure fields, with TF1 Entertainment (board games, music and live show production, licences and publishing); the film industry with TF1 Films Production and TF1 Studio.

The TF1 group currently has a presence in 10 countries and employs 3,135 people.

The TF1 group is quoted on the Paris stock exchange (Euronext Paris: ISIN FR0000054900).

 

 

 

TF1 GROUP

VICE PRESIDENT COMMUNICATION AND BRANDS - Maylis CARCABAL - mcarcabal@tf1.fr - +33 (0)1 41 41 49 23

DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS, DIGITAL-INNOVATION AND CSR COMMUNICATIONS - Sophie DANIS - sdanis@tf1.fr +33 (0)1 41 41 17 28

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS - Coline PECHERE - cpechere@tf1.fr - +33 (0)1 41 41 34 88

@GroupeTF1