PR and Communications in France
France rewards companies that make an effort, and quietly ignores those that do not. Arrive with an English press release and a generic European plan and you will be received politely and forgotten. Arrive in French, with something worth saying to a Paris editor who has seen every pitch before, and the country opens up. It is the single biggest thing foreign brands get wrong here.
The effort is worth it. France is the eurozone’s second-largest economy and, for the seventh year running, Europe’s leading destination for foreign investment. It is the home of global luxury, a heavyweight in aerospace, energy and defence, and it is now putting real money and political weight behind artificial intelligence, from the Paris AI summit to the data centres being built to support it. For a company with ambitions in Europe, France is not optional.
What makes it demanding is also what makes communications matter. The media is national and centred on Paris, the press is serious and runs on long-standing relationships, and because the French state sits unusually close to the economy, public affairs and reputation are the main game rather than a side act. For any company with something at stake, a steady reading of the political weather is as valuable as the campaign itself.
Your contacts for France
France is covered for GlobalCom PR Network by two senior Paris partners whose strengths sit side by side. Augustin Leclerc leads on corporate reputation, public affairs and the regulatory and political questions where the French state is never far from the table. Edouard Fleuriau-Chateau leads on technology and B2B communications, getting complex products heard by a demanding trade and business press. Between them, a brief that runs from corporate reputation to a technology launch stays in expert hands, with large Paris teams behind each and the GlobalCom PR Network extending the reach across Europe.