Publicis Groupe posted negative organic growth of 2.3% for the full year but the advertising company's turnaround plan is taking hold.
Net revenue was up 9.3% for the full year to EUR9.8 billion.
CEO Arthur Sadoun described 2019 as a "pivotal year in our transformation" with the acquisition of data management business Epsilon.
"We have been obsessed with what our client wants," he says. "Thanks to the investments we have made and all the changes we have implemented. We are now uniquely positioned to deliver what they need to continue to grow profitably."
He says the negative organic growth was a necessary outcome of major changes but that the new business model is already delivering concrete results.
"We now have the technology and the data capabilities to compete in the market that is incredibly and increasingly driven by personalisation scale," he told analysts at a briefing.
Data and technologies which now represents nearly 30% of company revenue.
"We changed Publicis Sapient's management and repositioned its operations around business transformation through industry verticals," he says.
"We put in place a country model to foster cross-fertilization across our expertise in creativity, media, data and technology.
"And while we were implementing our model, we continued to promote a new generation of leaders in strategic positions, in our most iconic brands, our biggest countries and for our top clients."
The 2019 numbers:
"Now that we have completed our transformation in terms of assets and organisation, we are in position to deliver what our clients really need to thrive in a world increasingly dominated by the platforms, as we demonstrated in our recent wins with Disney and Novartis," says Sadoun.
"In 2020 our priority is to deliver our organic growth recovery plan by progressively returning to growth in our traditional activities."
Asia Pacific net revenue was up 8.9% on a reported basis and 0.8% on an organic basis.
However, Australia recorded a 7.0% fall in organic net revenue. China was down 1.8%, while Singapore was up16.5% and India 10.4%.
Net revenue by region:
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