The big four global advertising groups -- Publicis, IPG, Omnicom, WPP -- have, roughly measured, combined revenue growth of 3% for the September quarter.
At first glance, Omnicom heads the growth league with a reported 6.5% organic revenue growth.
However, all the global advertising companies don’t calculate growth in the same way.
What we can be sure of is that the industry as a whole is growing.
The France-based Publicis Groupe is the current rock star of holding companies, with strong growth rewarded by a stellar market capitalisation (25.60 billion EUR at last report).
WPP, the world’s biggest advertising group, in the middle of restructuring and so-called “simplification,” is forecasting flat to negative growth this year. Market capitalisation of 8.96 billion GBP.
Results for the big four in the September quarter:
Better than expected revenue growth for the September quarter, with a strong result from GroupM. Revenue less pass-through costs, a metric used by WPP, showed like-for-like at 0.5%, ahead of analyst forecasts.
Full year guidance is unchanged with 2024 like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs of -1% to 0%.
Australia reported 2.3%, the first positive number for a year.
Flat organic revenue growth in the September quarter and forecasts the full year at just 1% as the company works to fix underperformance in some parts of the business.
The global advertising group said net revenue was $US2.24 billion, with organic revenue unchanged from the third quarter of 2023.
Publicis Groupe upgraded its full year growth guidance to 5.5%, up from 5%, after a “strong” September quarter with active account pitches.
The France-based global advertising company posted 5.8% organic growth for the September quarter as it reported continuing market share gains, and is expecting momentum to continue in the December quarter.
Omnicom reported 6.5% organic revenue growth in the September quarter, surging past the June quarter’s 5.2%.
Revenue was better than expected at $US3.9 billion and net income came in at $385.9 million.
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