On Tuesday, Omnicom disclosed a 1.1% decline in PR revenue during the first quarter of 2024, marking the third consecutive quarterly setback for the group.

In Q1, the performance of Omnicom PR Group, which encompasses FleishmanHillard, Ketchum, and Porter Novelli, was weaker compared to the holding company’s other divisions, which experienced revenue growth, including advertising & media (7%), precision marketing (4.3%), experiential (9.5%), and healthcare (2%). Divisions that experienced losses include execution and support (4.3%) and branding & retail commerce (3.8%).

According to its earnings report, Omnicom reported a 5.4% worldwide revenue increase to $3.63 billion for the entire company, with organic revenue growth of 4%.

Acquisition revenue, excluding disposition revenue, contributed to a $53 million increase in revenue, or 1.5%, mainly due to the acquisition of Flywheel Digital by the precision marketing group. The impact of foreign currency translation decreased revenue by $2.7 million, or 0.1%.

Comparing organic growth by region in Q1 2024 to Q1 2023: 4.3% for the United States, 3.5% for Euro Markets & Other Europe, 22.3% for Latin America, 3.0% for Asia Pacific, 3.2% for the United Kingdom, and 1.1% for Other North America. The Middle East & Africa experienced a 4.2% decline.

Chairman and CEO John Wren said in a statement, “Omnicom began the year with solid organic revenue growth of 4.0%, led by continued strength in our advertising & media and precision marketing disciplines, including Flywheel Digital. We are uniquely able to combine marketing and sales solutions with a seamless set of information signals to turn our award-winning creativity into measurable dynamic business outcomes for our clients.  Our industry-leading tools and platforms, combined with the strength of our operating leadership, has led to our excellent new business performance and, when combined with the new opportunities we are pursuing, give us great confidence in the future.”

In Q1 2024, OMPG suffered its third consecutive quarterly loss, with revenue declining by 2.9% in Q4 2023 and 5.5% in Q3. This marked the first quarterly decline since Q1 2021.

The revenue decline in Q3 followed a stagnant Q2, which ended eight consecutive quarters of PR growth. Prior to this, there was a 5.8% increase in Q1, 12.7% in Q4 2022, 12.6% in Q3 2022, 15.8% in Q2 2022, 14% in Q1 2022, 4.4% in Q4 2021, 10.5% in Q3 2021, and 15.1% in Q2 of that year — a significant improvement from the 3.5% decline experienced in Q1 2021.