John Wren, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Omnicom, has disclosed that the agency recorded 3.4% organic growth for the second quarter of 2023. He explained that this quarter experienced a slower growth movement when compared with the 5.2% growth that Omnicom reported in Q1.

Wren stated that the company slightly upgraded its minimum organic growth guidance for the year to 3.5% from the previous 3%, while expressing optimism about the second half of the year.  The agency leader said Q2 results were “in line with expectations” internally, and that he was generally pleased with the firm’s performance for the first half of the year.

The industry expert affirmed that the recent outlook when compared with last year appeared to be more difficult given that the company reported 11.3% growth for the first three months of 2022, during the pandemic. This was according to Mediapost.

The CEO said half of Omnicom’s media and creative agencies grew organically by 5.1% in the quarter. He noted that organic growth in the U.S. fell to 2.4% in Q2, versus 5.1% in the first quarter as a result of financial constraints experienced by some clients in the technology and telecom sectors.

Revealing that the total revenue in Q2 was up 1.2% to $3.6 billion and revenue for the first six months was up about 1% to $7 billion, he recalled that some of the generative AI investments the company announced at Cannes last month will sharply boost productivity and help its teams generate insights far more quickly for clients.

Organic growth by discipline in the second quarter was: 5.1% for Advertising & Media, 9.2% for Experiential, 3.0% for Healthcare, 2.3% for Precision Marketing, 2.4% for Commerce & Brand Consulting, and 0.1% for Public Relations.

The company noted that in the first quarter it realigned the classification of certain services primarily within its Commerce & Brand Consulting, Execution & Support, and Experiential disciplines, and revenue by discipline amounts for prior periods were revised to reflect the current alignment.

“All the negative impacts of Covid-19 for most sophisticated large companies was a pretty easy time, because there was a lot of governmental support throughout the world so people could make commitments. With that gone, as it should be, people have had to adjust their businesses in various ways depending on the industry that you’re in. And the consumer still has money to spend, but you see changes in behaviour.”