Publicis Groupe raises 2024 growth forecast following strong new business gains
By Oluwaseyi Lawal
Publicis Groupe has raised its 2024 global growth forecast for the second time this year, citing a “strong” new business strategy as the driving factor.
In its Q3 earnings released on 17 October, the company now anticipates at least 5.5% organic growth for 2024, up from the previous 5% minimum announced in Q2.
During Q3, Publicis Groupe, the parent company of PR firms MSL and Kekst CNC, achieved 5.8% organic growth in net revenue, reaching €3.42 billion. This follows growth rates of 5.6% in Q2 and 5.3% in Q1. Chair and CEO Arthur Sadoun attributed the upgraded forecast primarily to new business initiatives.
He said: “New business tailwinds continue to sustain the momentum and we are expecting for the full year that we are going to outperform the market by 400 basis points, roughly 4% on the average.”
On the 15th of October, Omnicom announced a 6.5% organic growth rate for Q3. However, this number is not directly comparable to Publicis’ 5.8% growth, as Omnicom factors in pass-through costs when calculating its revenue.
Sadoun said “We are at 5.8% – that represents 150 basis points [1.5%] ahead of our peers, and accelerating over four years, despite the difficulties that we have encountered in terms of microeconomics.”
European net revenue increased by 4.9% organically, with France and Germany showing accelerated growth rates of 7.3% and 7.6%, respectively, thanks to double-digit gains in media. The UK saw little overall change as strong growth in creative and media was counterbalanced by a decline in Publicis Sapient, the group’s digital consulting division, which has struggled globally this year due to clients’ cautious approach toward business transformation.
North America reported 4.7% organic growth for Q3, while the US specifically achieved 4% growth. In the Asia-Pacific region, growth reached 6.4%, with China leading the way at 12.4% organic growth. Overall, the group’s media and data unit Epsilon experienced nearly double-digit growth across all regions.
“Once again, we were able to gain market share by capturing a disproportionate amount of client demand for personalisation at scale, with our combined media and Epsilon activities growing at almost 10%.”
During the third quarter, Publicis spent $1 billion to purchase the influencer marketing platform Influential and the commerce marketing firm Mars United.
Commenting on the acquisitions, Sadoun said: “We are now clearly leading on three critical expertise for our clients: addressable media, creators and commerce. We are then able to directly link this expertise with Epsilon’s identities around the world to create a connected media ecosystem that we can build transparently within our clients’ owned environments.”
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