Maurice Levy’s Publicis Groupe increased first half profits by 15 per cent (to €314m) on a ten per cent increase in income (€1.8bn) on revenue of €3.3bn.
Levy (left) claimed organic growth of five per cent, allaying some fears that the company was becoming overly dependent on acquisitions.
“Organic growth’ has to be taken more or less on trust in holding company accounts but it’s pretty clear that PG is having a good 2013.
PG reported digital revenues up 11 per cent in the first half of 2013 and Levy says they now account for 37 per cent of the total, which puts it slightly ahead of WPP in the digital race (although WPP’s digital revenues are higher) percentage-wise. But then PG has splashed out billions on the likes of Razorfish, Digitas and, most recently, LBi.
Digital now accounts for about 20 per cent of the global ad market so, in that sense, PG and indeed WPP are ahead of the game. The issue for them is that they’ve bought just about everything digital of any scale so growth will now have to come from their own efforts.
But we mustn’t carp – these are good numbers and throw down the gauntlet to PG’s competitors.
Will go-go Publicis Groupe now come back with a knockout big for America’s Interpublic?
