 John Wren |
Omnicom's PR group posted a 3.3 percent rise in first-quarter revenues to $346M, accounting for 9.6 percent of the ad/PR conglom's $3.6B revenues.
The PR spurt compares to a drop at OMC's mainstay advertising segment (BBDO, TBWA, DDB), which dipped 1.4 percent to $1.9B.
PR organic growth of 0.7 percent, however, trailed advertising's 1.6 percent advance.
Ketchum, FleishmanHillard, Porter Novelli, Cone Communications and Portland pace the PR operation.
OMC chief John Wren reported that net income rose a solid 9.2 percent to $264.1 percent on 1.2 percent revenue growth. Organic growth was up 2.4 percent.
Public Policy Holding Company registered 23.8 percent Q3 growth to $48.8M, with organic growth contributing 4.5 percent and the balance driven by merger & acquisition activity.
Publicis Groupe reported 3.1 percent in Q3 growth to $4B, sparked by a 3.6 percent jump North America, its biggest market.
WPP suffered a 10.2 percent drop in 1H revenues to $6.7B and a 47.8 percent plunge in operating profit to $297M.
Interpublic reported Q2 net revenues dropped 6.6 percent to $2.2B and operating income tumbled 23.4 percent to $243.7M. 
WPP has adopted a gloomier profit and sales forecast due to a deteriorating Q2 financial performance triggered by weak client spending as companies cope with the challenging economic backdrop.
