May '11 PR Rankings Issue - Odwyerpr.com

REPORT
Congloms, PR service firms see big Q1 gains
By Greg Hazley and Kevin McCauley
Revenue and profit for the large advertising
and PR conglomerates, as well
as PR services companies, continued
a positive trend in the first quarter of 2011
as a steady recovery that began in earnest in
the fourth quarter of 2010 held true and
accelerated in some cases.
While emerging markets like India and
South America provided the largest percentage
increases, U.S. and European operations
were surprisingly robust as marketing
spending trended upward in Q1.
OMC 1Q net jumps 24%
Omnicom Group on April 19 reported a
23.6% surge in first-quarter net to $201.9
million, on a 7.9% rise in revenues to $3.2
billion.
PR operations (Fleishman-Hillard,
Ketchum, Porter Novelli and Kreab Gavin
Anderson) inched ahead by 3.9%, trailing
the 7.8% increase of OMC’s advertising
unit, 8.8 % jump in specialty operations and
8.9% advance of the CRM group. Organic
PR growth rose 1.9%.
OMC CEO John Wren shelled out $224
million in acquisitions during the period.
Those buys include Voce Communications,
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MAY 2011 WWW.ODWYERPR.COM
Communispace (consumer research),
Clemenger Group (Australia), Fanscape
(social media) Saffirio Tortelli Vigoriti
(Italy) and EJE (Puerto Rico).
In February, Omnicom reported a 7.4%
rise in 2010’s fourth-quarter net to $246.5
million. Full-year 2010 profit rose 4.4% to
$827.7 million on a seven- percent jump in
revenues to $12.5 billion.
Publicis Q1 revenue up 10.7%
Publicis on April 21 reported first quarter
revenue rose 10.7% to nearly $1.8 billion
over 2010 on the strength of net new business
wins worth $1.9 billion.
Maurice Levy, CEO of the French ad/PR
conglomerate, said momentum in the U.S.
and Europe — particularly France and
Germany — boosted revenue, as well as the
continued trend toward digital.
Levy said the U.S. market is “going better
and picking up” as he noted organic
growth jumped 8.1% in North America to
euro 632 million, including 8.4% in the
U.S. on the strength of digital efforts and
new business. Levy pointed to Publicis’
6.5% organic growth as “particularly
impressive in light of the challenging base
effect we are facing.”
He said digital and China are key areas of
growth for its units.
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Havas sees ‘upturn’ with Q1 revenue
French advertising and PR conglomerate
Havas reported a 9.7% increase in first
quarter revenue to 361 million euro (about
$536 million) on the strength of its U.S.
operations and a “solid recovery” in
Europe.
“We are seeing at the moment an upturn
right across all our communication businesses,”
said David Jones CEO of Havas,
which counts units like Euro RSCG PR,
Abernathy MacGregor Group and ad
agency Arnold.
For North America, Havas posted organic
growth of 7.2% on the strength of
healthcare communication and advertising
business there. Revenue for the region hit
125 million euro.
In Europe, Havas posted revenue of 190
million euro and swung to positive organic
growth of 3.8%, after declining three percent
for the same period of 2010. Latin
America (up 24.6%) and Asia Pacific
(10.3%) were also strong performers.
PRN revenue up 9%
PR Newswire parent company United
Business Media reported on April 19 a
13.7% increase in first quarter revenue to
£237.7 million, including a 9.1% rise at
PRN as targeting distribution and monitoring
business brought in £46.9 million
(about $76 million) during Q1.
UBM said in April that continued
growth at PRN’s digital/broadcast division
MultiVu and Edgar filing service Vintage
complemented a “robust performance” in
its U.S. newswire.
Its margin decreased on higher IT costs,
sales and product investments and other
factors. Events are PRN’s largest segment
at 84.1 million in Q1, a 33% increase on
acquisitions and an improved climate.
Vocus revenue up 21%, loss widens
Vocus on April 26 posted a 21% increase
in first quarter revenue to $27 million on a
wider net loss of $1.9 million compared
with Q1 of 2010.
The company’s net was hit by a $1.2
million, one-time cost for professional fees
and a break-up fee after Vocus terminated a
potential “cross-border acquisition” following
its investigation, said CFO Steve
Vintz. Net loss for Q1 of 2010 was
$579,000.
Revenue rose for Q1 as the PR software
provider added 682 net new subscribers,
up from about 400 for the same period of
2010.
Quarterly earnings for congloms
Interpublic and WPP had not been publicly
released as of press time.