PR Firm Rankings - Odwyerpr.com
PR Firm Rankings - Odwyerpr.com
PR Firm Rankings - Odwyerpr.com
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
FEATURE<br />
Optimism, revenue fuel 2010’s first quarter<br />
Earnings released in April give hope that the ad, <strong>PR</strong> and<br />
services sectors are poised for recovery.<br />
By Greg Hazley and Kevin McCauley<br />
April was a good month for<br />
Omni<strong>com</strong>, which beat Wall Street<br />
expectations and posted a 5.9%<br />
increase at its <strong>PR</strong> units — Fleishman-<br />
Hillard, Ketchum, Porter Novelli, Cone and<br />
Brodeur Worldwide — on $276 million in<br />
revenue for Q1. Organic growth in <strong>PR</strong><br />
ticked up two percent.<br />
Profit at Omni<strong>com</strong> was flat at $163 million<br />
on a 6.3% drop in revenue to $2.9 billion<br />
as earnings-per-share beat the Street by<br />
two cents. Overall, U.S. revenues grew 3.9<br />
percent to $1.6B while international business<br />
soared 9.3 percent to $1.3B.<br />
Shares in Omni<strong>com</strong> hit a 52-week high<br />
in April following an upgrade to buy from<br />
Deutsche Bank, which sees agencies “finally<br />
starting to participate in the ad market<br />
recovery already flagged by media owners<br />
and increasingly the forecasters.”<br />
French ad/<strong>PR</strong> conglomerate Havas said<br />
North American revenue rose 5.2% during<br />
the first quarter of 2010 noting a “significant<br />
turnaround” in the region that fell<br />
9.2% for the same period of 2009.<br />
The parent <strong>com</strong>pany of the Euro RSCG<br />
network said strong growth in advertising,<br />
healthcare and corporate <strong>com</strong>munications<br />
sparked the regional climb.<br />
Overall, revenue was up 1.4% to euro<br />
329 million from Q1 of ’09. The U.K.<br />
slipped 1.5%<br />
“Beginning of a good recovery”<br />
Publicis Groupe, meanwhile, saw first<br />
quarter revenue rise more than eight percent<br />
to euro 1.2 billion, including a 10%<br />
jump in North America. In U.S. dollars,<br />
that was a nearly 15% rise to $1.6 billion.<br />
The <strong>com</strong>pany said North America experienced<br />
an “excellent recovery” in the first<br />
quarter with a strong performance in digital,<br />
as well as sectors like retail, financial<br />
services and healthcare while the auto sector<br />
stabilized.<br />
Despite the upbeat performance,<br />
Publicis said the economic environment<br />
remains fragile and salary and recruitment<br />
freezes are only being discontinued gradually.<br />
Publicis said its key <strong>PR</strong> division, MS&L<br />
Group, saw the “beginning of a good<br />
recovery” and started the year particularly<br />
well with new business with wins of<br />
What’s On (India) and the World Gold<br />
Council (China).<br />
The <strong>com</strong>pany said digital now accounts<br />
for 27% of its overall revenue.<br />
Europe was the only region where<br />
organic growth fell for Publicis as revenue<br />
ticked up 3.4%.<br />
Vocus beats street<br />
<strong>PR</strong> software <strong>com</strong>pany Vocus posted a<br />
nine percent rise in first quarter revenue to<br />
$22.3M as its net loss from operations<br />
grew slightly to $579,000 from $478,000<br />
for Q1 of ’09.<br />
The revenue results edged expectations<br />
in the $21.8-22M range.<br />
CEO Rick Rudman said he was “very<br />
pleased with the overall business climate”<br />
during the quarter.<br />
The <strong>com</strong>pany also announced two<br />
acquisitions — Data Presse SAS of<br />
France and BDL Media Ltd. of China —<br />
with its better-than-expected results.<br />
Vocus said it added 396 net new subscription<br />
customers during the quarter,<br />
more than double the 179 gained for the<br />
same period last year. New clients included<br />
Nordstrom, FDIC and Honda UK.<br />
Loss from operations was $549K for<br />
Q1, <strong>com</strong>pared with in<strong>com</strong>e of $296K for<br />
Q1 of ’09.<br />
Second quarter revenue is expected to<br />
be in the $23.5-23.7M range.<br />
BDL Media is a six-year-old <strong>PR</strong> services<br />
<strong>com</strong>pany in the People’s Republic of<br />
China providing software in a vein similar<br />
to Vocus’ mission through<br />
ChinaNewswire.<strong>com</strong><br />
and<br />
Xinwengao.<strong>com</strong>. Its monitoring service is<br />
MyRSS.cn.<br />
Rudman said the Chinese market has a<br />
rapidly emerging <strong>PR</strong> industry estimated at<br />
more than $1 billion and growing at a<br />
30% per year.<br />
He called the deal a “launching pad” for<br />
Vocus in the market.<br />
The other deal announced was the<br />
$10.8 million acquisition of Datapresse, a<br />
21-year-old French <strong>PR</strong> software <strong>com</strong>pany<br />
with about 2,000 customers and a<br />
European media database that gives<br />
Vocus broader reach into that continent.<br />
The deal included $9.8 million in cash<br />
paid at closing and up to $1.0 million in<br />
cash on an earnout basis.<br />
IPG sees revenues, executive pay fall<br />
Interpublic CEO Michael Roth reported<br />
a $70.3M first-quarter net loss on April 29,<br />
down slightly from the $73.6M deficit in<br />
last year’s period. Revenue slipped 1.2%<br />
to $1.3B.<br />
Harris Diamond, CEO of IPG’s constituency<br />
management group, told<br />
O’Dwyer’s that <strong>PR</strong> enjoyed a “good quarter”<br />
as revenues jumped in the 6.5%<br />
range.<br />
Weber Shandwick and GolinHarris<br />
were stand-outs in the <strong>PR</strong> group that<br />
includes MWW Group, Rogers & Cowan<br />
and DeVries <strong>PR</strong>.<br />
Healthcare, corporate and consumer<br />
clients stepped up spending in both digital<br />
and traditional off-line sectors. Diamond<br />
expects business to strengthen through the<br />
year as <strong>PR</strong> is normally the “first-in and<br />
last-out” of an economic downturn.<br />
Roth’s buoyed by the “broader economic<br />
stabilization” that helped IPG trim the<br />
percent of organic revenue decline to<br />
2.9%. U.S. organic revenues increased<br />
three percent.<br />
He’s pleased by “another quarter of significant<br />
sequential improvement in our<br />
organic revenue performance.” He<br />
believes that “shows the economy is<br />
recovering” and anticipates more progress<br />
during the remainder of the 2010.<br />
IPG reduced operating loss from<br />
$81.9M to $59.4M. The <strong>com</strong>pany took a<br />
$5 “hit” from Hugo Chavez's Venezuela,<br />
an expense related to the transition to<br />
inflationary accounting in that country.<br />
The ad/<strong>PR</strong> firm, which shows $1.9B in<br />
cash/marketable securities, launched a<br />
tender offer to buy up to 370K shares of<br />
its Series B stock, convertible into 27.1M<br />
shares for $400M. It currently pays a<br />
$19.4M dividend on those shares.<br />
IPG registered $121M in ’09 full-year<br />
net versus $295M for 2008.<br />
Roth saw total 2009 <strong>com</strong>pensation tumble<br />
from $10.6 million to $6.4 million,<br />
according to the ad/<strong>PR</strong> conglom’s proxy<br />
released April 19. Roth showed $11.1M in<br />
total <strong>com</strong>p in 2007.<br />
Former CEO John Dooner ranked as<br />
the No. 2 earner at IPG. As chief of IPG’s<br />
McCann Worldgroup, Dooner earned<br />
$2.8M, down from $4.9M in ’08. Dooner<br />
now serves as Executive Chair of<br />
McCann until the end of the year.<br />
Executive VP and CFO Frank<br />
Mergenthaler earned a package of $2.4<br />
million, a decline from the $3.5M hauled<br />
in for ’08 from Interpublic.<br />
Philippe Krakowsky, Executive<br />
VP/Strategy and Corporate Relations, collected<br />
$1.9 million, off from $2.6 million.<br />
Timothy Sompolski, Chief Human<br />
Resources Officer, earned $1.3 million<br />
last year vs. $2.1 million in ’08. <br />
12 MAY 2010 WWW.ODWYER<strong>PR</strong>.COM