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Publicis Group and Havas reported strong Q4 and full year 2007 results, outpacing industry trends. Havas growth was strong in all business groups, particularly digital and media operations.
Havas’s full-year revenue rose more than 4.1 percent to $2.23 billion over the previous year, writes Adweek. Digital operations rose 28 percent, while media ops grew 19 percent.
Organic growth, which factors out currency fluctuations and the impact of acquisitions, was more than 7 percent for the year and nearly 10 percent in Q4.
Organic growth in Asia-Pacific, Latin America and other international markets topped 16 percent; in North America, it was 3.4 percent, while in Europe organic growth was 7.6 percent for the year.
Net new business for the year was $2.18 billion.
Publicis’s organic growth, at 3.1 percent, missed projections of 4.0 percent growth rate, which chairman-CEO Maurice Levy attributed to weakness in the pharmaceutical category. Otherwise, the group pulled a healthy year for sales and profit. Revenue rose 6.5 percent for the year to more than $6.8 billion. Net income rose to just under $660 million, or a growth rate of 2 percent.
Like Havas, Publicis growth in international markets was particularly strong, up 11 percent in Africa and the Middle East and about 9 percent in Asia and Latin America.
North American and European revenue grew just 1.7 percent each.
Net new business for the year hit $5 billion.
Marketing services and digital have grown increasingly important to Publicis, and the company spent much of last year growing its digital operations following the January acquisition of Digitas.
Challenges for the new year for both holding companies include a slowdown in the U.S. economy.
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