Interpublic and Publicis have released their Q4 2023 results, revealing a 2.9% organic growth for the world's four largest agency holding companies, including WPP and Omnicom. This growth, consistent with the fourth quarter and slightly faster than the third, is considered in the context of a strong 2022 and pronounced cuts in marketing services spending by many technology companies.

The outlook for the four agency holding companies includes expectations for little growth at WPP (0-1%) and Interpublic (1-2%), but better results at Omnicom (3.5-5%) and Publicis (4-5%). If 2024 played out in this manner, results would be similar to what was seen in 2023. Publicis and Omnicom have been the most aggressive in principal-based trading models in the past year while IPG and WPP have been the least aggressive.

At Interpublic, organic growth amounted to 1.7% for the quarter and stability for the year (technically down -0.1%) with media and healthcare faring relatively well within those figures. Publicis hosted its fourth quarter earnings call, with organic growth up 6.1% on the quarter for a mid-single digit gain on the year in the US.

Publicis has an envelope for selective M&A between 700 and 800 million euros for 2024, to further strengthen the Groupe’s data, tech, commerce and AI capabilities.

IPG’s CEO Philippe Krakowsky said, "there remains a disparity of views regarding overall macro growth prospects. This is leading to some client conservatism".

According to Brian Wieser, Analyst at Madison and Vine (pictured), "To the extent that agencies are used to working with longer sales cycle with their clients vs. media owners who have shorter sales cycles (and more immediate impacts) I think this helps explain one of the key reasons why principal-based trading models are capturing a growing share of spend from marketers."

Wieser also commented on Publicis' strategy, "To the extent that Publicis invests more aggressively in their business in this manner, the company is relatively well positioned to sustain faster growth than its peers in years to come."