• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, July 20, 2012

Pubicis Groupe reported a 15.5% gain in revenue in the second quarter to nearly $2 billion. Organic growth, which excludes acquistions and currency fluctuations, was much lower at 1.6%.

The holding company attributed the low organic growth (considered a key performance indicator for the advertising industry) to continuing economic turmoil in Europe, a tough comparision to the same period a year ago when it had 7.6% organic growth, and the loss of the General Motors media assignment in the quarter.

For the first half revenue was up 14.3% to nearly $3.8 billion with net income of  $336 million, up 19%. Organic growth for the first six months was  2.8%.

By comparision, Omnicom Group, reporting results earlier in the week, had organic growth of 5.1% for both the second quarter and the first half of the year.