• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, April 19, 2013

Interpublic reported a 2.4% increase in revenue for the first quarter to $1.54 billion with a net loss of $58.5 million, versus a net loss of $45.7 million for the same period the year prior.

Organic revenue growth for the period, which excludes acquisitions and currency fluctuations, was 2.3%. By comparison, Publicis Groupe reported first-quarter organic growth of 1.3%, while Omnicom reported growth of 2.9%.

The company’s organic growth in the U.S. for the period was just 0.5%, versus 4%-plus for both Publicis and Omnicom. IPG said its organic growth outside the U.S. was significantly better at 4.9%.

“Key drivers of performance included our strong operations in emerging economies, the quality digital offerings embedded across the group, our media and marketing services companies, as well as our substantial U.S. operations,” said IPG CEO Michael Roth.

Roth added that he believes the company is positioned to achieve its full-year financial targets for 2013 of between 2% and 3% organic growth and a one-half of a percentage point boost in operating profit margin to 10.3%.

On a conference call with analysts, IPG executives attributed the lower organic growth in the U.S. to 2012 losses that will be felt in both the first and second quarters of 2013. Those “headwinds” will amount to about 2% in each of those quarters, said company CFO Frank Mergenthaler.

The company described its $42.4 million operating loss for the quarter as “seasonal.”

Roth noted what he called “demonstrable progress” at McCann Worldgroup under the management of Harris Diamond, who replaced Nick Brien as CEO late last year. In the quarter, McCann consolidated the global Chevrolet creative assignment, which had previously been shared with Omnicom’s Goodby Silverstein & Partners. Earlier this month, McCann and sibling media shop UM won the U.S. Postal Service review.

Roth said IPG was “net new business positive” for the first quarter. In addition to the Chevrolet consolidation, wins included Acura, Pep Boys and American Greetings at Mullen; the Sabic holding company win; JCPenney at R/GA, Benjamin Moore at The Martin Agency, and WalMart PR at Golin Harris. The biggest losses were Lionsgate media at Initiative, Kohl’s media and Burberry media at UM, and Sony PlayStation at Deutsch.

Summing up, Roth said he was “very encouraged” by the company’s performance in the first quarter.

“The tone of business is better than it was last year,” he said. Still, the company is not declaring that happy days are here again. “We’re still cautious,” Roth said -- adding that “the U.S. is not growing at the rate I’d like to see,” which would be in the 4% to 5% range.