• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, August 8, 2023

"We are beginning to see a return to a more normal business environment," Stagwell CEO Mark Penn states in the holding company's second-quarter earnings released early this morning, which nonetheless reports a 6% decline in revenue for the quarter and a 5% decline for the first half.

Citing "sequential quarter-over-quarter improvements, as well as "a quarter billion dollars" in new business wins over the past 12 months, Penn states that Stagwell management "remains bullish" on the second half, as well as 2024.

"It is clear, however, that our industry is facing headwinds caused by economic uncertainty and especially tech client reorganizations, the effects of which we believe are temporary," he continues, citing promising signals such as the "emergence of generative AI "that we believe will explode in the next 12 to 18 months.

"We are already in the market with generative AI products, and our Stagwell Marketing Cloud Group revenue was nearly $50 million this quarter as we push the frontiers of technology in marketing AI and AR," he states.

This article has been updated with a new story based on Stagwell's live earnings webcast this morning.