Publicis Groupe, the Paris-based holding company that owns VivaKi operations like Digitas, Starcom MediaVest, and Zenith Optimedia, this morning reported a healthy rise in first quarter earnings, and
said that the percentage of revenues that now come from digital advertising and media services has grown to 28.2% of its total. That's up from 27.0% in the first quarter of 2010.
A lot of that
growth was generated in North America, which accounts for 49% of Publicis' total revenues. Digital related revenues now account for 42.1% of Publicis' North American revenues.
Publicis reiterated
its goal of transforming its entire organization vis a vis digital growth, and said it planned to have more than a third (35%) of its total revenues coming from digital operations within three years.
Digital was also a strong factor in Publicis' organic growth during the quarter. The organic growth of Publicis' worldwide digital operations was 12.6%, nearly twice the rate of Publicis'
overall organic growth rate of 6.5%.
Publicis' total revenues rose 10.7% to $1.286 billion during the first quarter of 2011.