• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, April 28, 2011

Two of the world's biggest agency holding companies - WPP and Interpublic - this morning reported strong first quarter results. WPP said its "reported" revenues rose 7.0T and its "like-for-like" revenues rose 6.7% over the first quarter of 2010. Interpublic reported a 10.3% gain in total revenues and a 9.3% rise in organic revenues for the same period.

"By communications services sector, advertising and media investment management continued to 'bite-back' with revenues on a constant currency basis up 12.9%, followed by branding and identity, healthcare and specialist communications (including direct, digital and interactive) up 7.9%," WPP stated, alluding the fact that media and advertising services are benefitting particularly from a rebound from recessionary spending levels.

"The group's direct and interactive networks of Wunderman and OgilvyOne, together with specialist digital agencies VML and JWT Inside showed strong growth," WPP added, noting that "public relations and public affairs continued the solid performance in 2010, with growth of 5.6%, which was slightly ahead of quarter four in 2010, the highest quarterly growth in 2010."

WPP said it is in the process of "reviewing" and revising its forecasts, but "early indications are that revenues in the balance of the year will grow faster than budgeted, with full year like-for-like revenue growth of over 6%."