• by Tobi Elkin , Staff Writer @tobielkin, February 8, 2017

While the forces of consolidation continue to roil the ad tech waters, one holding company’s trading desk posted strong growth in Q4, according to its earnings report.

Omnicom’s Accuen trading desk on Tuesday reported revenue grew $33 million in Q4 and $86 million over the full year in 2016. Omnicom said Q4 marked Accuen’s highest incremental growth for the year. For the two prior years, Accuen’s contribution to Omnicom’s overall revenue hovered between $20 million and $45 million. Omnicom didn’t offer up Accuen's total revenue.

To put it into perspective, Omnicom said Accuen grew $10 million in Q3 2016, $18 million in Q2, and $25 million in Q1.

It looks like 2015 saw the biggest growth as programmatic media buying began to take hold. For example, Omnicom said that for Q4 2015, Accuen grew by $45 million, and for the same year, Q3 saw $25 million, Q2 $30 million, and Q1 $40 million. 

Omnicom is also seeing its client roster changing. “The programmatic business continues to evolve beyond the original group of advertisers focused primarily on achieving an ROI,” Chief Financial Officer Phil Angelastro told investors on the earnings call. He also warned that it’s likely that there will be a decrease in programmatic spending implemented on a bundled basis vs. programmatic executed on a traditional basis. Angelastro attributed this to the impact of the Association of National Advertisers’ June 2016 report which cited deep concerns among advertisers regarding the transparency of programmatic media buying.

For 2016, Omnicom reported revenues increased 1.9% globally to $15.4 billion. For Q4, global revenue increased 2.1% to $4.2 billion. Advertising and media contributed to more than half of Omnicom’s growth this year.