With IPG filing Q3 results yesterday, media and marketing consultancy Madison & Wall calculates that organic growth for the “big four” holding companies (Omnicom, Publicis and WPP being the other three) in the quarter averaged 0.3%, the lowest quarterly growth rate for the group in about five years.  

Per the Madison & Wall analysis, Publicis led with growth of 5.7%. Omnicom followed with 2.6%, although as M&W points out the comparison is “imperfect,” as Omnicom reports organic growth on gross revenue rather than net revenue, as the rest of the peer set does. On a net basis, the firm estimates Omnicom was closer to flat.  

WPP lagged with a 5.9% organic decline during the quarter. 

M&W noted that other smaller agency groups have posted or will post “similarly mixed results, with Havas up 3.8% and Stagwell up (ex-advocacy) by 3.2%. S4’s net revenue was down by 4.4% organically and Dentsu [will likely] be down by a greater amount.” 

By comparison, a group of independent agencies that M&W tracks grew on average about 2.7% during the quarter.  

Among the big four at the regional level, Latin America posted the highest organic growth at 2.9%, followed by North America, which rose by 2.1%. Europe fell by 2%, largely driven by WPP’s struggles in France (down 5.3%) and Germany (down 10.6%). Publicis also declined in both markets, with France and Germany falling 8.6% and 5.3% respectively.  

APAC trailed with a 3.5% decline, as WPP’s 10% fall in China was only partially offset by Publicis’s 6.1% growth in the same region. 

The US posted what M&W termed a “relatively strong” 2.1% organic growth rate “perhaps mirroring our independent agency growth data, which is skewed towards the US – while the UK’s softness persisted, with a decline of –0.7% in organic growth.”