Stagwell reported full year net revenue of nearly $2.3 billion in 2025, up 5.7% while organic net revenue growth (excluding advocacy) was 3.1% for the year and 4% for the fourth quarter.   

Company shares were up 20% in morning trading on news of the results. Marketing advisory firm Madison and Wall noted that the firm’s full-year results were “generally ahead of most of Stagwell’s larger direct competitors.” 

Digital transformation was a key growth driver last year, up 9.2% on an organic basis, while marketing services (including creative advertising) were up 4.6%.  

 Media/commerce services were essentially flat for the year, although company CEO Mark Penn pointed to a new business win streak in the second half of last year that propelled 4th quarter growth in the discipline to 7.1%. He said media/commerce organic growth should remain in the high single digits for all of 2026. 

More broadly growth will be boosted this year and beyond—Penn called it a “three year political super cycle--by mid-term election money, followed by the lead-up to the presidential election cycle in 2028. 

Communications was a weak sector for the firm—and the industry—last year given tough comparables to 2024 and the last presidential election cycle. The firm’s communications business was off 16% for the year, but will rebound during the upcoming election cycles, Penn told analysts on a Tuesday morning earnings call. 

Net revenue growth including acquisitions was up 6% for the year and excluding the company’s advocacy unit (heavily dependent on political dollars) was up 9%. 

Penn said the company’s M&A activity will be curtailed somewhat in 2026 as the firm focuses on AI development and a share repurchase program. 

The company provided the following outlook for 2026: 

Penn said that organic growth will improve this year but for now the company is not providing a formal guidance number.   

Stagwell’s Marketing Cloud offering—a suite of SaaS marketing tools—garnered 2025 revenues of over $32 million, up 34%. 

And the firm’s newly-launched agentic marketing operating system, dubbed The Machine, is expected to bring in $25 million in revenue this year and “double or triple” that in the following years, Penn said. 

On the creative services front, Penn said he expected that both Anomaly and 72andSunny would generate record revenues in 2026.  

The company is also about halfway to completing a $100 million cost cutting program announced last year, said CFO Ryan Greene, also on the call with analysts. Beyond that he’s targeting another $50 million to be taken out the company’s cost structure.  

Pictured above, Greene and Penn discussing Stagwell's 2025 results on this morning's investor call.