Omnicom reported organic growth of 3.9% on revenue from core operations of $5.6 billion in the first quarter. 

The organic revenue figure is based on gross revenue that does not exclude pass-through costs such as those related to principal-based trading, which competitors like Publicis and WPP provide.  The net organic figure would be lower but is not broken out by the company in formal reports. 

By comparison, Publicis Groupe earlier this month reported Q1 organic growth of 6.4% and net organic growth of 4.5%. Earlier today WPP reported a net organic revenue decline of 6.7%. 

During an investor call Tuesday afternoon, company CFO Phil Angelastro said the company continues to expect to generate roughly 4% gross organic growth for the full year.  

On top of its core operations revenue, Omnicom generated an additional $627.2 million in revenue from operations that have been earmarked for sale. The company has identified assets generating annual revenue of $3.2 billion that it hopes to dispose of by the end of the year. So far it has sold about $1 billion of those assets, including experiential marketing firm Jack Morton.  

On the call with investors, CEO John Wren noted that since the IPG acquisition late last year, Omnicom has merged or shuttered more than 20 agency and specialist brands as part of the broader integration process.  

By discipline the company’s integrated media operations (accounting for about 52% of company revenues) posted a percentage gain in the high-single digits. Integrated media is an expanded discipline resulting from the merger reorganization that includes data, commerce, and digital transformation consulting.  

PR posted a mid-single digit gain, while the creative advertising segment posted a revenue decline. Healthcare, now accounting for about 19% of the overall business (up from 15% prior to the merger), was up by a low-single digit figure.  

The U.S. region was up in the mid-single digits in Q1. 

During the investor call Wren was asked whether Omnicom now had a more direct relationship with publishers. He responded by noting what he termed the “messy middle” of tech intermediaries that exist between a marketer and the messages it sends to consumers. “It takes a toll” in terms of costs, he said, adding that “we are clearly working on it.” 

Left unsaid was that last month Omnicom launched an audit of demand-side programmatic ad platform The Trade Desk (which followed word that Publicis Groupe was no longer recommending TTD as a programmatic service provider after the firm “failed” an audit. TTD has denied Publicis’s assertions and responded that the Omnicom audit was part of ongoing due diligence.  

By the end of the first quarter, Omnicom had acquired $2.8 billion of a planned $5 billion share buyback program, which will be completed in the first half of next year.  

During Q1 Omnicom wins included IBM, GSK, John Deer and Baily’s while it added business from Clorox, Dyson, Exxon, Merck and Unilever. Multinational companies, Wren said, are increasingly interested in doing business with a single marketing firm. That’s resulted in Omnicom extending multiyear contracts “with many clients,” since the completion of the IPG transaction.