Publicis Groupe posted strong numbers again in the second quarter, delivering 4.8% net organic revenue growth with 4.7% growth for the first half. Organic growth revenue excludes the impact of M&A and currency fluctuations. 

Company shares gained more than 3% in Thursday afternoon trading on the Paris Exchange on news of the positive results. 

The company felt confident enough in its first-half performance to adjust its full-year growth outlook, now saying it will achieve minimum organic growth of 4.5% and possibly 5%. That's up from a minimum of 4% that the firm projected it would achieve when it released Q1 results in February.

The projected growth ceiling remains the same for now at 5%. 

The firm's new business development remained strong in the first half with wins including Microsoft and American Airlines. The Groupe estimates that new business will add an estimated 2% to total revenue for the full year. 

Q2 net revenue reached nearly 3.8 billion euros -- up 4.2% on a reported basis -- and net revenue for the first half totaled 7.2 billion euros, up 5.7%. 

The Groupe’s AI-powered marketing services, now representing 87% of total net revenue, delivered +6.5% organic growth this quarter.

The Groupe’s connected media practice posted high single-digit organic growth, while creative operations delivered low single-digit organic growth.  

The technology practice was down in the mid-single digit range which the firm attributed to "reduced macroeconomic visibility" that continued to delay clients’ large transformation projects.  

The company has continued to invest heavily in new assets this year most notably its $2.2 billion deal for LiveRamp and the expansion of its sports marketing operations.  

The accelerated investments, said CEO Arthur Sadoun, signal that the company is determined “to deliver what our clients truly need: connected, agentic-driven capabilities that will enable them to grow, differentiate and lead in this AI world.” 

That in turn will drive value for them and, he boldly declared, insure that “we will outperform the industry once again, for the seventh year in a row.” 

Q2 organic growth in North America was 5.4%. The U.S. -- the Groupe’s largest region and which represented 58% of total net revenue in Q2 -- delivered 5.5% growth. It was fueled by high single-digit growth from the Groupe's media operations with mid-single-digit growth from creative units.  

Europe grew 5% and the U.K. was up 2.8%. APAC grew 2.6% with China up 7.5%. The Middle East & Africa was down 8.3%, due to what the company called “the conflict in the region.” 

Latin America was up 11% with double-digit growth for both media and creative assets.