Marketing and corporate communications holding company Omnicom Group has reported a positive year of growth and increased revenue following the release of its Q4 results.
The New York-based outfit, which owns ad agency networks including TBWA Worldwide and BBDO, announced 5% growth in worldwide revenue for the full year to $15.3 billion, with net income increasing 11.4% to hit $1.1 billion.
In the fourth quarter of 2014, worldwide revenue increased 3.4% to $4.2 billion and net income for the quarter lifted 9.7% to $329.5 million, compared to the same period in 2013.
Despite the majority of results being positive, international revenue at the group decreased 2.2% to $1.96 billion for the quarter. Nevertheless, international revenue for the year increased 2.1% to $7.17 billion.
Organic revenue growth
Omnicom saw organic revenue growth for the year across a variety of disciplines including advertising, which increased by 9.1%, and public relations, increasing 4.1%.
There was also a rise of 3.1% in specialty communications over the year – the element that grew the fastest in Q4 with an overall upturn of 9.4% for the period. Advertising and public relations came joint-second for the quarter, both increasing 8.5%.
Across regional markets for 2014, organic revenue increased 7.5% in North America, 5.2% in the United Kingdom and 1.0% in the European markets.
Omnicom also saw organic revenue increase 4.5% in Asia Pacific, 4.0% in Latin America and 10.1% in Africa and the Middle East when compared to the same period in the previous year.
The company saw numerous changes in 2014, most notably the collapse of its $35 billion merger with French holding company Publicis. This lead to the departure of CFO Randall Weisenburger and the promotion of Philip Angelastro to replace him.