Publicis Q1: Revenue "Growth," But at What Cost?

Publicis saw revenues grow 1.3 percent to just over $1 billion in Q1 2009, and CEO Maurice Levy claimed he was gaining market share from the other large networks who have all seen declines in revenue. (In fact, taking currency into account, Publicis revenue was down 4.4 percent.)

This was an “off-quarter” for Publicis, meaning that although it reported revenue it did not disclose its expenses — so we don’t know at what that market share gain cost its agencies. Levy said:

Our main competitors have published numbers with a decline between 5.6% and 6.6%, clearly showing that Publicis Groupe is gaining market share.

Publicis’ relative health and alleged share growth is interesting because as far as it is able to tell it’s also one of the more efficient and productive agency networks. Interpublic, WPP and Omnicom get no more than $1.13 in revenues for every dollar invested in staff and offices. But Publicis gets $1.23.

So the key question for Levy going forward is, can he keep up that efficiency and steal market share in an environment where clients are asking for agency fees to go down not up? It will be impressive if he can.

• See BNET’s previous coverage of Publicis:
• Publicis Executive Pay: A Raise for Levy; Saatchi’s Roberts and Vivaki’s Klues See Packages Cut
• WPP’s Sorrell Calls Publicis‘ Levy “Callous” in Remarks on Recession
• Alloy, Aegis Top BNET’s Network Efficiency Ranking; WPP Slips
• Omnicom, Publicis Worst Hit in Auto Brand Axings
• Publicis CEO Levy “Loves” Recession; Says It “Excites” Him
• Publicis Q4: $15.5M Army Fraud Settlement Not Noted in Its Numbers
• WPP’s Sorrell Says Publicis’s Levy Is “Hysterically Funny”
• Leo Burnett Lays Off 75
• Publicis’s Levy Calls WPP’s Sorrell a “Little Englishman Trying to Stir Things Up”
• The Scale of the Stupidity at Leo Burnett
• Publicis’s Levy Promises No Job Cuts
• WPP’s Sorrell and Publicis‘ Levy in “Gossip Girl”-Style Rivalry, Sez Bloomberg