April 11 Reuters French advertising group Publicis on Thursday reported betterthanexpected organic revenue growth in the first quarter, helped by its Epsilon and Publicis Media businesses, cementing its outlier status in an otherwise sluggish sector.

The world39;s largest advertising group by market value also attributed its quarterly performance to the recent acquisitions of AKA Asia in Singapore and Spinnaker in the United States, and a recent rebound in the tech sector.

After extracting ourselves from the pack in 2023, we clearly carried that momentum into Q1, CEO Arthur Sadoun said in a press release.

Net revenue came in at 3.23 billion euros 3.47 billion in the first quarter, a 5.3 organic growth, above the 4 to 5 guidance range announced in February.

The group kept its guidance for 2024, also expecting organic net revenue to grow by 4 to 5, highlighting that the 4 is rock solid as it takes into account delays in business transformation, more cuts in advertising spend and a conservative approach to budget adjustments.

By contrast, rival WPP said in February it expected flat to 1 growth this year, due to the loss of some creative accounts. It will publish its firstquarter results on April 16.

Publicis39; investments in data and tech via units like Epsilon and Sapient have borne fruit in the past quarters, as global advertising became increasingly dominated by digital and geared towards personalisation.

By gaining market shares, we demonstrate that we have a…