Strong second quarter for Omnicom as marketing spend rises

Income rose to $225.8m (£129.7m) from $206.1m in the second quarter of 2004, as worldwide revenue increased 9% to $2.6bn from $2.4bn last time.

Omnicom, headed by chief executive John Wren, said that specialised marketing, including digital and direct marketing, grew by 10% compared with its traditional ad business, which grew by 9%.

In the US, Omnicom, which owns the DDB, BBDO and TBWA\Worldwide advertising networks, saw domestic revenue for the second quarter rose 9% to $1.4bn from $1.3bn in 2004. International revenue increased 8% to $1.18bn from $1.10bn.

Omnicom has seen agency wins including Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO winning the the RAC's £11m ad account and retaining the £47m Sainsbury's account, while Capital One awarded DDB London its £19m UK account.

The results follow Omnicom's recent acquisition of a 70% stake in US market research and strategy consulting agency Luntz Research and its early bid of A$80m for the Australian network The Communications Group through its Australian agency Clemenger BBDO.

Reuters said analysts on average had forecast earnings per share of $1.23 on revenue of $2.61bn.

Net income for the six months ended June increased 10% to $376.3m from $341.7m in the same period in 2004. Diluted earnings per share for the six months increased 13% to $2.05 from $1.81.

Worldwide revenue for the six months increased 8% to $5bn from $4.6bn in the same period in 2004. Domestic revenue for the six months increased 9% to $2.7bn from $2.5bn in the same period in 2004. International revenue increased 8% to $2.2bn from $2.1bn.

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