NEW YORK: Interpublic Group's Constituency Management Group (CMG) unit saw organic revenue drop 2% to $329.5 million in the third quarter of 2013, compared with the same period of last year.
The holding company owns and operates Weber Shandwick, GolinHarris, DeVries Global, Rogers & Cowan, Current, Powell Tate, Axis Agency, and other marketing specialist agencies in its CMG division. Carmichael Lynch Spong reports into IPG separately.
Interpublic chairman and CEO Michael Roth said on an earnings call that the CMG organic revenue decrease was “due to last year's Olympics revenue spike in Q3.”
“The very strong performance of our public relations agencies continued in the quarter and organic revenue growth at CMG was 6.4% for the nine months,” he added.
Weber CEO Andy Polansky said IPG's PR agencies in the CMG unit saw “very strong organic growth and sequential growth both on an organic and reported basis” in the quarter. He added that Weber, Golin, Powell Tate, and Axis all had particularly strong performances in the period.
Weber continues to be strong in the US, Asia, and Brazil, said Polansky. Last month, the firm was named TripAdvisor's first AOR in the US.
In Q3 2012, CMG's revenue grew organically at a rate of 5.9%, compared with the prior year.
Overall, IPG reported a 2.8% organic increase in revenue to $1.7 billion in Q3 compared with the prior year.
For the first nine months of 2013, IPG posted a 2.4% organic revenue increase to $5 billion year-over-year. Net income attributable to IPG was $45.4 million in the third quarter, compared with $68.7 million in Q3 2012.
