Stagwell Inc. posted double-digit second-quarter organic revenue growth and maintained its annual forecast as the holding company plans to further mix its creative and media capabilities.
“After years of procurement separating media from creative, the demands of the digital world are bringing them together again, and we are responding to this trend,” Stagwell CEO Mark Penn said on the company’s quarterly conference call. “These new kinds of media and creative and commerce hybrid accounts are helping fuel 33% growth in the media capability.”
The plan to bring Stagwell’s capabilities closer together includes having creative agencies Crispin Porter Bogusky, Forsman Bodenfors, Observatory, and Vitro join Stagwell’s media network to help expand the network’s “creative breadth.”
Read more: Stagwell CEO Mark Penn on its media approach, competition and outlook
Stagwell’s second-quarter organic net revenue rose 16%. The results were calculated on a pro forma basis, as if the August 2021 acquisition of MDC Partners by Stagwell Marketing Group had been completed on Jan. 1, 2020.
Unlike Publicis, Omnicom, and Interpublic Group of Cos. which raised their annual forecast estimates for the year, Stagwell has kept its guidance the same as last quarter. The holding company still predicts 18% to 22% net revenue organic growth in 2022.
“While we continue to perform ahead of plan, we’re taking a prudent approach to full-year guidance while incumbents have minimally raised outlooks to 6 or 7% growth we are reaffirming our already strong outlook for the year,” Penn said on the call.
Despite economic issues, Penn says he has seen a “healthy pitch market” this year.
“After the rush of new business going into the beginning of the year, we saw a slight low then in pitches butut when we got back from Cannes we really saw a flood of new pitches,” Penn said. “We’re now up for a raft of very significant $10 million pitches which are due between now and fall or late fall to be resolved. So we are seeing here a very healthy pitch market. Had I not seen that resumption, I might have been concerned, but what I really saw was a flood of those things.”
