Publicis Groupe reported 10.3% organic revenue growth and a 21% increase in net revenue to €5.9 billion, or $6.01 billion, for its second quarter. The holding company also raised its full-year organic revenue growth expectations.

Publicis is now calling for 6% to 7% percent organic revenue growth, up from a prior forecast of 4% to 5% growth. Its 2022 growth expectations factor in the current “uncertainties” globally, such as the effect the economy could have on advertising spending, said Arthur Sadoun, chairman and CEO. 

Sadoun says he hasn’t seen any clients cut their spending yet. Furthermore, he said he doesn’t foresee layoffs for the holding company, which has brought on 7,000 new hires so far this year, nearly as many as the 9,000 brought on last year.

Organic revenue rose 10.4% in the first half of the year. Organic growth is a key financial measure that factors out acquisitions, divestitures and effects of exchange rates. Compared to pre-pandemic numbers in 2019, Publicis posted 12% organic revenue growth for the quarter and 11% for the first half. 

The holding company saw solid revenue growth across all regions, with the U.S and Europe seeing 10.1% and 10.7% organic growth, respectively, and Asia seeing 6.5% growth. China remained positive, with 2.7% growth, despite recent lockdowns due to COVID-19 outbreaks. Publicis Sapient and Epsilon grew by 19.1% and 13.7%, respectively.

“We haven’t seen any kind of client cutbacks on their budgets at the moment because they know ... it will be easy to lose market share and very difficult to win it back,” Sadoun said. "That does not mean that they won't cut in the future if the situation was to worsen, which is not the case today, because today we haven't seen anything of the kind.”

Since the beginning of 2022, Publicis has given almost 43% of its employees a raise, Sadoun confirmed. Last year 65% of employees received raises.

Another aspect of economic uncertainty involves layoffs that have been creeping up across the advertising industry and at companies like TikTok and Microsoft.

“If things were to deteriorate in the future, thanks to Marcel, we know how to manage a revenue slowdown, by not sacrificing jobs as we did during the crisis because you need to know that even when the business slows down, you still have agencies that are ongoing,” Sadoun said. “The fact that we can allocate our resources through Marcel gives us the opportunity to save the jobs of those that are in agencies that are declining and put them in the agencies where people are growing.”

Earlier this week, Omnicom Group reported an 11.3% increase in second-quarter organic revenue. Interpublic Group of Cos. will release its results later today before markets open. Stagwell will release its results on Aug. 4 and Dentsu Group will follow, releasing its results on Aug 10.