NEW YORK — IPG on Wednesday reported that its  PR and experiential agency group grew 1.3% on an organic basis in the second quarter of this year.

The quarterly lift was led by double-digit growth by Golin and “solid” single-digit growth in the PR discipline, IPG said. Golin’s growth stemmed by “strong performance” in North America, particularly in the healthcare sector, the company said.

The Weber Shandwick Collective saw “solid” single-digit growth, driven by strong performance in North America. Quarterly highlights include the agency being named the first agency partner for 5-hour Energy in North America and added new AOR remits for AB InBev, including global crisis and issues management and communications for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The PR group performed slightly lower than it did during Q1, when the revenue rose 1.5%.It also performed poorer than it did other recent quarters (revenue grew by 2.9% in Q4 2023 and 6.5% in Q3). However, its performance furthers the growth streak it has been on for more than two years since the Covid pandemic.

IPG as a whole saw net revenue decrease 0.1% to $2.33 billion in Q3. Quarterly revenue rose 1.7% on an organic basis.

The holding company’s net revenue rose 0.1% to $4.5 billion during the first half of 2024. Revenue was up 1.5% on an organic basis from the first six months of 2023.

“Second quarter performance was solid, with moderate acceleration in organic growth, as well as margin expansion compared to the same period last year. Consistent with our longer-term performance, IPG Mediabrands and IPG Health led the way in the quarter. We also saw notable contributions to growth from Deutsch LA, Golin and Acxiom. Creatively, our agencies continued to garner exceptional levels of recognition for the quality of their ideas and innovation, across all marketing disciplines,” said IPG CEO Philippe Krakowsky.

“The most successful businesses in our portfolio continue to demonstrate specialized, high- value services that identify and reach audiences with greater precision and accountability, in turn leading to growth in our clients’ brands and businesses. Much of this work is powered by our industry-leading audience data and a technology stack that unifies the marketing funnel.

"This enables marketers to assess and understand the value of their investments, whether on technology platforms, in earned and paid media, or in other key sales and retail channels. We continue to focus on these growth areas of the business, as well as on integrating generative AI tools and technologies into our content and creative offerings.

“Given results in the year to date, trends within our client roster, and macro sentiment, we expect to achieve full-year organic growth of approximately 1% and, at that level of growth, continue to target adjusted EBITA margin of 16.6%. Additional areas for value creation include our strong balance sheet and liquidity, as well as our ongoing commitment to capital returns,” he said.

IPG’s earnings report comes a week after Omnicom reported its PR group revenue rose 0.9% in Q2, ending three consecutive quarters of decline.