Diana Marszalek 26 Apr 2023 // 7:04PM GMT
LONDON — Next 15’s customer engagement group — which includes PR agencies M Booth, Outcast and Archetype — saw revenue rise 9.3% on an organic basis in fiscal 2023, the first full year since the company added MHP Mischief to its holdings.
Next 15 reported that the engagement group’s net revenue rose to £274.9 million ($347.8 million), accounting for 48.8% of the company’s record £564 million ($703.1 million) — a 20.7% lift on an organic basis from FY 2022.
In its report, Next 15 said the group that houses PR (the company also has insight, delivery and transform divisions) is the one most impacted by economic and tech sector uncertainty, although 80% of revenue is committed for FY 2024.
In turn, the group has been focused on maximizing revenue opportunities and operations — leading to the creation of a tech-focused cluster of agencies including Archetype, Outcast, Nectar and Publitek.
Next 15 credited its companywide FY 2023 performance to range of factors including significant new client wins and expanded assignments with Morrisons, BiC and Mercedes-Benz; the acquisition of seven organizations including Engine in March 22, which added comms firm MHP Mischief to its holdings; and Mach49 striking a five-year deal with a global tech expected to be worth more than $400 million.
Said CEO Tim Dyson, “This year has seen a very strong performance with all four pillars of our business delivering strong levels of organic revenue growth. Our US operations have shown exceptional growth with the region now representing 52% of our total net revenues. We have also benefitted from a significant contract win by Mach49 at the start of the year and the acquisition of Engine which has been successfully integrated into our Group and is now making a very positive contribution to the Group’s trading.
“Looking ahead, our positive trading has continued into our new financial year with good levels of activity across all four parts of the business. We have continued to see strong levels of spend from all of our major customers. In addition, our work with the public sector has remained strong and is anticipated to grow in the current year. We therefore expect our results for the full year to be in line with management expectations.”