Ad Agencies Report No Major Client Pullbacks, While Caution Grows.

Two more big advertising agency conglomerates are offering positive, if cautious news about 2025 advertising. Executives at Omnicom and Publicis said this week that it remains a watch-and-wait situation for most of their clients, with no widespread retreats in their advertising spending. They warn the outlook may shift later in 2025, but marketers remain focused on maintaining brand strength and market share.

John Wren, the CEO of Omnicom Group — parent to media agencies like OMD and PHD — said client ad spending “remains strong” as marketers stick with their 2025 plans for now.

“As you’re all keenly aware, there’s been increased volatility in the economy and the markets,” he said on an earnings call. “As in past periods of uncertainty, our clients must continue to compete for share in a dynamic marketplace by investing and leveraging the strength of their brands and increasing and actively expanding their connection with customers.”

Omnicom’s media and advertising business was up 7% during the first quarter. But faced with what Wren concedes is “uncertainty” in the market, Omnicom adjusted its overall outlook for the year. It now expects organic growth of 2.5% to 4.5% vs. an earlier forecast of 3.5% to 4.5%. growth. “We didn’t change the forecast on those where if we had doubts, it was really more in the events business as companies probably get a little bit more conservative,” Wren explained.

Publicis Media, the Paris-based home of media shops including Starcom, Zenith and Digitas, offered a similar assessment.

“Many of our clients are facing a very challenging situation due to uncertainty on tariffs, rising inflation, and a geopolitical context that is more volatile than ever,” CEO Arthur Sadoun said. “This tough environment has not materialized in our numbers, with March being the strongest month of the quarter. But like everyone else, we could experience cuts from several clients across many industries for the rest of the year.”

Publicis says its U.S. business had organic growth of 4.1% in the first quarter. During an earnings call, Sadoun said when he assesses the mood of clients, he is distinguishing between how they behaved during Q1 and what they plan for the rest of the year. “Our clients are going to wait to see if there is more visibility before starting to invest,” Sadoun predicted.

The comments by Omnicom and Public echo that of Havas, which as last week said that it too hasn’t seen any meaningful pullback from clients.

How ad spending develops in the coming months will have a lot to do with consumers. Analysts at Citi said this week that consumer spending could have an impact on how much marketers invest in advertising. It said in a research note that consumer spending could decline by roughly 3% and that could cut ad spending by 1.9%.

Wren called the decision by President Trump to delay implementation of the tariffs by 90 days “sensible” and said it has given many clients more time to import inventory and front-load sales in the first half of the year.