Dentsu Group sees organic revenue fall by 3.7% in Q1FY24, India still impacted by annualisation of media client losses 

Big media client losses still impact the advertising agency Dentsu. “India is still impacted by the annualisation of client losses in media from Q2 2023,” said the Japanese ad giant on May 14 when it reported the quarterly results for the first quarter of 2024. 

In 2023, Dentsu India lost big-ticket media clients Reckitt and Maruti Suzuki. 

However, the recent client wins in India and China are yet to impact revenues. Dentsu India in the past 12 months has won accounts such as BharatBenz (creative and media), Welspun (media), Meesho (media), Berger Paints (media), Motorola India (creative), Skore condoms (creative), Aditya Birla Capital (creative), among others. 

The Group reported a fall in organic growth by 3.7% and that its underlying operating profit declined 23.6% y-o-y while its underlying net profit (attributable to owners of the parent) decreased by 31.1% y-o-y to JPY 15.8 bn due to the fall in underlying operating profit.

“The first quarter delivered an organic revenue decline of -3.7%, in line with our internal forecasts and leaving us on track to deliver our guidance of c. 1% organic growth for the full year 2024,” said Hiroshi Igarashi, president and global CEO, Dentsu Group Inc. 

“Our confidence comes from a stronger outlook in the second half of the year. The Group will benefit from momentum in client wins, yet to impact revenues, from cycling out of accounts lost in 2023 and a significant easing of comparables,” he added.