Stagwell revenue dips 6.7% in Q4 2023

Stagwell reported $551.1 million in Q4 2023 revenue, an 6.7% organic net revenue decline compared to the year earlier, as well as net income of $46.4 million. 

For full-year 2023, the agency holding company reported net revenue of $2.15 billion, a decline of 5.9% on an organic basis compared to the prior year. It posted $41.6 million in net income last year, a decline from $50 million in the prior year.

The holding company owns and operates PR and public affairs agencies including Allison, Hunter, KWT Global, SKDK and Sloane & Company. 

All of the holding company’s business segments posted organic revenue declines in Q4. Creativity & Communications declined 4.8%, Consumer Insights & Strategy dropped 3.4%, Performance Media & Data dipped 1.6%, Digital Transformation declined by 13.2% and Stagwell Marketing Cloud Group reported a 7.8% drop. 

For the full year, Digital Transformation (-16.1%), Consumer Insights & Strategy (-4.3%) and Creativity & Communications (-3.5%) all posted organic net revenue declines. Stagwell Cloud Marketing Group posted an organic revenue increase for the full year of 7.2% while Performance Media & Data increased by 0.7%. 

Creativity & Communications made up 43% of the holding company’s net revenue for Q4, with digital transformation trailing at 24%, performance media and data at 14%, Stagwell Marketing Cloud Group at 10% and consumer insights and strategy at 9%.

Stagwell’s PR firms are spread among its divisions, according to a holding company spokesperson. 

Stagwell Marketing Cloud, which launched last April, named Elspeth Rollert as its first CEO in December.

The U.S. made up 78.9% of net revenue for the company in Q4, seeing a 7.8% decline in organic growth and 7.6% drop in FY 2023. The U.K. accounted for 8.4% of revenue in Q4, at 13.9% organic growth in the quarter and a 9.4% increase for FY 2023. All other geographies were down 10.4% in the quarter and 2.2% for the full year. 

The holding company cited notable client wins of the past year such as Inogen, Coty, Target, Cotton Incorporated, Samsung, Meijer and IHG Hotels and Resorts. Net new business accounted for $65 million in Q4 and $270 million for FY 2023.

Stagwell has made three acquisitions this year: Creative agency Team Epiphany in January and U.K. creative collective Sidekick and French consultancy What’s Next Partners this month. Sidekick joined Allison while WNP became a part of advertising network Anomaly's Alliance partnership. 

The agency additions follow a series of acquisitions in 2023, including digital agency Left Field Labs and experiential design firm Tinsel.

Stagwell is predicting organic new revenue growth of 5% to 7% in 2024.