AI, restructuring, missed expectations and a rescue mission: A turbulent Q4 for the holding groups
Analysis
The holding companies completed 2025 with a quarter that highlighted the uneven terrain the industry is treading and that discipline pays.
AI is now fully embedded in every earnings narrative, restructuring is widespread, and investor expectations are growing at a pace.
Each of the holding companies entered Q4 with diverse pressures, yet the collective picture is one of transition, the promise of AI-driven reinvention, slowing client budgets, integration costs and structural challenges.
Publicis: Takes top spot but misses the mark
Publicis delivered another strong year — reporting 5.9% organic growth in Q4, 5.6% for the full year and regional gains led by the US which grew by 5.2%.
The company emphasised record market share wins, strong client retention and the fruition of its AI focus, which attributed roughly 300 basis points of growth, with another 250 coming from new business.
Yet despite the company’s positive messaging, the market reaction told a different story.
Shares fell nearly 9% after a revenue miss and guidance has been posted at 4-5% organic growth for 2026.
There has been speculation that investors were not impressed with the firm’s 2026 outlook along with broader industry concern about AI investments paying off.
It’s clear that investors are getting nervous and the bar of expectation is getting higher.
Additionally, the revenue miss raises questions as to whether Publicis will be able to maintain its growth trajectory in an increasingly competitive market.
It appears the pinch point has arrived and sustained outperformance will be the differentiator within the new AI era.
Omnicom: A new era of opacity
Omnicom’s quarter was largely defined by the $13bn acquisition of Interpublic Group (IPG), a deal which completed in November and will substantially reshape the market.
Q4 revenue saw a surge of 27.9%, however growth was inorganic as it included one month of IPG revenue.
Beneath this the numbers were not as encouraging, with nearly $1bn quarterly loss, $1.12bn in restructuring costs and more than 4,000 job cuts.
The company’s decision to stop reporting organic revenue growth in quarterly presentations this year marks a blow to transparency and could make measuring the performance of the world’s largest marketing services organisation much harder.
CFO Phil Angelastro did suggest that Q4 organic growth would have been around 4% “based on historic measures.”
Media and advertising contributed 60.1% of total revenue and will continue to dominate the company, with CEO John Wren stating it could grow “50-60% bigger.”
However, Wren also announced a cost-reduction plan of $1.5bn in savings, including $1bn from labour, and real estate consolidation and operational synergies.
The company will also exit or sell underperforming agencies and smaller markets which represent around $700m in annual revenue.
AI will play a key role in driving efficiencies, with Wren reportedly stating in the earnings call: “Across every area of our business, we are evaluating and deploying automation and AI to improve how we service our clients and run our operations.”
Principal media may also play a larger role in the business’s future, as the earnings pointed to related costs increasing by 23%, however it is important to caveat this may also be a result of operational integration costs.
Omnicom’s future will clearly be defined by scale, AI-enabled efficiency and principal media.
Dentsu: A consequential quarter and year
Dentsu delivered one of the most challenging quarters among the groups.
The company reported a ¥327.6bn statutory net loss, driven by a ¥310.1bn impairment charge on international assets.
Organic growth for the year was a marginal 0.5%, meanwhile Japan performed strongly at 6.2%, disappointing international performance in other markets led to a full-year loss.
Dividends for full year 2025 were also suspended and has pulled back from M&A discussions and is guiding for 0-1% organic growth in 2026 with the Japan business to grow by 2% to 3%. The international business is projected to be broadly flat.
The earnings release was followed by the resignation of global CEO Hiroshi Igarashi, with longtime company executive Takeshi Sano appointed to replace him.
Sano has said he would move “at speed” and pointed towards a flat structure with regional heads reporting directly to him.
In a briefing to analysts, Sano outlined: “This is how the Japanese business grew, and we have to expand this globally.”
Dentsu is currently cutting 8% of its international workforce, with 2,100 roles already gone and the remainder to follow in 2026 taking the total to 3,400.
The scale of the impairment and extent of restructuring reveals how far Dentsu has fallen behind — and the challenge of the rebuild.
Havas: Strong and steady
Havas posted a stable performance this quarter, delivering 3.1% organic growth and a 12.9% EBIT margin, ahead of expectations.
CEO Yannick Bolloré emphasised Havas’s new positioning as the “strongest challenger” in the market.
Bolloré underlined the company’s commitment to AI training and efficiency, stating on the earnings call: “We are training our people with AI, we are finding efficiencies everywhere.”
He further pointed to significant production savings from AI, highlighting 10-50% reductions in video production costs and reiterated the future strategy of maintaining growth with a stable headcount.
In 2025, Bolloré said headcount excluding M&A fell by 1.2%, while organic growth rose by 3.1%, implying a 4.2% productivity gain.
Bolloré said: “Is it entirely due to AI? It’s hard to say, but for sure, AI is playing a huge part in it.”
However, dependence on AI integration may pose execution risks and potential disruptions.
Additional risks come from market competition and shrinking client budgets.
But chief financial officer and chief operating officer, François Laroze was not phased by this prospect in the earnings call, he stated: “We do not feel any breakdown from a major clients, and we have exchanged with them to foster their sales and to take the good measures for them to reach their own targets.
“So we are quite confident.”
Havas’s guidance for 2026 is 2-3% organic growth with further margin improvements, reflective of its continued steady approach, which stands out in a quarter marked with unpredictability.
WPP: A structural reckoning
WPP had a revealingly difficult quarter — with revenue down 8.1% in 2025 and on a like-for-like basis to $18.3bn (£13.6bn).
Revenue less-pass-through costs was also down 10.4%, down 5.4% on a like-for-like basis to $13.6bn (£10.1bn).
In Q4 revenue declined by 8.3% and was down 5.5% on a like-for-like basis to $4.8bn (£3.6bn).
Revenue less-pass-through costs was also down 10.1%, down 6.9% on a like-for-like basis to $3.6bn (£2.7bn).
This depicts a continuation of a multi-year trend in which WPP has consistently underperformed peers.
These results prompted the company to announce a two-year strategy, “Elevate28” to help the company return to growth after a challenging period of revenue decline.
Under this new strategy WPP will transition from a holding company structure to a single company structured into four divisions: WPP Media, WPP Production, WPP Enterprise Solutions, and the newly created WPP Creative.
These divisions would be split across four regions: North America, Latin America, EMEA and APAC.
CEO Cindy Rose’s comments reflect how the company has finally acknowledged that its operating model was not longer working: “Our recent underperformance has been driven by excessive organisational complexity, a lack of an integrated operating model and inconsistent strategic execution.”
Along with this the company has laid out plans to achieve £500m of annual savings by 2028, at a cost of £400m over two years.
A lot of these costs cuts will come from axing jobs, however the company has not disclosed specific numbers.
AI will also be central to the cost savings and simplification, with the company aiming to become “a simpler, lower-cost, AI-enabled business.”
However, in comparison to its peers it appears WPP is leaning on AI as part of its turnaround plan — a fundamentally different starting point from using it to drive productivity and margin expansion.
Overall, the Q4 results demonstrate the industry is moving through AI-driven transformation at varied pace, with discipline and strategy central to building and retaining success.