The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (NYSE:IPG) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Philippe Krakowsky: And then I guess on sectors, so auto and transportation is strong, and we see it continuing. Health care, financial services for us, given the mix of clients that we’ve got in retail, that has continued to be a place where we’ve got quite progressive modern clients, and then the other category. As I mentioned, I think the — a lot of the headlines and a lot of the sort of sector-specific issues that we’re seeing in tech are manifesting in conversations with clients. And there, what we’re seeing is clients either taking reductions or being not committing for a full year. So I think as we said, what we saw there was something that I think is — we’re seeing the impact, the duration on that is perhaps open ended.

And then food and beverage for us will have the runoff of a very large industry consolidation that took place at the holding company level in late ’21. And as we said, it impacted Q4 most heavily, but we’ll still see some impact. So in terms of the revenue deltas, it’s definitely, for us, the items that we’ve identified for you, which we are addressing are definitely going to impact first half, whether it’s the digital agencies and where they are in their cycle of transformation as the macro becomes a bit more challenged, and then some of these client items. So for us, it’s definitely – a stronger back half is very much where and how we’ve gotten to that guidance.

Lina Ghayor: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. The next question is from Steven Cahall with Wells Fargo. You may go ahead.

Steven Cahall: Good morning. Maybe just to follow up on that theme a little bit first. So Philippe, can you give us an idea of what the net new business impact is for 2023? It sounds like it’s probably modestly negative. So I just want to make sure I’m piecing all that together. And I’d love to include some components of this question, which is how does kind of health care set up from a growth rate perspective in 2023 since that’s such a big part of the revenue mix? And R/GA and Huge, it sounds like those will be drags this year. Historically, they’ve kind of been some real superstar agencies for IPG. So I guess, how do you kind of think about the journey of these digitally native agencies? Is it still an area of investment? And how do they kind of fit in the portfolio going forward?

Philippe Krakowsky: Sure. Look, I think you’re right. They’re premium providers. It’s a largely project-based business, which is — I think both of those, a premium provider uncertain macro project-based business. Again, projects showed up in Q4 for us at a very solid level. I’d say in line with overall Q4 growth. Experiential was strong. PR was maybe a bit below the segment growth, but the digital projects that you would see at those very high-end agencies, we’re definitely not at the levels they were weak. And so I think that every 3 to 5 years, these agencies need to kind of reinvent and reconfigure because they are, to your point, at the leading edge. But I think that in the current environment, that’s where we find ourselves with them.