Omnicom Group Inc.

Good afternoon and welcome to the Omnicom first quarter 2024 earnings release conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. To participate, please press star, then one. If you need assistance during the call, please press star, then zero. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to introduce you, your host for today's conference, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations, Gregory Lundberg. Please go ahead.

Thank you for joining our first quarter 2024 earnings call. With me today are John Wren, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Phil Angelostro, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. On our website, omnicomgroup.com, you'll find a press release and a presentation covering the information we'll review today. An archived webcast will be available when today's call concludes. Before we start, I'd like to remind everyone to read the forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial and other information that we've included at the end of our investor presentation. Certain of the statements made today may constitute forward-looking statements, and these statements are present expectations. Relevant factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are listed in our earnings materials and in our SEC filings, including our 2023 Form 10-K. During the course of today's call, we will also discuss certain non-GAAP measures. You can find the reconciliation of these to the nearest comparable gap measures in the presentation materials. We will begin the call with an overview of our business from John, then Phil will review our financial results for the quarter, and after our prepared remarks, we will open up the line for your questions. And I'll now hand the call over to John.

Thank you, Greg. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today on our first quarter 2024 results. I'm pleased to report that we're off to a solid start to the year. Organic growth in the first quarter was 4%, with strong growth in our advertising and media and precision marketing disciplines. EBITDA margin, which excludes amortization of acquired and strategic platform intangibles, was 13.8% for the quarter, and operating margin was 13.2%. Non-GAAP adjusted earnings per share, which excludes after-tax amortization of acquired and strategic platform intangibles, was $1.67, up 3.7% versus the comparable number in Q1 2023. As a result of our strong performance in the first quarter, we are increasing our full-year organic growth range to between 4% and 5%. As discussed during the quarter, We raised 600 million euros through a senior note offering to partially finance the acquisition of Flywheel. Our cash flow and balance sheet remain very strong and support our primary uses of cash flow, dividends, acquisitions, and share repurchases. The Flywheel acquisition is off to a great start. Flywheel's Commerce Cloud is fully integrated into Omni. Omni audience and behavioral data combined with Flywheel's digital marketplace point-of-purchase transaction data, provide us with the most comprehensive data set in the industry. Across several significant Omnicom clients, Flywheel teams are now fully engaged to deliver the enhanced value of our combined capabilities and insights to them, including new ways to plan and build audiences using Omni audience data and Flywheel's performance benchmarks, Full funnel investment management built on Omni and enhanced with Flywheel's data specific to performance across commerce platforms. Using Omni influencer capabilities and connecting them to commerce and retail outcomes from Flywheel and holistic video measurement and optimization based upon integrating Omni's video viewership data with Flywheel's commerce outcomes. These products and services are helping our clients sell more goods more efficiently across hundreds of digital marketplaces and optimizing their investment across media platforms. In addition to integrating Flywheel Commerce Cloud, we made important updates to Omni's generative AI functionality during the quarter. This includes completing a first mover partnership with Shutterstock that allows us to integrate its text-to-image model into Omni. As part of our first Mover partnership established with Google and their Vertex AI platform last year, we became the first holding company to receive access to the Gemini 1.5 next generation model. We remain committed to Omni's open architecture and flexibility, leveraging these valuable partnerships. We've seen notable traction with OmniAssist, the generative AI tool we launched in 2023. Employees from more than 40 markets globally have access to OmniAssist and using it to produce audience intelligence, summarize cultural trends, recommend influences, and much more. Some of our agency teams are also creating client-specific OmniAssist agents. For example, a client-dedicated marketing consultant, media consultant, and briefing agent to streamline global, multi-brand client agency planning. As we work alongside our clients to explore how these new technologies can transform their businesses, two areas are critical to how we can drive transformation and growth, our digital transformation consulting business and our content production capabilities. This past month, our highly successful consulting firm, Cordera, announced the simplification of its organization to offer clients a more streamlined experience. Its services will now be delivered under a single global brand through two primary business units, digital with capabilities in MarTech, e-commerce, and digital platforms, and consulting with capabilities in management and technology consulting, data, AI, and business transformation. Since joining Omnicom in 2018, Cordera has grown from 300 employees in three U.S. offices to over 4,000 people across 17 locations worldwide. This growth is a testament to our track record and success in acquiring and integrating businesses in new high-growth market segments. Today, our clients demand more high-quality, personalized, creative content delivered across more media channels and at faster speeds. We have developed standardized platforms and processes to automate the development of content and deliver it at the right time and place to consumers by combining Cordero's expertise in designing and implementing intelligent content platforms, leveraging our Adobe partnership, ARPAD, our content orchestration engine, and Omni's audience and data insights. Our solution provides unmatched outcomes through an open operating system fueled by customer centricity to some of our most important brands, such as AT&T and Nike. I'm pleased that our strategy resulted in industry recognition in the first quarter, including Omnicom being named Wark's number one holding company for effectiveness, PhD being recognized as Adweek's Global Media Agency of the Year, Omnicom Media Group being RECMA's leading global media agency for 2023, with nearly $3 billion in net new business. Although risks and uncertainty continue to exist in the global economic and geopolitical environment, we remain optimistic about our position in the industry, our strategies, and our financial performance. I remain confident that our management teams are well prepared to drive operational excellence even as they monitor and adapt to the changes in the macro environment. I'll now turn the call over to Phil for a closer look at our financial results. Phil? Thanks, John.