Leo Burnett expects 10% growth this year despite crisis

The Leo Burnett group expects a 10% turnover rise this year, having gained new clients for all the group’s agencies, and is looking for acquisitions on the digital market.
The Leo Burnett Romania group, with 62.7 million euros in turnover last year, expects to end this year on the rise despite the crisis ravaging the advertising market, and is preparing to attract clients through integrated services next year. “The group’s 2009 turnover will rise by around 10% against last year, and the profit will remain relatively steady. The biggest increase in percentage points has been recorded by iLeo, which had many new projects, but a rather small turnover, followed by 23 Communications Ideas. In terms of value, the biggest growth has been recorded by Starcom MediaVest Group,” says Stefan Iordache, 42, chief operating officer (COO) of Leo Burnett Group.
The Leo Burnett group consists of advertising agency Leo Burnett & Target, media group Starcom MediaVest Group (which includes two media agencies, Starcom and MediaVest, and two separate divisions, a Direct Marketing and a Digital division), PR agency The Practice, interactive marketing agency iLeo, idea shop 23 Communication Ideas and Tru Media Research, a company that measures in-store and outdoor audience in Romania.
The two largest companies within the group, Leo Burnett & Target, and Starcom Mediavest, posted turnovers of 16.3 million euros and 41.3 million euros respectively in 2008.
Although the online market has not recorded the increases that players expected at the beginning of the year, Stefan Iordache says agencies in the group he runs have several projects under way on this segment.
“As far as we are concerned, the online segment went well, we have new clients, and are working on projects. Most Starcom clients request such services. We are interested in continuing to invest in the digital sector, and expand the group either by an acquisition or by organic growth. We think the advertising market will expand in this direction and our extensive portfolio of brands and clients needs even more support in this respect. We want to cover everything – strategy, creation, development and implementation of digital platforms, mobile marketing,” the COO explained.