Omnicom: Ad Spending "Holding Up Well"

The world's largest ad firm gave an update on its business at Bear Stearns media confab in Palm Beach, Fla. CEO John Wren said his clients are spending between 10% and 15% of their ad budgets on the Web. That's  a lot, he said, but the shift from old media to new media isn't happening "as fast as some of the rhetoric."

January and February ad spending "are holding up well. We haven't seen erosion in clients." They need to market their products, "even whey they face difficult times."

More takeaways from Wren:

• Omnicom closed 13 acquisitions in 2007, but that's going to accelerate in 2008 as private equity gets out of the market "bringing prices, and people's expectations down."
• Expects double-digit revenue growth in 2008
• Growth drivers will be emerging markets in China and the Middle East, not the US and Western Europe.
• Omnicom is not planning personnel cuts, but rather will cut bonuses in a downturn "rather than remove talent from the business."