Ipsos revenues up 6.9% but Connect has bumpy start

For the fourth quarter of 2015 its revenues were €524 million, an increase of 4.7% compared with the same quarter in 2014. At constant exchange rates revenue was down 1%.

However the company said that overall revenue was below expectations, due to the weakness of its business in emerging markets and at Ipsos Connect, which it created at the beginning of 2015 by amalgamating Ipsos MediaCT and Ipsos ASI.

The company said that the poor performance of Connect “does not change the objective” but did show how “difficult it is to change structures and organisations in a professional services business and that it takes time to transform a bright idea into commercial success”.

Ipsos’ media and advertising research business saw organic growth down 6.5% while its marketing research business was relatively flat at 0.5% and its opinion and social research increased organically by 2%.

It was the first year in which Ipsos’ business in emerging markets declined. So while business remained satisfactory in Africa, Mexico, Turkey and Southeast Asia, it was more challenging in Russia, Brazil and some Middle Eastern markets. Overall organic growth was zero in EMEA, down 2% in the Americas and Asia Pacific.