Organic revenue was down once again at Omnicom in Q1, but the holding company expects to return to revenue growth for the rest of 2021.

For the three months ended on March 31, organic revenue was down 1.8% year-over-year, which is still an improvement on its financial performance since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. While revenue was up in Asia Pacific, it dipped year-over-year in the other regions in which it operates, including a 1% dip in the U.S., its largest market. In Omnicom’s “Other North America” segment, which includes Canada, organic growth was down 3.2%.

While the pandemic continues to have an impact on Omnicom’s results and is still creating a great deal of uncertainty for the year ahead, the company expects to return to organic growth in the second quarter, and achieve it for the full year. While that may be partially due to a weak comparison period (with revenue down significantly from Q2 to Q4 due to the pandemic), the company added that the impact of COVID-19 on the economy “appears to be moderating” in several markets in which it operates.

Looking at its practice areas, Omnicom’s organic revenue from advertising activities – still far and away its biggest segment – grew by 1.2% in Q1, with CRM Precision Marketing (which contains the company’s digital and data CRM capabilities) up 7.2% and Healthcare revenue was flat.

Omnicom’s other CRM segments did not fare as well. Revenue from CRM related to commerce and brand consulting was down 4.2%, CRM Execution and Support (which includes field marketing, point-of-sale and merchandizing) was down 13.3% and its experiential practices were down 33.2%. Revenue from PR – the company’s second-largest segment – was down 3.5%.

Along with its results, Omnicom also announced the launch of Omni Health. An extension of its Omni data platform, Omni Health integrates healthcare data owned and licensed by Omnicom – including physician data, medical and pharmacy claims and prescription coverage data – with consumer data, demographics, purchasing behaviour, media consumption and first-party client data.

The platform is built to safeguard consumer data and adhere to regulations around healthcare marketing, but also “de-siloing” the data is meant to create more personalized, omnichannel buying journeys in healthcare marketing, according to Tom Edwards, chief digital officer of Omnicom Health Group.