Ipsosâ€™ Q1 2022 revenue records growth at â‚¬547.8 mn

After reporting a strong financial performance in 2021, where its business grew by 17.9%, Ipsos has seen its business continue on the same trajectory in Q1 2022 despite the current global disruption, growing 17.5% versus Q1 last year and recording organic growth of 12.3%.

Q1 revenue: €547.8 million
Organic growth: +12.3%
Total growth: +17.5%

Currency effects had a positive impact of 4.3%, mainly due to the rise of the dollar and the pound sterling. Scope effects amount to +0.9%, corresponding to the acquisitions made in the second half of 2021: the technology company Infotools, a platform specialised in research data reporting, and Karian&Box, an expert in the field of employee relations analysis.

Ipsos’ strong growth is also illustrated by the increase in its activity between 2020 and 2022, with growth of 27.8% overall and 28.6% at constant rate and scope. Ipsos’ growth is also strong when using 2019, the latest pre-Covid financial year, as a basis for comparison. Total growth in this case is at 29.8%, while organic growth is at 29.2%.

By region, some headwinds from the war in Ukraine slowed Ipsos’ EMEA business organic growth to 5%. However, only 2% of its annual revenues are directly related to Russia and Ukraine, so the company is not expecting any major impacts on its business globally. In 2021, Ipsos saw Asia-Pacific affected by heavy lockdowns, but so far this year, despite China’s Zero Covid policy, the company is seeing growth across the region in double digits, with 15% organic growth in Q1. In the Americas, new leadership in the USA and continued strong performances in Latin America saw 22% growth as the company enhanced collaboration and the application of best practices across its business.

The post-pandemic rebound in consumer research that was seen in 2021 continues, with 20% organic growth, driven in particular by new solutions on the Ipsos.digital platform that are growing rapidly and give its clients more speed and control, and by the company’s analytics practices, which are seeing strong demand. Healthcare grew by 11%, building on its strong performance in 2021, and Ipsos’ work among customers and employees is up even more, by 17%, as the end of pandemic restrictions in most markets mean that clients are renewing their interest in physical retail, in travel and hospitality, and relaunching projects put on hold during the past two years.

The only area that is in relative decline is Ipsos’ work among citizens for governments and the public sector, which includes all the work directly related to the Covid-19 pandemic starting Q2 2020 and in 2021 for governments. The decline reflects the end of major public health measures to deal with the pandemic in Western countries that have been winding down since the end of 2021 and in Q1 2022 as the pandemic receded and many governments have now stopped the mass testing and surveillance programmes put in place in 2020-2021.

That said, compared to Q1 2020 and Q1 2019, the citizens segment has shown 39% and 52% organic growth, respectively. The underlying business for this segment continues to grow strongly as governments continue to face major challenges over how to deal with the cost of living crisis in many countries, the need to act on climate change while taking citizens and voters with them, and a wide range of public policy challenges posed by ageing populations, and new technologies. All these factors drive demand for highly accurate and representative research, which Ipsos specialises in, and which the company plans to meet with new digital data capture solutions, with the extension in Europe of its “Knowledge Panels”, the random probability online panel which responds to the high-quality requirements of the public sector.