Revenue

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Revenue [Abstract]

Revenue

Revenue

Nature of our services

We provide an extensive range of advertising, marketing and corporate communications services through various client-centric networks that are organized to meet specific client objectives. Our branded networks and agencies operate in all major markets and provide services in the following fundamental disciplines: advertising, customer relationship management, or CRM, which includes CRM Consumer Experience and CRM Execution & Support, public relations and healthcare. Advertising includes creative services, as well as strategic media planning and buying and data analytics services. CRM Consumer Experience includes Omnicom’s Precision Marketing Group and digital/direct agencies, as well as our brand consulting, shopper marketing and experiential marketing agencies. CRM Execution & Support includes field marketing, sales support, merchandising and point of sale, as well as other specialized marketing and custom communications services. Public relations services include corporate communications, crisis management, public affairs and media and media relations services. Healthcare includes advertising and media services to global healthcare clients. At the core of all our services is the ability to create or develop a client’s marketing or corporate communications message into content that can be delivered to a target audience across different communications mediums.

Primarily as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic (see Note 1), our revenue decreased in all our major markets and all disciplines except for healthcare, as compared to the prior year periods.

Revenue by discipline was (in millions):

	Year Ended December 31,
	2020		2019		2018
Advertising	$	7,369.0	$	8,483.8	$	8,281.0
CRM Consumer Experience	2,175.7		2,577.9		2,629.6
CRM Execution & Support	1,133.5		1,361.2		1,891.6
Public Relations	1,301.8		1,378.9		1,435.1
Healthcare	1,191.1		1,151.9		1,052.9
	$	13,171.1	$	14,953.7	$	15,290.2

Economic factors affecting our revenue

Global economic conditions have a direct impact on our revenue. Adverse economic conditions pose a risk that our clients may reduce, postpone or cancel spending for our services, which would impact our revenue (see Note 1).

Revenue in our principal geographic markets was (in millions):

	Year Ended December 31,
	2020		2019		2018
Americas:
North America	$	7,577.1	$	8,478.8	$	8,442.5
Latin America	275.4		403.4		457.5
EMEA:
Europe	3,607.7		4,107.4		4,375.4
Middle East and Africa	207.2		314.6		304.4
Asia-Pacific	1,503.7		1,649.5		1,710.4
	$	13,171.1	$	14,953.7	$	15,290.2

The Americas is comprised of North America, which includes the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, and Latin America, which includes South America and Mexico. EMEA is comprised of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Asia-Pacific includes Australia, Greater China, India, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore and other Asian countries. Revenue in the United States in 2020 and 2019 was $7,186.1 million and $8,033.0 million, respectively.

Contract assets and liabilities

Work in process includes contract assets, unbilled fees and costs, and media and production costs. Contract liabilities primarily consist of customer advances. Work in process and contract liabilities were (in millions):

	December 31,
	2020		2019
Work in process:
Contract assets and unbilled fees and costs	$	501.1	$	689.2
Media and production costs	600.1		568.4
	$	1,101.2	$	1,257.6
Contract liabilities:
Customer advances	$	1,361.3	$	1,215.3

Work in process represents accrued costs incurred on behalf of customers, including media and production costs, and fees and other third-party costs that have not yet been billed. Media and production costs are billed during the production process in accordance with the terms of the client contract. Contract assets primarily include incentive fees, which are not material and will be billed to clients in accordance with the terms of the client contract. Substantially all unbilled fees and costs will be billed within the next 30 days. The contract liability primarily represents advance billings to customers in accordance with the terms of the client contracts, primarily for the reimbursement of third-party costs that are generally incurred in the near term. No impairment losses to the contract assets were recorded in 2020 and 2019.