Omnicom Reports 5.2% Organic Growth in Q2; UK Amazon Prime Day Sales Hit Record £633m; Labour to Establish AI Regulation

On today’s news digest: Omnicom Reports 5.2% Organic Growth in Q2; UK Amazon Prime Day Sales Hit Record £633m; Labour to Establish AI Regulation 

Omnicom reported 5.2% organic growth for Q2 2024, predominantly propelled by experiential (17.6% increase) as well as advertising and media (7.8% increase). During the quarter, the media group’s global revenues hit USD $3.9bn (£3bn). The LATAM region saw the strongest growth at 24.5%. Growth was similar in the UK and US, at 6.9% and 6.3% respectively. Contrastingly, the APAC region saw a decline in organic growth (0.1%). 

Looking to the realm of retail, UK spend on the first day of Amazon Prime Day hit a record £633m. The figure increased 9% compared to the first day of last year’s event. Having risen so significantly in just one year, the figure serves to represent the e-commerce giant’s mighty dominance over the retail ecosystem. The record spending figure has been the biggest online shopping day of the year so far, Adobe Analytics reports. In the US, the first day’s sales hit a staggering figure of USD $7.2bn (£5.5bn).

Examining other updates related to the UK ad tech scene, the King’s Speech on Wednesday briefly outlined Labour’s plan to introduce legislation to regulate AI. Charles III stated that the government “will seek to establish the appropriate legislation to place requirements on those working to develop the most powerful artificial intelligence models.” This falls short of what many expected; late last week the Financial Times reported that Keir Starmer planned to introduce an AI bill in the speech to create binding rules to govern the most powerful AI models. This will be an area to watch closely, as Starmer and his government develop legislation to regulate the technology. 

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