Revenue at the Paris-based company was down in all regions except Latin America and the Middle East and Africa, although central European markets proved more resilient than western Europe.
The company said that forecasts suggested the low point of the financial crisis would be in the summer with the second half of the year proving better than the first. It is expecting recovery in summer 2010.
The fall in revenue compares favourably with that of rival holding companies Omnicom, WPP and Interpublic, which reported first-quarter revenue declines of 14%, 5.8% and 5.6% respectively this week. Publicis does not reveal its profit figures at this time.
Maurice Levy, chairman and CEO of Publicis, attributed the company's better performance to the long-term strategy of focusing more on digital and developing its operations in developing markets.
Levy said: "Although I cannot be satisfied with the decrease in our organic growth, all available indicators seem to point in the same direction -- market deterioration is much worse than anticipated.
"Our main competitors have published numbers with a decline between 5.6% and 6.6%, clearly showing that Publicis Groupe is gaining market share."
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