Its Media Value Measurement (MVM) achieved revenue growth of 12.3% (a 3.6% increase like-for-like) and Marketing Performance Optimisation’s (MPO) revenue growth was 31.2%. Together these two areas accounted for 72% of the group’s revenues.

In comparison, Market Intelligence (MI) revenues fell 5.2% which the company put down to “an expected substantial decline in revenues from our project based research business”.

Michael Karg (pictured), CEO, said: "We have seen continued strong performance from our consultancy businesses MVM and MPO, which are at the core of the changing nature of the media landscape particularly around effectiveness and efficiency of marketing investments. We have already made good progress with our growth acceleration plan, which will replicate our service offering across key territories, further strengthening our ability to service global clients.”

Meanwhile Michael Higgins, Ebiquity chairman, issues a warning on programmatic ads in his statement. “It is a striking fact that today only about 40% of digital programmatic advertising investment reaches the consumer, with value being eroded by the multiple links between advertisers and publishers, fraud, lack of viewability and non-human traffic.

“I don't envy any business leader who has to tell his board and shareholders that they're investing in anything that suffers up to 60% wastage. The trouble is, that’s what many CMOs should be saying. Digital complexity and the increasing calls for transparency mean that our clients – the world’s biggest advertisers – need more help than ever from an independent firm with the necessary knowledge and expertise to navigate their way through this.”