The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. ("Interpublic," the "Company," "IPG," "we," "us" or "our") was incorporated in Delaware in September 1930 under the name of McCann-Erickson Incorporated as the successor to the advertising agency businesses founded in 1902 by A.W. Erickson and in 1911 by Harrison K. McCann. The Company has operated under the Interpublic name since January 1961.

We are one of the world’s premier global advertising and marketing services companies. Through our 49,800With approximately 54,300 employees and operations in all major world markets, our companies specialize in consumer advertising, digital marketing, communications planning and media buying, public relations, and specialized communications disciplines.disciplines and data management. Our agencies create customized marketing programssolutions for clients that range in scale from large global marketers to regional and local clients. Comprehensive global services are critical to effectively serve our multinational and local clients in markets throughout the world as they seek to build brands, increase sales of their products and services, and gain market share.

The work we produce for our clients is specific to their unique needs. Our solutions vary from project-based activity involving one agency to long-term, fully integrated campaigns created by multiple IPG agencies working together. With offices in over 100 countries, we can operate in a single region or deliver global integrated programs.

The role of our holding company is to provide resources and support to ensure that our agencies can best meet clients’ needs.needs and to selectively facilitate collaborative client service among our agencies. Based in New York City, our holding company sets company-wide financial objectives and corporate strategy, establishes financial management and operational controls, guides personnel policy, directs collaborative inter-agency programs, conducts investor relations, manages corporateenvironmental, social responsibilityand governance (ESG) programs, provides enterprise risk management and oversees mergers and acquisitions. In addition, we provide certain centralized functional services that offer our companies operational efficiencies, including accounting and finance, executive compensation management and recruitment assistance, employee benefits, marketing information retrieval and analysis, internal audit, legal services, real estate expertise and travel services.

Interpublic is home to some of the world’s best-known and most innovative communications specialists. We have three global networks: McCann Worldgroup, Foote, Cone & Belding ("FCB") and MullenLowe Group, which provide integrated, large-scale advertising and marketing solutions for clients. Our Media, Data and Technology offerings are comprised of Mediabrands' global media services, companies include UMAcxiom's data and Initiative, which operate under the IPG Mediabrands umbrella.technology capabilities, and Kinesso's data-driven marketing solutions. We also have a range of best-in-class global specialized communications assets as well as premier domestic integrated and global digital agencies that are industry leaders.

We operate in a media landscape that continues to evolve at a rapid pace. Media channels continue to fragment, and clients face an increasingly complex consumer environment. To stay ahead of these challenges and to achieve our objectives, we have made and continue to make investments in creative, strategic and strategictechnology talent in areas including fast-growth digital marketing channels, high-growth geographic regions and strategic world markets. In addition, we consistently review opportunities within our Company to enhance our operations through acquisitions and strategic alliances and internal programs that encourage intra-company collaboration. As appropriate, we also develop relationships with technology and emerging media companies that are building leading-edge marketing tools that complement our agencies' skill sets and capabilities.

In recent years, we have taken several major strategic steps to position our agencies as leaders in the global advertising and communications market. These include:

Our large and diverse client base includes many of the most recognizable companies and brands throughout the world. Our holding company structure allows us to maintain a diversified client base across and within a full range of industry sectors. In the aggregate, our top ten clients based on net revenue accounted for approximately 20% and 19%17% of net revenue in 20162019 and 2015, respectively.18% in 2018. Our largest client accounted for approximately 3% of net revenue in 2019 and 4% of net revenue for both 2016 and 2015.in 2018. Based on net revenue for the year ended December 31, 2016,2019, our largest client sectors (in alphabetical order) were auto and transportation, healthcare and technology and telecom. We represent several different clients, brands or divisions within each of these sectors in a number of geographic markets, as well as provide services across multiple advertising and marketing disciplines, in each case through more than one of our agency brands. Representation of a client rarely means that we handle advertising for all brands or product lines of the client in all geographical locations. Any client may transfer its business from one of our agencies to another one of our agencies or to a competing agency, and a client may reducechange its marketing budget at any time.

We operate in a highly competitive advertising and marketing communications industry. Our operating companies compete against other large multinational advertising and marketing communications companies as well as numerous independent and niche agencies and new forms of market participants to win new clients and maintain existing client relationships.

As of December 31, 2016,2019, we employed approximately 49,80054,300 people, of whom approximately 19,90022,400 were employed in the United States. Because of the service character of the advertising and marketing communications business, the quality of personnel is of crucial importance to our continuing success. We conduct extensive employee training and development throughout our agencies and benchmark our compensation programs against those of our industry for their competitiveness and effectiveness in recruitment and retention. There is keen competition for qualified employees.

Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to these reports are available, free of charge, on our website at www.interpublic.com under the "Investor Relations""For Investors" section, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such reports with, or furnish them to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") at www.sec.gov. The public may also read and copy materials we file with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC")SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room, which is located at 100 F Street, NE, Room 1580, Washington, DC 20549. You can obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330.

Our Corporate Governance Guidelines, Interpublic Group Code of Conduct and the charters for each of the Audit Committee, Compensation and Leadership Talent Committee, and Corporate Governance Committee are available, free of charge, on our website at www.interpublic.com in the "Corporate Governance" subsection of the "About" section, or by writing to The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc., 909 Third Avenue, New York, New York 10022, Attention: Secretary. Information on our website is not part of this report.

The advertising and marketing communications business is highly competitive.competitive and constantly changing. Our agencies and media services compete with other agencies and other providers of creative, marketing or media services to maintain existing client relationships and to win new business. Our competitors include not only other large multinational advertising and marketing communications companies, but also smaller entities that operate in local or regional markets as well as new forms of market participants.

The client’s perception of the quality of our agencies’ creative work, its confidence in our ability to protect the confidentiality of their and their customers’ data and its relationships with key personnel at the Company or our agencies are important factors that affect our competitive position. An agency’s ability to serve clients, particularly large international clients, on a broad geographic basis and across a range of services and technologies may also be an important competitive consideration. On the other hand, because an agency’s principal asset is its people and freedom of entry into the industry is almost unlimited, our relationships with clients can be affected by the departure of key personnel and a small agency is, on occasion, able to take all or some portion of a client’s account from a much larger competitor.

Our ability to attract new clients and to retain existing clients may also, in some cases, be limited by clients’ policies or perceptions about conflicts of interest, or our own exclusivity arrangements with certain clients. These policies can, in some cases, prevent one agency, or even different agencies under our ownership, from performing similar services for competing products or companies.

We are exposed to risks associated with weak or uncertain regional or global economic conditions and increased disruption in the financial markets. The global economy continues to be volatile.challenging in some markets. Uncertainty about the continued strength of the global economy generally, or economic conditions in certain regions or market sectors, and a degree of caution on the part of some marketers, continue tocan have an effect on the demand for advertising and marketing communication services. In addition, market conditions can be adversely affected by natural and human disruptions, such as natural disasters, severe weather events, military conflict or public health crises. Our industry can be affected more severely than other sectors by an economic downturn and can recover more slowly than the economy in general. In the past, some clients have responded to weak economic and financial conditions by reducing their marketing budgets, which include discretionary components that are easier to reduce in the short term than other operating expenses. This pattern may recur in the future. Furthermore, unexpected revenue shortfalls can result in misalignments of costs and revenues, resulting in a negative impact to our operating margins. If our business is significantly adversely affected by unfavorable economic conditions or other market disruptions that adversely affect client spending, the negative impact on our revenue could pose a challenge to our operating income and cash generation from operations.

Our employees, including creative, digital, research, media and account specialists, and their skills and relationships with clients, are among our most valuable assets. An important aspect of our competitiveness is our ability to identify and develop the appropriate talent and to attract and retain key employees and management personnel. Our ability to do so is influenced by a variety of factors, including the compensation we award and other factors which may be beyond our control. Changes to U.S. or other immigration policies or travel restrictions imposed as a result of public health, political or security concerns, that restrain the flow of professional talent may inhibit our ability to staff our offices or projects. In addition, the advertising and marketing services industry is characterized by a high degree of employee mobility.mobility and significant use of third-party or temporary workers to staff new, growing or temporary assignments. If we were to fail to attract key personnel or lose them to competitors or clients, or fail to manage our workforce effectively, our business and results of operations could be adversely affected.

We have a large and diverse client base, and at any given time, one or more of our clients may experience financial difficulty, file for bankruptcy protection or go out of business. Unfavorable economic and financial conditions could result in an increase in client financial difficulties that affect us. The direct impact on us could include reduced revenues and write-offs of accounts receivable and expenditures billable to clients, and if these effects were severe, the indirect impact could include impairments of intangible assets, credit facility covenant violations and reduced liquidity.

Furthermore, in most of our businesses, our agencies enter into commitments to pay production and media costs on behalf of clients. The amounts involved substantially exceed our revenues and primarily affect the level of accounts receivable, expenditures billable to clients, accounts payable and accrued liabilities. To the extent possible, we pay production and media charges only after we have received funds from our clients. However, if clients are unable to pay for commitments that we have entered into on their behalf, or if clients seek to significantly delay or otherwise alter payment terms, there could be an adverse effect on our working capital, which would negatively impact our operating cash flow.

We are a global business, with agencies located in over 100 countries, including every significant world market. Operations outside the United States represent a significant portion of our net revenues, approximately 40%38% in 2016.2019. These operations are exposed to risks that include local legislation, currency variation, exchange control restrictions, local labor and employment laws that hinder workforce flexibility, large-scale local or regional public health crises, and other difficult social, political or economic conditions. We also must comply with applicable U.S., local and other international anti-corruption laws, export controlsincluding the FCPA and economic sanctions,the U.K. Anti-Bribery Act (2010), which can be comprehensive, complex and stringent, in all jurisdictions where we operate.operate, certain of which present heightened compliance challenges. Export controls and economic sanctions, such as those maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, can impose limitations on our ability to operate in certain geographic regions or to seek or service certain potential clients. These restrictions can place us at a competitive disadvantage with respect to those competitors who may not be subject to comparable restrictions. Failure to comply or to implement business practices that sufficiently prevent corruption or violation of sanctions laws could result in significant remediation expense and expose us to significant civil and criminal penalties and reputational harm.

Given our substantial operations in the United Kingdom and Continental Europe, we face continued uncertainty surrounding the implementation and effectsconsequences of the U.K.’s June 2016 referendum in which voters approved the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, commonly referred to as “Brexit.” ItUnder the withdrawal agreement negotiated between the U.K. and the E.U., the U.K. as of January 31, 2020, is no longer a member of the European Union, and a transitional period will occur through December 31, 2020, during which the parties intend to negotiate the terms of their future economic and trade relationship. During and following this transitional period, it is possible that Brexit and changes resulting from Brexit will cause increased regulatory and legal complexities, large exchange rate fluctuations and negative economic impacts. These impacts and any increased restrictions on the free movement of labor, capital, goods and services between the United Kingdom and the remaining members of the European Union, could create uncertainty surrounding our business, including our relationships with existing and future clients, suppliers and employees, which couldand have an adverse effect on our business, financial results and operations.

In developing countries or regions, we may face further risks, such as slower receipt of payments, nationalization, social and economic instability, currency repatriation restrictions and undeveloped or inconsistently enforced commercial laws. These risks may limit our ability to grow our business and effectively manage our operations in those countries.

In addition, because a significant portion of our business is denominated in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar, such as the Australian Dollar, Brazilian Real, British Pound Sterling, Canadian Dollar, Chinese Yuan Renminbi, Euro and Indian Rupee, and Japanese Yen, fluctuations in exchange rates between the U.S. Dollar and such currencies, including the persistent strength of the U.S. Dollar in recent periods, may adversely affect our financial results. In particular, Brexit has caused, and may continue to cause, significant volatility in currency exchange rates, especially between the U.S. Dollar and the British Pound Sterling.

Our industry is subject to government regulation and other governmental action, both domestic and foreign. Advertisers and consumer groups may challenge advertising through legislation, regulation, judicial actions or otherwise, for example on the grounds that the advertising is false and deceptive or injurious to public welfare. Our business is also subject to specific rules, prohibitions, media restrictions, labeling disclosures and warning requirements applicable to advertising for certain products. Existing and proposed laws and regulations, in particular in the European Union and the United States, concerning user privacy, use of personal information and on-line tracking technologies could affect the efficacy and profitability of internet-based, digital and targeted marketing. We are also subject to laws and regulations that govern whether and how we can transfer, process or receive certain data that we use in our operations. The costs of compliance with these laws may increase in the future as a result of the implementation of new laws or regulations, such as the GDPR and the CCPA, or changes in interpretations of current ones, such as the interpretation of existing consumer protection laws as imposing restrictions on the online collection, storage and use of personal data. The imposition of restrictions on certain technologies by private market participants in response to privacy concerns could also have a negative impact on our digital marketing.business. If we are unable to transfer data between countries and regions in which we operate, or if we are prohibited from sharing data among our products and services, it could affect the manner in which we provide our services or adversely affect our financial results. Any failure on our part to comply with these legal requirements, or their application in an unanticipated manner, could harm our business and result in penalties or significant legal liability. Legislators, agencies and other governmental units may also continue to initiate proposals to ban the advertising of specific products, such as alcohol, tobacco or tobacco,marijuana products, and to impose taxes on or deny deductions for advertising, which, if successful, may hinder our ability to accomplish our clients’ goals and have an adverse effect on advertising expenditures and, consequently, on our revenues. Governmental action, including judicial rulings, on the relative responsibilities of clients and their marketing agencies for the content of their marketing can also impact our operations. Furthermore, we could suffer reputational risk as a result of governmental or legal action or from undertaking work that may be challenged by consumer groups or considered controversial.

We regularly undertake acquisitions and other investments that we believe will enhance our service offerings to our clients.clients, such as our acquisition of Acxiom in 2018. These transactions can involve significant challenges and risks, including that the transaction does not advance our business strategy or fails to produce a satisfactory return on our investment. While our evaluation of any potential acquisition includes business, legal and financial due diligence with the goal of identifying and evaluating the material risks involved, we may be unsuccessful

We may also experience difficulty integrating new employees, businesses, assets or systems into our organization, including with respect to our internal policies and required controls. We may face reputational and legal risks in situations where we have a significant minority investment but limited control over the investment's operations. Furthermore, it may take longer than anticipated to realize the expected benefits from these transactions, or those benefits may ultimately be smaller than anticipated or may not be realized at all. Talent is among our most valuable assets, and we also may not realize the intended benefits of a transaction if we fail to retain targeted personnel. Acquisition and integration activity may also divert management’s attention and other corporate resources from other business needs. If we fail to realize the intended advantages of any given investment or acquisition, or if we do not identify or correctly measure the associated risks and liabilities, our results of operations and financial position could be adversely affected.

We rely extensively and increasingly on information technologies and infrastructure to manage our business, including digital storage of marketing strategies and client information, developingdevelop new business opportunities and digital products, and processingprocess business transactions. The incidence of malicious technology-related events, such as cyberattacks, computer hacking, computer viruses, worms or other destructive or disruptive software, phishing attacks and other attempts to gain access to confidential or personal data, denial of service attacks or other malicious activities is on the rise worldwide.worldwide and highlights the need for continual and effective cybersecurity awareness and education. Our business, which increasingly involves the collection, use and transmission of customer data, may make us and our agencies attractive targets for malicious third-party attempts to access this data. Power outages, equipment failure, natural disasters (including extreme weather), terrorist activities or human error may also affect our systems and result in disruption of our services or loss or improper disclosure of personal data, business information, including intellectual property, or other confidential information. We operate in many respects on a decentralized basis, with a large number of agencies and legal entities, and the resulting size, diversity and disparity of our technology systems and complications in implementing standardized technologies and procedures could increase our potential vulnerability to such breakdowns, malicious intrusions or attacks.

Likewise, data privacy breaches, as well as improper use of social media, by employees and others may pose a risk that sensitive data, such as personally identifiable information, strategic plans and trade secrets, could be exposed to third parties or to the general public. We operate worldwide, and the legal rules governing data transfers are often complex, conflicting, unclear or ever-changing. We also utilize third parties, including third-party “cloud” computing services, to store, transfer or process data, and system failures or network disruptions or breaches in the systems of such third parties could adversely affect our reputation or business.

Any such breaches or breakdowns could expose us to legal liability, be expensive to remedy, result in a loss of our or our clients’ or vendors’ proprietary information and damage our reputation. Efforts to develop, implement and maintain security measures are costly, may not be successful in preventing these events from occurring and require ongoing monitoring and updating as technologies and cyberattack techniques change frequently, or are not recognized until successful and efforts to overcome security measures become more sophisticated.

We evaluate all of our long-lived assets (including goodwill, other intangible assets and fixed assets), investments and deferred tax assets for possible impairment or realizability annually or whenever there is an indication that they are impaired or not realizable. If certain criteria are met, we are required to record an impairment charge or valuation allowance.

WeAgency operating cash flows have a significant impact on our liquidity, and we maintain a $1commercial paper program, a committed corporate credit facility and uncommitted lines of credit to increase flexibility in support of our operating needs. If any of these sources were unavailable or insufficient, our liquidity and ability to adequately fund our operations could be adversely affected. Furthermore, if our business or financial needs lead us to seek new or additional sources of liquidity, including in the capital markets, there can be no guarantee that we would be able to access any new sources of liquidity on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

Under our commercial paper program, we are authorized to issue short-term debt up to an aggregate amount outstanding at any time of $1.5 billion, which we use for working capital and general corporate purposes. Borrowings under the commercial

The Credit Agreement contains financiala leverage ratio and other, non-financial, covenants, and events like a material economic downturn could adversely affect our ability to comply with them. For example, compliance with the financial covenantscovenant would be more difficult to achieve if we were to experience increased indebtedness or substantially lower revenues, including as a result of economic downturns, client losses or a substantial increase in client defaults or sizable asset impairment charges.defaults. If we were unable to comply with any of the financial covenants contained in the Credit Agreement, we could be required to seek an amendment or waiver from our lenders, and our costs under the Credit Agreementthese agreements could increase. If we were unable to obtain a necessary amendment or waiver, the Credit Agreement could be terminated, and any outstanding amounts could be subject to acceleration.acceleration, and we could lose access to certain uncommitted financing arrangements and commercial paper.

Because ratings are an important factor influencing our ability to access capital and the terms of any new indebtedness, including covenants and interest rates, we could be adversely affected if our credit ratings were downgraded or if they were significantly weaker than those of our competitors. Our access to the commercial paper market is contingent on our maintenance of sufficient short-term debt ratings, and any downgrades to those ratings could increase our borrowing costs and reduce the market capacity for, or our ability to issue, commercial paper. Our clients and vendors may also consider our credit profile when negotiating contract terms, and if they were to change the terms on which they deal with us, it could have an adverse effect on our liquidity.

Although asAs a non-manufacturingnon–location–specific, non–manufacturing service business we generallyhave to date been sheltered from or able to mitigate many direct impacts from climate change and related laws and regulations. We are, not directlyhowever, increasingly impacted by currentthe effects of climate change and laws and regulations with respectrelated to climate change and other sustainability concerns, and, we could incur related costs indirectly through our clients. Increasingly our clients request that we comply with their own social responsibility, sustainability or other business policies or standards, which may be more restrictive than current laws and regulations, before they commence, or continue, doing business with us.us, and sustainability and governance issues are increasingly a focus of the investor community. Our compliance with these policies and related certification requirements could be costly, and our failure to comply could adversely affect our business relationships or reputation. If large shareholders were to reduce their ownership stakes in our Company as a result of dissatisfaction with our policies or efforts in this area, there could be negative impact on our stock price, and we could also suffer reputational harm. Further, if clients’ costs are adversely affected by climate change or related laws and regulations, this could negatively impact their spending on our advertising and marketing services. We could also face increased prices from our own suppliers that face climate change-related costs and that seek to pass on their increased costs to their customers.

None.

Not applicable.

Our common stock is listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the symbol “IPG.” The following table provides the high and low closing sales prices per share for the periods shown below as reported on the NYSE.“IPG”. As of February 10, 2017,13, 2020, there were approximately 11,2009,000 registered holders of our outstanding common stock.

Not applicable.

The following Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations ("MD&A") is intended to help you understand The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. and its subsidiaries (the "Company," "IPG," "we," "us" or "our"). MD&A should be read in conjunction with our Consolidated Financial Statements and the accompanying notes included in this report. Our MD&A includes the following sections:

Our organic revenue increase in 2016 was driven by growth throughout all our geographic regions, which was a resultWe are one of growth with existing clients and net new business wins. The growth in our domestic market was across nearly all of our major disciplines. Our international organic increase was across all disciplines, with notable contributions from the United Kingdom, the Latin America region and Continental Europe. We continued to have strong growth in demand for our full range of services, including creative, digital, mediaworld’s premier global advertising and marketing services across most ofcompanies. Our companies specialize in consumer advertising, digital marketing, media planning and buying, public relations, specialized communications disciplines and data management. Our agencies create customized marketing programs for clients that range in scale from large global marketers to regional and local clients. Comprehensive global services are critical to effectively serve our regional markets. We carefully managed our operating expenses, which reflected investments mademultinational and local clients in our agencies to support our new business portfolio, service our existing clients and grow our capabilities.

We operate in a media landscape that continues to evolve at a rapid pace. Media channels continue to show a measurefragment, and clients face an increasingly complex consumer environment. To stay ahead of caution. Wethese challenges and to achieve our objectives, we have made and continue to derive substantial benefit from our diversified client base, our global footprint and the broad range and strength of our professional offerings. We continued to enhance our businesses during 2016 by makingmake investments in creative, strategic and strategictechnology talent that emphasize our growth priorities:in areas including fast-growth digital marketing channels, high-growth geographic regions creative talent and strategic world markets. We believeconsistently review opportunities within our continued investment in tools,Company to enhance our operations through acquisitions and strategic alliances and internal programs that encourage intra-company collaboration. As appropriate, we also develop relationships with technology and process improvementsemerging media companies that are building leading-edge marketing tools that complement our agencies' skill sets and capabilities.

When we analyze period-to-period changes in our operating performance, we determine the portion of the change that is attributable to changes in foreign currency rates and the net effect of acquisitions and divestitures, and the remainder we call organic change, which indicates how our underlying business performed. TheWe exclude the impact of billable expenses in analyzing our operating performance metrics that we useas the fluctuations from period to evaluate our results includeperiod are not indicative of the organic change in revenue, salaries and related expenses, and office and general expenses, and the components of operating expenses expressed as a percentage of total consolidated revenue. Additionally, in certainperformance of our discussions we analyze revenue by geographic regionunderlying businesses and also by business sector, in which we focushave no impact on our top 100 clients, which typically constitute approximately 55% to 60% of our annual consolidated revenues.operating income or net income.

The change in our operating performance attributable to changes in foreign currency rates is determined by converting the prior-period reported results using the current-period exchange rates and comparing these prior-period adjusted amounts to the prior-period reported results. Although the U.S. Dollar is our reporting currency, a substantial portion of our revenues and expenses

For purposes of analyzing changes in our operating performance attributable to the net effect of acquisitions and divestitures, transactions are treated as if they occurred on the first day of the quarter during which the transaction occurred. During the past few years, we have acquired companies that we believe will enhance our offerings and disposed of businesses that are not consistent with our strategic plan. See Note 4

The metrics that we use to evaluate our financial performance include organic change in net revenue as well as the Consolidated Financial Statements for additional informationchange in certain operating expenses, and the components thereof, expressed as a percentage of consolidated net revenue, as well as EBITA. These metrics are also used by management to assess the financial performance of our reportable segments, Integrated Agency Networks ("IAN") and Constituency Management Group ("CMG"). In certain of our discussions, we analyze net revenue by geographic region and by business sector, in which we focus on our acquisitions.top 100 clients, which typically constitute approximately 55% to 60% of our annual consolidated net revenues.

Our net revenue is directly impacted by the retention and spending levels of existing clients and by our ability to win new clients. Most of our expenses are recognized ratably throughout the year and are therefore less seasonal than revenue. Our net revenue is typically lowest in the first quarter and highest in the fourth quarter. This reflectsquarter, reflecting the seasonal spending of our clients, incentives earned at year end on various contracts and project work completed that is typically recognized during the fourth quarter. In the events marketing business, revenues can fluctuate due to the timing of completed projects, as revenue is typically recognized when the project is complete. When we act as principal for these projects, we record the gross amount billed to the client as revenue, and the related costs are incurred as pass-through costs in office and general expenses.clients.

The organic increase in our domestic market was driven by growth across all disciplines, most notably at our advertising and in the United Kingdom. Also contributing tomedia businesses. In our international markets, the organic revenue increase werewas driven by growth across all geographic regions and nearly all disciplines, primarily at our media and advertising businesses and our digital specialist agencies, including strong performance at our advertising businesses in the United Kingdom and public relationsat our media businesses across allin the Continental Europe, Latin America and United Kingdom regions. Consolidated net acquisitions primarily includes net revenue from Acxiom, which we acquired on October 1, 2018.

Refer to the segment discussion later in this MD&A for information on changes in revenue by segment.

Net revenue growth of 7.4% outpaced the increase in salaries and related expenses consist of payroll costs, employee performance incentives, including annual bonus and long-term incentive awards, costs for temporary workers, severance and other benefits associated with client service professional staff and administrative staff. Salaries and related expenses do not vary significantly with short-term changes in revenue levels; however, salaries may fluctuate due to the timing of the hiring of personnel, including freelancers, to support revenue growth and changes in the performance levels and types of employee incentive awards. Additionally, we may take severance actions in areas where we have or anticipate decreases in operating performance or to enhance our teams or leadership. Changes in our incentive awards mix can impact future-period expense, as annual bonus awards are expensed5.1% during the year in which they are earned, and long-term incentive awards are expensed over the performance period, generally three years. Factors impacting long-term incentive awards are the actual number of awards vesting, assumptions regarding forfeiture rates, the change in our stock price, actual results and changes to our projected results, which could impact the achievement of certain performance targets.

Net revenue growth of 7.5% outpaced the increase in 2016 to 64.2% from 63.8% whensalaries and related expenses of 6.2% in 2018 as compared to the prior year.

Office and general expenses primarily include rent expense, professional fees, certain expenses incurred by our staff in servicing our clients and depreciation and amortization costs. Office and general expenses also include costs directly attributable to client engagements, including production costs, out-of-pocket costs such as travel for client service staff and other direct costs that are rebilled to our clients. Production expenses can vary significantly between periods depending upon the timing of completion of certain projects where we act as principal, which could impact trends between various periods in the future.

Net revenue growth of 7.5% outpaced the increase in revenue, for certain projects that decreased in size or did not recur during 2016. Our office and other direct expenses of 6.8% in 2018 as compared to the prior-year period, primarily driven by leverage in occupancy expense, partially offset by an increase in client service costs from Acxiom and year-over-year change in contingent acquisition obligations.

Selling, general expense ratio, definedand administrative expenses ("SG&A") are primarily the unallocated expenses of our Corporate, as officedetailed further in the segment discussion later in this MD&A, excluding depreciation and general expensesamortization. SG&A as a percentage of total consolidatednet revenue decreased to 1.1% in 2016 to 23.8%2019 from 24.7%2.1% in 2015.

The following table details our officepresents the 2019 Plan restructuring charges and general expense ratio. All other office and general expenses primarily include production expenses, and, to a lesser extent, depreciation and amortization, bad debt expense, adjustments to contingent acquisition obligations, foreign currency losses (gains), spending to support new business activity, net restructuring and other reorganization-related charges (reversals), long-lived asset impairments and other expenses.employee headcount reduction for the twelve months ended December 31, 2019.