(Reuters) – Publicis, third largest advertising company in the world, beat expectations for organic growth during the first quarter, but maintained its full-year outlook Thursday, despite economic uncertainty.

Home to ad agencies Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi, the French company posted net revenue of 2.80 billion euros ($3.05 billion), up 10.5% organically, against a 6.3% increase forecast by analysts in a consensus compiled by Publicis.

Arthur Sadoun, chief executive officer of the Company, stated that the “year started very strongly” and added that he was confident in reaching the higher end of an unaffected 4%-5% year-end organic growth target.

He said that “these good results shouldn’t conceal the macroeconomic uncertainty the world is currently facing,” but he did not deny journalists the call. “We must be agile.”

Publicis’ beat could have prompted them to improve their objectives. However, they expressed concerns about possible negative consequences for the world health, conflict in Ukraine, and rises in energy and raw material prices.

Publicis must also navigate the shifts in industry trends, as Alphabet’s Google plans to end its use of privacy-invasive cookies.

In an email to Reuters the group stressed the company’s competitive edge and Epsilon’s ability to eliminate third-party cookies.

CORE ID does not rely on third-party cookie, but instead relies on “first-party data” from advertisers. This allows them to activate their CORE ID solutions on publisher’s sites.

Publicis pointed out that Epsilon is likely to grow its market share even in an era without cookies.

($1 = 0.9188 euros)