Ad agencies are tightening their belts in the downturn
Thursday September 03 2009
IIBBDO and Starcom MediaVest have become the latest agencies to tighten their belts, shedding nine jobs between them in the last week as the advertising downturn continues to bite.
The manoeuvres are the latest in a long line of industry cutbacks, most notably in Cawley Nea, which went unusually public on its July decision to cut "fewer than 10" staff in response to the changed climate.
The five job cuts at IIBBDO come against a backdrop of major account wins, including Centra, Cadbury and the just-launched 'Love Irish Food' campaign.
"We've had a good run but we know some parts of the business are going to be less busy going forward so we have to make an adjustment," says IIBBDO boss Ian Young.
The move marks IIBBDO's first job cuts since the recession began, and represents about 5pc of the company's 92-strong workforce.
"We haven't had any paycuts and there are no plans," says Young. "We never over-paid for people in the good years."
Over at Starcom MediaVest, four positions have been made redundant and average paycuts of about 8pc have been introduced across the board "in response to market conditions".
"These are the first reductions introduced in both companies and no further changes are envisaged at this stage," says Alan Cox, head of Publicis Group Media which includes Starcom MediaVest.
