First Stella goes. Now, rumours of redundancies.
I remember going to a crit there, years ago, when they were in Bowater house. The toilets were wall-to-wall marble.
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Hi, I'm Simon Veksner, founder of social media agency Hungry Beast. Formerly a Creative Director at BBH London and DDB Sydney. See house rules for posting comments.
Hi, I'm Simon Veksner, founder of social media agency Hungry Beast. Formerly a Creative Director at BBH London and DDB Sydney. See house rules for posting comments.
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80 comments:
apparently Ed Morris is swinging the axe at Lowe. At least two teams redundant. i wonder if he'll use the axe on himself which would be a good idea as he's done a lousy job in the past couple of years in my opinion
Which teams have been given the boot?
shame the once great Lowe has really gone down the pan, even getting the few people left there to vote for him in the CD pole can't hide the fact Morris' output as been worse than average.
We all know Ed is on 500k (it was in Campaign). How does he justify that in the wake of this. Lowe's been firing creative blanks for a few years now. They only had about seven teams. How does Lowe exist with five or whatever it is?
Last good piece(s) to come out of Lowe: Stunt City and Ice Skating Priests - for tv at any rate.
Bring on the 'lowe' puns...
Swiiiiing Lowe, sweet axe wielding chariot
I seem to be hearing about a lot of redundancies recently. Lowes, M&C, Grey. It's getting messy.
TBWA is crumbling too
TBWA's been crumbling for a while. Finally, the economy is starting to show it's hand....
ouch. not the best of news for aspiring creatives. but we're curious where the axe starts swinging, on the lower or higher end of the salary / experience ladder?!
Well if that's true, why did TBWA just win VISA globally? 600 million sound quite promising? Why do you say the big guys are crumbling? Who are your sources, who told you, why...
I guess they look at the work a team has done for the agency, then swing. You can be experienced to the hilt, but if your work hasn't won the agency any recognition, then you are out. Similarly, if you are a junior team who hasn't done anything noteworthy, then you're out.
Plus there's the last in first out philosophy - remember that one. I'm about to move too - bollocks.
Hi Grant. They have very few teams there, and since Trevor's departure, things have been looking a bit bleak. Steve Henry left earlier this year too. I'm basing what I say on what I hear and what I read. I also spoke to a team there a few months ago who said things are not looking rosy for the agency. Admittedly, this was before the Visa win - that win could well be the turning point. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
TBWA hasn't won Visa globally. In Europe Visa is handled by Saatchi
Guys. Please vote me best ECD. By the way some of you are going to get fired next week. Love, Ed
Hypocrit
Puts things into perspective. As much as we moan about "Shit clients" and wanting to move, they're fucking better than signing on!
I've just spoke to a mate at Saatchi's and she's working on Visa as i type.
I do understand completely, but no offence to Trevor Beattie, but was he really that good that he is to this day irreplaceable at TBWA, with the new talent that is out there. Are agencies trying hard enough to mould there futures in new young talent or are they too hung up on the good old days... seems a bit strange to me that an agency as creatively focused as TBWA is not focusing on the next new talent but on the next Trevor Beattie. Why go back - you'll only make work similar to stuff you've done before... maybe this is why they crumbling?
4 teams gone at Lowe....
Love him or loathe him, you can't argue with PR king Beattie. He's the face of advertising and clients love that shit. No cunt knows who Steve Henry is outside our little world, but people know who Trevor Beattie is. Clients love that shit. Also, his vast array of work that's been loved by the masses...
Yes but do clients love that shit? You're not making it clear.
Yes, clients do love that shit. Hence the reason why half of them followed him from TBWA to BMB.
I could be wrong, but I think that clients really love that shit.
ya, do clients really love that S@#t? or has the industry just blown it up to be like that? I think its still a business at the end of the day and those people are just doing their jobs (talented I must admit) but to the client we are just tools to get a job done...
Clients do like shit. You should see what I'm shooting at the moment...
The size of T-Rex shit.
Come on, who the fuck really knows who Trevor Beattie is outside advertising? I'll tell you who: nobody. Nobody outside advertising knows anybody inside. Even your mum needs reminding who you are, anon 5.01
try it on your walk home, stop a stranger and ask if he knows Trevor Beattie, if they do I'm sorry and I will quit advertising and go back to restaurants, if not, well...
5.10 - I totally disagree. FCUK was a campaign that, love it or hate it, connected with millions. Even my parents. Many of these people found out who Trevor Beattie was on the back of that campaign. Plus he's got some sort of exhibition at Selfridges or something. Or he did. Don't know. Anyway - I know quite a few people that know his name but do not work in the industry.
My missus, who has nothing to do with advertising beyond being married to me, pointed at him in a bar the other day and said: "isn't that that Trevor Beattie bloke?"
Mind you, she is a Brummie too...
Anon at 4.53. Any names for the 4 teams gone at Lowe?
Ok well back to the point, sad to hear the some of the industry is crumbling; we just need to remember to not cut back so much that we start loosing our best stuff. It’s easy to cut costs to save a business but if we don’t do it wisely, clients will just drop us. Keep smiling, keep making very good work and don’t blame it on economy because if we're a good agency we should be able to survive the tough times.
scamp, gossip about redundancies isn't cool.
can you end this now.
there are families affected at the end of the day.
lets get back to the work. leave the tattle to campaign.
No offense Grant Duncan but what's all this "we" stuff? You're not employed in an agency! It doesn't matter how good an agency is anyway, it can't make work that clients don't want to make if they are feeling the pinch. If you start to skip lunch every other day does your local sandwich shop fire someone to save money or remain resolute that the quality of their foodstuffs will keep them in business?
It's perfectly fair to blame the economy, the markets and such global events for a downturn in profit and business. Whether its fair to fire people rather than take a pay cut in order to make up the revenue is the bigger debate.
6.37 I agree that gossip about redundancies is not cool, and it is tittle-tattle. But if true, it's indicative of the decline of Lowe. And that's a big deal.
a lot of people outside of advertising know who Maurice and/or Charles Saatchi are
why are we not talking about the microsoft ads with bill and jerry?
Lunar's done both but it's not as interesting as finding out who's been canned. Mwah ha ha!
The previous anon asked: "Is it against house rules to call the previous anon a [ ]?"
It is.
Swings and roundabouts.
Lowe's were great.
Saatchi's were great.
CDP were great.
Sad to see, but that's the way it goes.
Onwards.
There once was an ad shop called Lowe
Which told eight creatives to go.
With a boot up the arse
Their time came to pass
And swapped taxis for Ocado
BTW how are things at Red Brick Road... ...?
Call me a socialist but what would be so wrong with Mr Morris and his ilk taking a pay cut as opposed to fluctuating people out of work?
scamp you're being a shit.
end it now.
it'll just come back to bite you on the arse.
anyone even half decent saw it was a sinking ship and got well away years ago, those left have themselves to blame slightly for being content to sit around on fat salaries making woefully bad work. The management was always a mess and the fact they pay their CD top money for no return proves this.
Wake up, 9.12
The decline of Lowe - once a totem of British advertising strength and creativity - is massive news, that people want to talk about.
Redundancies is also something people are thinking about, afraid of, and want to discuss.
They're happening in the wider economy (look at Lehman, XL, Dresdner Bank, ITV) and they're happening in our industry now too.
Yes it would be nice if we could always talk about lovely things. But that's not reality.
I don't agree that letting people talk about this stuff makes me a shit.
I feel for those left there, as with the problems with the city and other industries it's always the top bods failings that filter down and end up seeing hard working people face the chop while they happily take big pay and bonuses.
The management team that started the Lowe downward spiral all walked away ages ago into top positions all over town leaving it destined to failure.
A Lowe without a Frank Lowe was always heading only one way.
RBR has just lost Sky One.
Scamp,
Your self penned mission statement, 'When you see me staring out the window, that's when I'm working' has a grammatical error.
The comma mid sentence needs to be replaced with a semicolon.
Please amend this immediately.
Yes, thanks TRBR for all the great Sky One ads you gave us in the last year.
http://www.brandrepublic.com/Campaign/News/846183/Brothers-Sisters-snatches-Sky1-TRBR/
Talking of Sky (sorry it's only half on topic), how about a post about those dreadful new Kelly Brook Grant Mitchell TV ads? NIck Broomfield shot them. It's almost as bad as Shane Meadows' awful Asda stuff.
So which teams have been made redundant? All the ones on big fat £100k + salaries?
Isn't every team at Lowe heavyweight bar one?
That means a lot of dough being paid out.
red brick road = 90's lowe decaff
who are 'brothers and sisters' who have won Sky one?
Anon 10:31 AM
fallon hater warning.
scamp - I don't agree that letting people talk about this stuff makes me a shit.
response.
it does when you're wallowing in it.
if it was bbh, i'm sure there'd be no...'great decline of an advertising giant' and the redundant creatives would get a big 'hurrah' and good going chaps, fairwell and i hope to see you soon.
it's just kicking people while they're down.
and giving it the old 'i'm just reporting the facts and facts can be hard' angle is crap too. this ain't the beeb. again, leave it to campaign, they have their faults but journalists tend to know how to write about subjects like this with tact. leaving the forum open to the placement crowd who have no real worries about this climate and have no experience of it is just silly.
Lowe was VERY top heavy. Almost strangely so. Is that because they had few blue-chip clients who needed experienced love? Interesting agency model, but it must mean that when one big account goes, a team or two must go with it. Don't know anyone else who operates like this but it seems that this is point in the economic cycle is where it may not be ideal.
(By the way, I LOVE Fallon's good ads, just like I love everyone's good ads. Hate F's bad ones just like I hate Grey's. Is that OK?)
@ Anon 11.14.
The placement crowd have it really bad. Anyone taking people on in the upcoming climate? Unlikely. I'm interested in the 'agency worker' perspective on this subject, not just the Campaign one. They're a bunch of journalists. Completely different industry. No idea what it's like firsthand. I appreciate a forum like this where people can share their views, even if I don't agree with some of them.
I'm not even seeing books at the moment. Too busy/ worried.
@ anon 11:14
What's your problem? Why can't people discuss this? No one's being particularly nasty. Why so sensitive?
11.14 - I don't think it IS just the placement crowd commenting here. But so what if it was?
Either way, I think you're being a bit rude, there's been quite a bit of good insight.
And your comment about what I would write if it was BBH... well, if BBH were to decline as precipitously as Lowe has, then of course it would be equally discussion-worthy, wouldn't it?
And I don't think I'm being less sensitive than journalists. Believe me, I know the issues. I've had the experience of being made redundant myself, and Campaign printing my name! That was nice.
No names here.
But no avoiding the issue either.
I'm really sorry if you think I'm out of order by failing to guillotine the conversation. But I think you and I are just going to have to agree to disagree.
Hi Scamp,
Just like to say well done for your comments against those saying you shouldn't have posted this.
I agree it's a real issue that an agency that within 7 years has gone from agency of the year and gold award winner year in year out to what is now a bunch of guys playing cricket in an empty office shell.
I've been made redundant in the past and from experience as harsh as it was the best thing to do was laugh and have a beer about it or else you'd end up perched on the edge of a windowsill like annon 11.14 worrying and moaning about everything.
Keep on doing how you do, Scamp. No-one wants to read journalism without some sensationalist, incendiary language in it.
I also maintain that the comma works equally well as a semi-colon in your strapline than it reads a lot better than shoving what looks like a road block mid sentence.
For what it's worth (nothing, as usual) I'm not part of the placement crowd and I have been made redundant.
I think the most crushing thing about being given the heave-ho (aside from not having any money) is the feeling that you are no longer part of the day-to-day workings of an office and an industry. No more banter, no one to have an after-work drink with, and a feeling like you'd be imposing if you called up your still-employed friends.
There was not much internet when I was between jobs, but I'd have loved a place like this blog to visit and feel included. Being suddenly disenfranchised is a horrible mental wrench, so anything that can maintain a connection is a good thing.
Sympathy to those who have been asked to leave Lowe and all those who may feel the same hollow implosion in their guts when their boss comes in, shuts the door and says 'I'm sorry, but we're going to have to let you go.'
We're all doomed!
Sorry. I didn't mean to suggest I've been made redundant today. It was late '97. Everything tickety-boo over here.
ruddy hell, you scared the shapoopie outta me!
Sorry. Just a readers opinion scamp. Just like the reader who wanted to discus how shit at lukes is. Good for you for listening. Looks like we'll have to disagree. I was very polite about it and thought you'd understand. It's annoyed alot of people and it was just a note to 'calm down'.
That's the trouble with blogs. Campaign you forget about and move on because it's their job. Blogs are personal and may well be remembered.
I do understand your point of view, and I'm sure it is shared by many.
It will be interesting to see if you are right that what gets written in blogs is personal, and will "come back to bite me."
I think most people understand that I'm just the host here, and it's not me writing negative comments.
I guess when my career hits the toilet and no one will hire me, we'll know you were in fact correct.
not suggesting that at all.
this isn't an i told you so for when you find yourself in the position of these unfortunate few.
just a note. don't be such a drama queen.
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