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How much Js7 maximum budget should be??
Bowl Leader
Additional Posts in Advertising
Chat Bots and Artificial Intelligence. Ok, go!
Thoughts on having PMs manage media teams?
Just realized it's not Friday ☹️
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When the new business pipeline dries up. Pay attention to the amount of pitches that are happening.
^^^^scatter shot pitching 💯
Pay attention to the client roster and look for 3 red flags:
1) If the agency is not bringing on new clients
2) If the agency is losing clients
3) If clients are cutting budgets and reducing spend
💀
They’re part of IPG.
Weber Shandwick 2 agrees
Rising Star
Lots of closed door convos between partners
💯
When your most talented people start fleeing across departments
Creative 1- This has me laughing! Thank you
Rising Star
When upper management starts dodging meetings and going radio silent.
Or when you get on the Ad Age list it seems 😂
The Ad Age list … 😬
Surprised nobody has said “Sudden mandatory in-office mandate”
This too
They’re too reliant on cash cow accounts that have no real loyalty and don’t have a stable base of smaller, reliable clients. Those big accounts keep the lights on, but they don’t lead to great work. And without standout work, good luck attracting new business, especially clients who need more than “data-driven” boilerplate banners and spots.
When one of those brands gets a new CMO or brings in McKinsey to audit the balance sheet, they’ll see the bloated AOR fees and cut ties immediately. Ironically, agencies stacked with big-name clients are often at higher risk of layoffs than those without.
Critical Mass
Oh, a big leading indicator is also: they use the same 5+ year old case study in every pitch.
THIS
Vendors emailing you, repeatedly, about missed payments well after the ad they worked on ran.
This is the one. Found out from a colleague that my former agency had their google accounts shut off one day because of delayed payments. For an agency that was 90% search. Had a round of layoffs a few weeks later, and my guess is they’re only going to be around another few months at most.
Pro
They win Coke and Pfizer
Unfortunately, y’all, advertising is one of the first industries to fluctuate in the event of a recession. We’ve been through it before.
I think this thread is so hot because we’re seeing and hearing signs that are making us nervous. That’s natural.
For those of us not in Executive Senior Mature Director President of All Things positions, all we can do is continue to add value, add to the bottom line and stay vocal and present — making ourselves indispensable.
And update our portfolios while building networks and strengthening connections.
Good news: we’re also one of the first industries to pick up when the economy does. So. See you in 3.5 years.
Best talent leaves
Inexplicable budget cuts - flowers in reception, catering disappears
Company meetings cancelled
Sudden downward shift in quality of pitch clients
Holding company involved in everyday decisions
Job postings up for months with no new hires (gives employees doing the work of many hope they’ll get relief eventually). Loss of clients or parts of the business. Dwindling RFPs. A clamp down on spending for agency events and perks. Switching to an open desk format instead of assigned seating.
Zombie job postings are a real thing. If you apply for an internal job and it’s removed or you get ghosted/left on read — it’s not real and just there to make you think help is coming.
Multiple C-suite shake-ups in a row is always a HUGE red flag (like if a CMO gets suddenly replaced or if a CEO gets let go and someone internally gets promoted into it instead) + obviously a lack of new client wins. If you start seeing things like this happening at your agency, run - the boats sinking.
sounds familiar.......
Actually a good question
Multiple leadership changes in consecutive years, with no significant wins.
“Winning together”
Our strategy is AI.
if it’s named after a supermarket
I mean Bodega at WK is going away too so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Pro
The sign on the front door says "Crispin, Porter & Bogusky"