The Publicis organization has recently doubled down on its streamlined approach, labeled “The Power of One.” In many cases that means pitching new business with teams made up of staffers from various agencies, hence reports that a disparate group — as led by Fallon — pitched General Mills.
This philosophy has also led to staffing changes, including a round of downsizing in the New York office this week.
“We have been very vocal and transparent about the exciting transformation underway at Publicis North America,” a spokesperson wrote today in a statement. “This includes making strong moves to continue to better serve our clients. Our New York headquarters office has been leading the way, and with the recent string of new business wins and creative accolades, continues to position for the future. Approximately 3% of our staff is affected.”
We began hearing rumors of pending layoffs in September along with varied estimates of how many staffers would be affected. Publicis New York’s new Clive Wilkinson Architects office has no assigned desks, but it does reportedly employ more than 1,000 people, meaning that the 3% number applies to at least 30 individuals.
According to our tipsters, the announcements began on Wednesday with more changes allegedly to come. Publicis declined to elaborate beyond the above statement.
The primary motivation behind Publicis’ recent moves, which also saw the departure of global chief revenue officer Laura Desmond yesterday, is savings. Last week, the holding company reported that third quarter revenues grew by only 0.2% organically, and observers attributed this slowdown to last year’s loss of several massive media accounts including, most prominently, P&G.
That said, Publicis has recently won several pieces of new business including Walmart and USAA. In both of those cases, the Groupe applied the “Power of One” approach and won via “umbrella” units that included Saatchi & Saatchi and several other agencies within the Publicis family.