Sources told us this week that Goodby, Silverstein & Partners will soon be closing its New York City office, but we now hear from the leaders of that office and from Jeff Goodby himself that the rumor is not true.
GS&P declined to give us a statement after more than one party close to the matter told us that the office would be shutting down. After this post went live, however, the office’s principals contacted us to say that, while they did recently downsize, they plan to remain in business.
The most recent news regarding Goodby’s Manhattan location concerned The New York Post: the agency won the classic Murdoch tabloid back in October of 2014, and its copy-heavy OOH ads adorned the subways for several months through late 2014/early 2015. They were really quite good, and the “If you don’t want it on Page Six, don’t do it” line was particularly fitting given certain stories that appeared in that very publication several months later.
The office made some staffing changes last year as well. Last May, GS&P NY hired Paul Caiozzo, a freelancer and creative director who’d been with Twofifteenmccann, CP+B and others to run the New York team; when the agency promoted Eric Kallman to ECD earlier this year amidst a larger shift in responsibilities, they indicated that he would stay in that role. Caiozzo replaced ECD Christian Haas, who left the shop last May and currently sits on the IAB advisory board while freelancing for various parties in the New York area.
Caiozzo was hired in part to lead the Comcast/XFINITY account, and Jeff Goodby’s internal memo announcing layoffs in the San Francisco office last month specifically named the failed Comcast/Time Warner merger as the reason that the New York office “will now be smaller.”
Caiozzo himself now tells us that the office underwent a “small but impactful” layoff but cited two other recent account wins: ZocDoc and Streeteasy.
The story’s original source says that over half the office’s staffers were let go and that remaining employees were told to wait until after the upcoming Cannes festival.
When GS&P first announced its New York expansion in January 2013, Stuart Elliott gave it a full New York Times writeup. At the time, Goodby said, “I don’t think Rich and I felt we needed a New York office. In fact, it was more unique to not have one.”
Goodby said that the agency has no plans to close any of its offices at this moment.