Crispin Porter + Bogusky Is Closing Its Miami Office After Almost 30 Years

In 1988, the agency launched in Miami, with Florida serving as its headquarters until offices opened in Los Angeles and Boulder, Co. in 2001 and 2006, respectively.

“It’s something we’ve been talking about for a while,” said founder and chairman Chuck Porter, who described the decision to shutter the office as “agonizing” but added that it “was the best thing for the agency and the work.”

Accounts running out of the Miami office, including Vonage, Santa Margarita Wines and the Letgo app, will move to CP+B’s locations in Boulder, L.A. and São Paulo. “Obviously, it was partly a financial decision. A lot of clients we had here came from our connections in Brazil,” Porter noted.

Earlier this month, CP+B announced that it would be shrinking its Los Angeles office—or “paring down the space to fit our needs,” in the words of managing director Ryan Skubic. That location parted with an estimated 5 percent of staff over the summer after client Infiniti moved global creative duties to 72andSunny without a review. CP+B remains agency of record for the car brand in the U.S. and handles campaigns in China and the U.K.

An unspecified number of the approximately 75 Miami employees affected by today’s news will be offered opportunities to join the aforementioned offices or to work for another agency within the larger MDC Partners network.

Porter told Adweek that a majority of Miami staffers work in bookkeeping and business affairs-style roles, noting that most of the client-facing employees and creatives—including executive creative director Tom Adams—will relocate. He indicated that the Los Angeles office in particular is looking to staff up after recent new business wins like a forthcoming brand campaign for Hulu.

“We specifically didn’t want to be in situation where we came and said, we’re closing next Friday,” he said. “There are people who live in Miami and can’t move, so we’re offering them assistance to find something else.”

CP+B Brazil and chief creative officers Marcos Medeiros and Andre Kassu, who began managing Miami operations last year, will retain their roles in South America along with CEO Vinicius Reis. The agency made global leadership changes over the summer by naming Erik Sollenberg of the recently acquired Forsman & Bodenfors to replace outgoing global CEO Lori Senecal. It also hired McCann veteran Linus Karlsson as its new global chief creative officer.

“The DNA of CP+B centers around incredibly talented people doing extraordinary things,” said Sollenberg. “It’s our obligation to our employees and our clients to create and maintain an environment where this can happen.”