Huge Lays Off 37—About 3% of Its Workforce

Digital agency Huge is laying off about 3% of the agency, CEO Mat Baxter confirmed to Adweek today. Baxter told Adweek that the agency, which has about 1,200 employees across 12 global markets, made the cuts in response to the changing market and clients cutting spend. "We're seeing clients either cancel, move or pause activities," Baxter said. "We've had a significant revenue drop over the second half with clients doing exactly that." Baxter pointed to several areas where the agency has seen clients cut spend, including P&G's SK-II, which the agency will continue to work with but says the client has cut its "level of expenditure" with Huge, and Brooks Running, which took its work in-house. Baxter said Huge works with a number of tech companies, including several in the crypto space, which he said are the typically the first to pull spend. Huge is the latest agency to experience cuts, following The Many, which laid off nearly half its staff last month, and R/GA, which laid off about 5% of its New York office. Impacts at the agency Baxter, who joined Huge last summer from fellow IPG media agency Initiative, said the layoffs were distributed equitably across the agency, with the exception being the Brooks Running team which was disproportionately impacted. "We looked at representation across our diversity and inclusion targets," Baxter said. "We looked at the blend of senior vs. junior roles to ensure that the actions were as equitable as they could possibly be." Baxter said parent-company IPG approved the layoffs on those parameters. "It's a really simple equation, right? We have more people than we need for the revenue that we've currently got," Baxter said. "I mean, it's as simple as that." Baxter said that Huge will provide outplacement service coaching, extend full medical benefits for impacted employees for three months and will let employees keep IT equipment. He said he plans to address the agency on Thursday during an all-hands meeting about the state of the business and that all impacted employees who could be reached today have been informed of the job cuts. "We have an oversupply of people relative to the work that's coming into the business. So for us, this was a recalibration of people versus forward revenue," Baxter said. Closing offices Earlier this year, Huge announced that it would be closing office spaces around the world to create experience hubs, with the main hub being in the Brooklyn, N.Y. office. Baxter said the closings are not related to the job cuts and is not a cost cutting measure for the agency. The agency is providing WeWork memberships and creating events to allow clusters of employees in locations around the world a chance to get together in person. "The remote thing is not by any stretch a cost cutting measure at all," Baxter said, adding, "In fact, I would argue it's probably on a net basis going to be a little bit more expensive to service." The agency has made a number of leadership hires over the past year. The agency hired Lisa De Bonis and Toni Howard Love in September 2021 as global chief experience officer and group vp of diversity, equity and inclusion, respectively. In October 2021, Mark Manning was elevated from president of the West region to chief operating officer. Matt Di Paola moved president of Huge’s Canadian office to global chief client partner. Initiative Chairman Mat Baxter Named Global CEO of Huge

Leadership & Talent

Huge Lays Off 37—About 3% of Its Workforce

CEO Mat Baxter said clients are canceling or pausing activities

Jameson Fleming

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Jameson Fleming