Various parties have reached out to us this week regarding staffing changes at the New York office of AKQA.
An agency spokesperson declined to comment on specifics, but several individuals confirmed that the WPP shop parted with approximately 10 employees this week.
This marks the latest in a series of such moves related to a change in the shop’s Verizon business. Last October, we reported that the client had chosen to consolidate the in-store shopper marketing portion of its account with SET, a Portland-based agency that worked with Nike when WPP acquired a majority share in 2015.
Verizon began working with SET last summer due to “desire to add more digital and interactive elements to its retail marketing efforts” and decided to move the entirety of that work away from AKQA several months later.
Several people told us that a talent exchange between AKQA and SET followed, with approximately 25 employees set to move over several months. According to our sources today, around 35 total staffers left AKQA, and some did not get jobs working on the Verizon business at SET after leaving.
Despite some claims to the contrary, we’ve heard that these changes were only related to Verizon and that AKQA New York has won additional business from both new and existing clients in recent weeks. More news to come.