The Atlanta, Georgia offices of Doner, which holding company MDC Partners rebranded after an acquisition several years ago, will be closing this summer as the company moves all related operations to Detroit. (As late as 2008, the agency was considered America’s largest indie shop.)
MDC’s Atlanta-based media and research units–named Assembly and SEE Insight, respectively, and formed in 2014 and 2013–will remain open. But all creative operations in the Atlanta area will be relocated to the agency’s headquarters in The Motor City.
Here’s the official statement from Doner:
Given current client demands and the need to focus resources against our strategic growth initiatives, we will be consolidating most of Doner’s resources based in Atlanta into our Detroit headquarters over the next month. SEE INSIGHTS and Assembly will continue to operate from the Atlanta office. We thank those affected by this consolidation for their service and are doing our best to help them find new positions.
No word on what, exactly, led to this change–but the last sentence means that not every member of the Doner Atlanta team will make the transition to Detroit. The total number of employees affected remains unclear as well, though for context you may recall that Doner made some staffing cuts in early 2013 after the Atlanta office became a Doner operation. A few weeks before that move, MDC officially merged Doner and Media Kitchen Atlanta in order to better serve the agency’s media clients.
A tipster tells us that the last day of operations for Doner Atlanta will be July 6 and that executives have already contacted clients to announce their resignation from all active accounts managed by the Atlanta office.
Updates when they come in.