In March, we learned that General Motors had decided to move the Chevy Silverado account from Leo Burnett Detroit to Commonwealth//McCann in what the client’s own representative described as “an effort to streamline business and ensure consistency.” After shifting responsibility for promoting the 2013 models to Burnett, GM turned to McCann (which was still technically considered the brand’s AOR) for the 2015 lineup.
A series of staffing changes related to that loss occurred this week.
Here’s the internal memo that went out today to Leo Burnett staffers:
As many of you are aware, we had a staff reduction today affecting many of our friends and colleagues at Leo Burnett Detroit. We needed to make changes to the organization to align our current staffing needs to our revenue. This was a tough day for all of Leo Burnett but we cannot allow it to rob us of the creative momentum we have achieved this year.
Tomorrow the leadership team will meet with their respective groups to talk through today’s actions and answer questions you may have.
We do not, unfortunately, have much in the way of details regarding these changes. An independent source tells us that the layoffs affected the office’s creative department and that the total number of staffers dismissed was greater than twenty.
Updates if we get them.