I haven’t been able to confirm or deny this one, but the number of tips I’ve gotten on it may be an indicator of its truth. Multiple Agency Spies report that Publicis in the West (Seattle, kiddies) lost its “HP high-end server” business.
That must be boring work anyway. Nonetheless, jobs were supposedly lost, including two unnamed ECDs and “a handful of people.”
With little new biz coming in and an old world regime (read: boys club – in my spy’s words) steering the ship, things don’t look good for the gentle giant. Not that it’s an indicator of, well anything, but their Web site claims they’re looking for a few senior people; that includes a senior AD and copywriter and a bunch of interactive folks. But who knows when their site was updated last.
A call to Chris Witherspoon in business development was not returned.
One of those ECDs, Dan Fietsam, recently accepted a CCO spot at Energy BBDO, Chicago. He had been working on the T-Mobile account with guys like Dan Foreman.
This isn’t the agency’s first downturn lately, either. SuperSpy reported on a similar situation way back when in March. Oh wait, that was only four months ago.
Update: From a spy, “(Publicis West) lost HP a while ago when HP’s TSG business went to BBDO. The whole HP team had already transitioned to TMobile or took new jobs anyways. But everyone knew it was coming. Plus Dan (Fietsam) resigned to take the job at Energy BBDO and Bob Moore, CCO is heading up the TMobile biz anyways which is the only key account left that requires an ecd. the shop is just fine. tmobile pays all the bills plus some unknown bar tabs.”