mcgarrybowen made a series of layoffs in its New York office today.
The agency’s statement:
“Our clients’ businesses are constantly evolving, and we, as their agency partner, must be well positioned to meet those needs. As such, we made staffing adjustments in our New York office today to right size our team.”
According to a spokesperson, the cuts affected less than 10 percent of total staff in Manhattan–and the agency tells us that some (not all) were related to its ongoing work for Verizon.
Verizon made quite a few changes to its agency roster in the months leading up to its $4.4 billion acquisition of AOL: the telecomms giant signed W+K in January then shifted more of its sponsorship/entertainment work to Momentum Worldwide, before beginning a review of its “digital agency support.” These announcements translated to a loss for several of its agency partners; in April, CMO Joe Saracino of Erwin Penland (himself a former Verizon employee) discussed a series of layoffs that followed a change in that agency’s relationship with the client.
mcgarrybowen Global CMO Brandon Cooke, however, is quick to dispel misconceptions regarding the account. He writes:
“The rumor that we no longer work with Verizon or will no longer work with them is absolutely not true. We continue to work with Verizon as their wireless network creative agency and have not been informed otherwise.”
No word on when Verizon will release its newest campaign.