The Martin Agency went through a staffing reduction today following Walmart’s decision to consolidate its creative and in-store advertising with Publicis in July without a review.
A spokesperson told us that 29 people were let go across the IPG shop’s New York and Richmond, Virginia offices and that the move affected approximately 5.6 percent of the agency’s total workforce; The Martin Agency London saw no change.
This morning CEO Matt Williams held an all-staff meeting at the agency’s headquarters announcing the change, which the spokesperson attributes to both the Walmart move and decreases in projected spending by other, unnamed clients.
The news precedes an internal realignment based on the aforementioned factors. An agency spokesperson told us, “This is never an easy thing to do,” adding that the organization plans to revise its internal processes moving forward “with the goal of making the company more agile.”
The Martin Agency did not elaborate on the specifics of these changes or the positions involved in today’s reduction.
Walmart’s July announcement that it would send the vast majority of its U.S. marketing work to Publicis preceded the creation of a dedicated unit to be led by Publicis Communications CEO Arthur Sadoun. According to the press release from earlier in the summer, these plans are in keeping with Maurice Levy‘s “Power of One” approach — one that is “designed to deliver end-to end solutions for our clients” and sounds a lot like Omnicom’s plans for handling the McDonald’s business.
As in so many cases of client consolidations, Walmart’s most obvious goal is to reduce its overall marketing expenses.