The Boston headquarters and Winston-Salem, North Carolina branch of IPG’s MullenLowe parted with an unknown number of staffers last week, according to many parties who have reached out to us in recent days. The agency’s New York offices do not appear to have been affected.
These changes occurred despite several recent wins for MullenLowe including Mount Gay Rum, Talbots and, most significantly, E*Trade. Two sources confirmed in April that the network beat out R/GA, GS&P and 72andSunny to win the latter business. Its first campaign, which launched in June, took a cue from one Bernie Sanders in encouraging viewers to take on the 1 percent by … investing in their businesses.
MullenLowe representatives have not responded to related queries for this post.
According to our tipsters, the total was slightly more than 20 staffers across departments at the two locations, with digital and creative particularly affected.
The news also follows the recent departures of both offices’ presidents.
Geoff Cottrill, the former Converse CMO, led MullenLowe Boston until May, when he departed the agency. President Brad Higdon of MullenLowe Winston-Salem also left his position in May after approximately six months.
The reasons for this most recent change are unclear. An earlier round of layoffs was attributed a lack of new business wins following the loss of the USAA account, which went from Campbell Ewald to MullenLowe after the “Ghetto Day” incident but then got scooped up by Publicis Groupe in a “Power of One” coup.