Word is out this week of layoffs at Ogilvy’s San Francisco offices. I assume this is as a result of losing the Sun account to Bite. Although I understand Ogilvy’s HR team is trying its best to place the staff affected, it saddens and angers me that this behavior is still happening. The market right now is fairly strong. The conditions are good for agencies – there are new clients out there but you have to fight hard to win them, which is great. And there are staff out there, but again competition for the best talent is also tight (also as it should be). Given that, it’s fairly damning on Ogilvy’s senior SF team that they’re waving the white flag.

Over-concentration on a few large clients is a major risk for agencies for precisely this reason. And sadly it’s often the account team which takes the hit. Why stay loyal to a firm which isn’t loyal to you when the time comes? Guess that’s a question Ogilvy will be answering a lot from now on.