Meerkats forced to retrench three staff, including senior creative team Tom Wilson & Adam Cannell, as the loss of iiNet’s revenue becomes a reality
Meerkat’s decision to walk away from the large iiNet account last month has seen the necessity to retrench three senior staff – senior creative team Tom Wilson and Adam Cannell, plus Claire Yow from the account service department.
Wilson (pictured left) joined Meerkats in October 2010 from Gatecrasher and Cannell (pictured right), also ex Gatecrasher, joined the agency soon after they opened their doors in 2004.
Meerkats’ managing director Gavin Bain told Campaign Brief it was an extremely tough decision for the partners to make and the first time the agency has had to bring in redundancies.
“We were able to hold firm following the loss of HBF and although we were very pleased with our appointment to Brownes and the work we have been able to create since then, iiNet was a substantial account for us,” said Bain.
Sadly, redundancies have been a big part of life for all of Perth’s top agencies over the past month as account losses, client budget cuts and reduced margins bite into their businesses. Gatecrasher has been forced to retrench five staff and reduce the hours of several others. Marketforce also has had to let go of four senior staff. And CB hears today the 303Lowe has also had to retrench staff over the past two weeks, although MD Alan Taylor was not available to confirm details of this when we put in a call to him today.
The Brand Agency’s Steve Harris also recently admitted that they only managed to avoid cutbacks following the loss of RAC though not replacing staff who left during the year long notice they had of the review and because of vigorous growth in their digital department.
39 Comments
Jesus did you have to choose a photograph that makes me look like I’ve got manboobs? I haven’t had that top for at least a year.
I think this is only the beginning.
Clients now expect a lot more, for a lot less. If an agency can cut 3 senior staff and save $400 – $500K, then that’s an easy financial decision. The salary levels set during the previous boom years are unsustainable in the current economic climate. Add to that payroll tax, super, etc – then using overseas ‘freelancers’ or juniors is a very compelling proposition.
It’s sad, but reality.
Sad loss with Tom going – best of luck Tom and Adam
Big loss. Best of luck Tom, Adam and Claire.
Probably good management that they didn’t have to lay off more after a big account like that leaves.
Sorry for Claire, Adam and Tom. Good luck for getting new jobs very soon.
What I find confusing is agencies like Gatecrasher and Meerkats, built on a foundation of creativity, that choose to let top creative go but retain highly paid media departments.
The real question that should be asked here is, what sort of a business glibly resigns a client knowing full well that three senior staff will be unemployed as a result?!
Could this be the start of tough times ahead for all creative industries?
No fun for anyone…
Hey Tom and Adam…I hear Groves and Groves (soon to be re-launched) are hiring!
Tom and Adam are a talented duo, I’m sure they’ll both do well (manboobs aside!)
Let your manboob freak flag fly, mate. Much respect.
Awful news but if I were you I’d grab Silvana (ex Marketforce) and start your own agency.
Tough stuff. Good luck gents – I’m sure you won’t be twiddling your thumbs for long.
Roger, you seriously think senior creatives in Perth are on $180k plus? Maybe the ones at group head/almost CD level but there would be very few of those. The sad thing is, if almost every agency in town is laying off people, I don’t know what options are out there short of doing the traditional and going east. And you wonder why a few years later there’s the standard whine about the WA brain drain.
Most agencies over East would give their eye-teeth for a pair of writers of the calibre of Tom Wilson and Des Hameister!
‘Glibly’ is possibly understating the events in question. And Meerkats has never made any secret of their business model of selective, strategic partnership rather than just acquiring plain old clients. Every ‘Kat’ knows this and to a larger extent I imagine it is the reason Meerkats is such a desirable place to work.
Tom, Adam and Claire, best of luck in your future endeavours.
Come back to Syd Tom, there are plenty of jobs for talented people and it’s cheaper to live here than Perf.
I predict writers will soon be out of all advertising agency staff lists. They are expensive and there our many overseas options now for the ‘grunt; work. When you need the clever stuff, you’ll bring in the hired guns. Freelance writers are the future. Call me.
D, Abbott
Please check and correct your copy before you press “submit.” It just makes smug copywriters even smugger.
The guys should get their act together and go straight to the clients. After all, ideas produced by creatives are the only true product of the agency. Everyone else is just profit margin. When clients get more clued up about how the digital and social media landscape actually works, expect some big changes. Forget the agency model with its layers of unnecessary staffing, the future is affordable ideas-led creative consultancy and ad hoc project-based collaboration.
You lot are kidding yourselves if you thing things are any better in Sydney at the moment. Creatives are being asked to walk left, right and centre.
I predict D Abbott doesn’t have a clue. Sure, you can hire an overseas writer from Mumbai but chances are without intimately knowing the market that you’re working for, their product will be hopelessly off the mark. So much of writing for advertising is about the nuances, in jokes about that local celeb, watering spot or politician, that only comes from having spent time there. So if you want generic, watered down bland work, it may be outsourced. However I credit Perth agencies with aiming just a smidge higher than that.
Having said that, I hope D Abbott isn’t involved in strategy or building business.
You are still wise Mr Abbott. Agencies nurture relationships. Clients don’t really care who writes or art directors their work. They just want it to happen. If the client keeps their job. The agency keeps client. Who created the creative work? Who cares? As long as it gets done. Creatives believe that they have some important role in this process. Sorry. Clogs in the wheel my friends. You can be a big clog one day and the next day you’re designing a logo for a florist. Creatives are being pushed to the side.
Arse lickers and nerds are the future of our industry. Creatives will sit at home and wait for the phone to ring.
Hey W. Brown I’m sure the David Drogas, Mark Waites, Justin Drapes and Jonathon Kneebones of the world would disagree (google them).
Oh and don’t worry your Armani suit and tie won’t go to waste, I hear they’re looking for staff at the Trustee.
You’re right, creatives have no role in the process. They just make the product. You know, the ad the agency sells, that pays everyone’s wages. It’s like saying lawyers aren’t important to a law firm. If creatives are pushed aside, there is no industry anymore.
Smugger. That’s not a word. You may be smuggy. Or the smuggest. Buy a dictionary Wordsworth.
So I don’t have a clue says OH PLEASE. Our agency is one of Perth’s hot shops if you don’t mind. We have been using overseas copywriters for years with great success.
We don’t employ ‘creatives’ fulltime. We have a creative team in Sri Lanka not Mumbai. We also have an art director based in Manila. It’s a global business.
I’d be keen to see one of those examples of nuances, in jokes about that local celeb, watering spot or politician that you waffle on about. I can tell you it’s not required when you are doing real work not scam ads for the Caxton Awards. As for Perth agencies aiming a smidge higher. “Are you ‘aving a laugh?”. Pick up The West and have a good hard look. Watch some telly or read the community news.
I don’t have to Goggle Droga. I have his cell number. If he moved to Perth Drogs wouldn’t hire any creatives. He’d hire some guys who can wine and dine clients. Pull in some WA govt work and retail. The creative would be done offshore. ‘Beds Half Price”. Not that hard. We are still in the 80’s darls.
“The future is affordable ideas-led creative consultancy and ad hoc project-based collaboration.” Ha Ha ha ha.
It’s no wonder I sconed you on the head with a copper pipe Mustard. Creatives can’t run an agency. I watch them in our agency try and work out which poof bar they will frequent on a Friday evening after work. They are useless. Can’t make a decision. As for running a hoc project-based collaboration. Hang on. I just pissed myself.
Why are you having a go at Armani suits Miss Mark?
Nothing happening over here unless you want to write some blogs or Facebook posts. I’m writing brochures at the moment. Stay where you are.
10.02.
“Smug” is a one-syllable adjective ending with a single consonant with a single vowel before It. You must therefore double the consonant and add –er for the comparative form.
Yours Smugly, WW.
If you have DD’s cell why don’t you call him and tell him that you are a goose. I worked on the Half Price Beds campaign. Our planner spent 3 months getting the brand onion strategy review in place before we came up with that brand molecule. After another 3 months of client and stakeholder interviews, followed by 30 focus groups with our target audience we came up with – Beds Half Price. Three golden words that sums up our client’s brand aura. You don’t get that GOLD out of Mumbai.
Wow. Three people lose their jobs and you idiots are talking about this crap?
Seriously, calling your agency a ‘hot spot’ is the best way of letting us know it definitely isn’t one.
And ‘poof bar’? Really? Ignorant and homophobic, quite a combo.
Honestly, I know a lot of people read this blog. And giving people like you a voice – when you clearly have nothing constructive to add, is embarrassing for us all.
Spare a thought for Adam, Tom and Claire as they face a scary, uncertain future in the ever-shrinking local industry.
If you have a job, anywhere, count yourself lucky and if you don’t have something positive to add, keep your pathetic opinions to yourself.
10.23?@2.54pm
Sorry to say mate, but you and your agency are history on the account. We have already pitched a shit hot social media campaign that a wacky junior creative friend-of-a-friend on Facebook came up with for us and the client LOVES IT. The wacky junior creative is going to get lots of stock shot photos of beds, cute animals sleeping and jokes about insomnia, then post them up a couple of times a week on FB. They will also post to Twitter, interspersing questions about sleeping habits, plans for the weekend, holidays etc. Apparently, we can TRACK how many people like the pictures and comments, then show this to the client as proof the campaign is working. Some guy in Balcatta who is dating our media girl knows a bloke in India who sells “likes” so we are going to blow the entire production budget on these. The girl on front desk who is always on twitter has told us to hashtag “sleep”, “dreams” and “bed” in every post. She also said we have to get into the habit of putting a hashtag in front of a random list of phrases and attach this to every comment we make in our emails #nocluewhy #wheresthehastagonamac? To launch, we are taking out a quarter page in the West (our media director’s idea) with an image of an red pillow that has “Keep calm and sleep in a half-price bed” stitched into it . The client wanted the second part but we reckon it still works – and it’s a really funny interweb mene so it’s bound to go viral. The FB page is already live at Facebook(dot)com/theemperorsnewhalfpricebeds. Enjoy.
Dear manboob lover, surely you can tell this is just light-hearted banter.
All of us feel deeply about what as happened to Tom and Adam (and Claire, but I don’t know her). Most of us are genuine friends of the guys and have already RUNG them to express our shock and disappointment.
I hate stating the obvious, but “hot spot”, “poof bar” and “we don’t employ creatives” comments are all tongue-in-cheek and obviously written by creatives – most of whom have been through a retrenchment or two ourselves.
Others have previously swallowed the hook you on the other hand have ingested it. Relax brother. Tom and Adam will be OK. They are talented dudes. They visit ‘poof’ bars and are very comfortable with their sexuality. In these uncertain times we can either laugh or cry. Read between the lines on this blog and have a giggle.
Retrenchment can often be the best thing to happen to a career. I know creatives who’ve literally doubled their income after getting laid off at one agency and the offer at the next. More interesting work too. The downside – or upside – is you may have to move States or even countries to do it, such is the reality of the creative career. My point is, people are acting like this is the end of the world. Sure, it’s a shock, but it could actually be the start of something great. And if they are good creatives, there will be work out there for them. You are more than any one job.
The Future has shown us why we prefer the past. Thank you.