17047: McCann Worldgroup Shrinking Its World.

 

Advertising Age reported McCann Worldgroup “has been quietly trimming its workforce” in recent months—a RIF supplemented by key senior-level departures.

 

That’s a sharp contrast to loud layoffs and lunacy in recent years. Guess the White advertising agency is executing more preemptive pruning in advance of the impending Omnicom acquisition of IPG.

 

McCann’s “Truth Well Told” tagline clearly does not apply to staff communications.

 

McCann Worldgroup lays off staff while some leaders choose to exit

 

By Ewan Larkin and Brian Bonilla

 

McCann Worldgroup has been quietly trimming its workforce over the last few months and has parted ways with several senior executives ahead of Omnicom Group’s acquisition of Interpublic Group of Cos., Ad Age has learned.

 

Since February, the IPG agency network has been reducing its workforce in small waves, with one source estimating the cumulative number to be about 120 people. Those affected appear to be employees in duplicative or non-revenue-generating roles, including staffers in corporate communications, creative and social. Several high-level executives have also departed on their own amid these changes.

 

McCann did not comment on the number of job reductions and referred calls for comment to IPG, which provided this statement: “Earlier this year, Interpublic announced that we are embarking on a transformation process. On our recent earnings call, we shared that we are centralizing corporate functions and accelerating investment in central platform capabilities like production and analytics through greater consolidation into centers of excellence, while also streamlining across the organization.”

 

It continued, “While these actions enhance service delivery, the composition of our workforce and our agencies is also impacted. It’s never easy to take these kinds of actions, but they are due to the transformation and restructuring we announced in February, and not part of the proposed transaction with Omnicom.”

 

The reference is to an IPG restructuring announced by CEO Philippe Krakowsky in February, in which it promised to save $250 million through restructuring within its agencies this year.

 

The pending merger is anticipated to yield $750 million in annual cost savings, which are also widely expected to result in layoffs. Omnicom Chairman and CEO John Wren has repeatedly emphasized that roles tied to client service and revenue will be safe from cuts. “You’re gold,” Wren has previously said of such staffers.

 

High-level departures at IPG’s McCann Worldgroup

 

McCann Worldgroup said it has 12,000 employees, so the cuts would amount to about 1% of its total workforce. Agencies within the network include McCann, CRM agency MRM, production shop Craft and FutureBrand, whose specialties include design and brand architecture. McCann Worldgroup has a presence in more than 100 countries, according to its website.

 

Among the senior execs leaving or who have already left McCann are Stephanie Nerlich, McCann Worldgroup’s first global president, along with Pete Johnson and Cinzia Crociani, both global executive creative directors based in New York. Johnson and Nerlich could not be reached for comment and Crociani said she resigned to pursue another opportunity.

 

Other departures include Scott Berwitz, senior VP and global director of marketing communications; McCann New York Chief Creative Officer Shayne Millington, whose role is being eliminated; and New York Chief Growth Officer Suresh Raj, who said he recently resigned to join M+C Saatchi. Berwitz and Millington could not be reached for comment.

 

McCann Worldgroup has faced challenges in recent years, including the loss of longtime client Verizon, which shifted its consumer account to WPP’s Ogilvy in late 2023. The network took another hit last June when General Motors pulled significant business from Chevy-focused Commonwealth/McCann and MRM, prompting layoffs at both agencies.

 

McCann Worldgroup ultimately decided to do away with the Commonwealth/McCann brand name in October, parking those employees under McCann Detroit instead. That move followed the March 2024 closure of its San Francisco-based McCann 215 office, whose biggest client was Xbox. Xbox recently launched a campaign with Droga5.

 

Earlier this week, Ad Age reported that HomeGoods, a McCann client of seven years, is also looking for a new creative agency. (McCann New York remains the creative agency of record for TJ Maxx, another TJX Cos. brand.) McCann Worldgroup’s losses have been partly offset by wins such as Ikea’s global brand marketing account and creative duties for Kinder and Tic Tac across Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.