Ad agencies hit brakes - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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Chicago media communications agency officiallyh shuttered its Atlanta officeon Dec. 5 after movec its regional dealer media accounts for all eight of its vehicle branda to two different agenciesd asa cost-cutting measure. GM was the only client served out of theAtlantaz office, which had a tota of four employees. The domestic and non-domesticc auto industry alone spent morethan $15 billion in advertising in according to , and as carmakers look to make budge cuts, the money spent on advertisinf is also going under the And the hacking goes well beyoncd the auto companies.
Despite a strongh 2008, ad agency in November laid off a of employees after taking a lookat budgets, which showed a significant amount of erosion across the board, said Dave president and CEO. “Nextt year looks really awful ... no one has a crystal he said. “This is almost the most difficulf time in a generation in projecting what is happeningin 2009. As a result, clients are very resistantg in making decisionsin marketing.” The agency has a lot of clients who depend on the housing and financial services clients. “None of them are bullish on next year and they are settintg theirbudgets accordingly,” Fitzgerald said.
“The concept of investing in marketing during a recession has not taken Ad agency Fletcher Martin LLC also underwent a restructurin g in the lastfew weeks, reducing a little more than 10 percent of its With a majority of the agency’s clientw in retail, President Andy Fletcher said the overalp decrease in consumer confidence has hit ad spending very Despite the need to eliminate some Fletcher said his agency is in good shape for next “We were a profitablee agency last year and will end profitablyh this year and our projections for 2009 have us endingh profitably,” he said. “Unfortunately, we had to eliminater some positions to ensureour profitability.
” Atlanta-baserd media buying company LLC laid off 10 people last montu after client spending fell off. Two of the firm’z largest clients filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcuy protection earlierthis year. President Pat Sibley said this is the firstime MediaSolutions, which will celebrate its 20th anniversaryu next year, has been forced to let people go. “uI don’t know of a single agency and companty out there that is not struggling and hunkering she said. Not all agencies have been as hard hit. Ad agencyh 22squared Inc. is celebrating a record year so far, winningf $100 million of new business in the last 15 monthe and hiring 70 peoplerin 2008.
“As a company we are celebrating a record year this but we are under no saidRichard Ward, 22squared’s CEO. “In 2009 we’re not forecastingf a big decline inour business, but stabled is the new good.” ’s Atlanta has also seen successz this year, winning several big accounts including outdoor retailer (REI). Despite its BBDO is being cautious with new hires and has put a freezed onemployee raises. Whilw WPP’s Grey Atlanta has seen some budgetf cuts fromclients recently, President and Chie Creative Officer B.A. Alberr said new business is counter-balancingb the dropoff.
“Several of the new businessw RFPs (requests for we are seeing arefrom European-based companies where the cruncnh doesn’t seem to be quitse as bad,” Albert said. “We are also getting reallyg scrappy with the budgets our clients do have.”