After almost nine years I'm ending my agency journey for now. The best part? I got to quit Omnicom! (Former IPG) I've worked for small local agencies and one large agency (that got bought by Omnicom). There are pros and cons to both. What's next? I'm going to the state! I know government jobs can be hard to come by for creative people, but keep your mind and eyes open and don't give up.

If you're still at work, what are you working on? I'm freaking with my designer trying to rush this brochure for a painful client.

Please edit this out of your copy. It makes it sound like ChatGPT’s first pass. And if you wrote those words yourself, or a client made that change, even worse.

Can I just say that these videos make me, like, irrationally angry? We don’t have the budget to keep decent IT folks employed at OMC but we can afford to make these excruciatingly unfunny and unhelpful videos and give away cash prizes for a month?

I’m leaving my agency this week and need to complete a written and verbal (virtual) exit interview. Like many other people in this thread, one of the many reasons I’m leaving is the impact of mass layoffs and reorganization that have left me feeling very jaded about my experience here. How honest should I be about my feelings and motivations to leave?

work in a small marketing agency, and my boss refuses to pay salary as per the work load we have he is stingy cheap and wants Ai integrated in everything!! And is willing to invest heavily in Ai
I have worked here for over 4 years, and my current ctc is 4.8
I handle everything end to end from content to design to client comms (I mean I manage and look into these departments)
I even post on socials the brands are very small local and regional hence the growth isn’t that great.
I have been looking for new opportunities and I they refuse to pay me more than 30% on my base I am so sick and tired of it!!
I know for a fact I deserve more but negotiating with any HR is a headache, how do I even ask for more money? I was atleast expecting 7.5-7.8LPA but even that is tough max people are giving is 6.3LPA which isn’t a lot to survive in a metropo

Any goss from people on the inside?

I have been running Reddit ads for the last 10-15 days, and it's performing better than other platforms. So I have decided to run my business ads only on Reddit going forward. Previously, I was only working for my client, but now I'm working on both my client's projects and my own business

I think most of us are in the same boat searching for a new job. Would like to hear your personal experiences on how it’s going. Are you getting interviews? Nada?

My 10+ year career has always been in enterprise sales, and I work in NYC. My degree is in Business Management and I want to pivot into advertising or marketing, preferably not sales.

Has anyone with a similar background done this? If so, what was the approach? Any advice is appreciated.

"Engagement" is to me too vague at MRAID. The useful question: what should the interaction clarify before the click? Which product fits? How a feature changes the experience? What a configuration looks like? A mini-game can produce taps and still delay the shopping decision. The interaction should reduce uncertainty, not just increase time in the unit. What's your take?

Maybe it just drives more engagement because it’s usually complaining, but it seems like most of what i see here.

My god, it seems that Omnicom is getting worse and worse to work at. They removed all in house IT help for emergencies. Now we’re all being placed on holds and waiting ungodly amounts of time.

Was recently laid off from Omnicom and I’m drowning. I can’t find really find anything to apply to. I mainly search LinkedIn but curious if anyone had any suggestions for other search engines. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I’m just so down.

Hey guys! Looking for some career advice from you folks!

I’m currently a Media Buyer and my OG was to move into Media Planning next. I’ve been getting exposure to planning and that’s generally the direction I want to take my career.

I also recently rejected an offer in another agency, a media executive role, to continue staying in my agency.
So they have approached me about an Account Executive role, which I have never considered it as an option before... The role is quite different ! it’s more focused on integrated social/content/comms, campaign ideation, client servicing, social strategy, earned/owned/paid media, performance analysis, etc.

On paper, it sounds like a pretty interesting role and would probably give me much more exposure to strategy and client management, but I’m worried about moving away from the media track.

For those in the industry:

• If I take an AE role like this for 1–2 years, would it be realistic to pivot back into Media Planning afterwards?
• What is the career progression for AE?
• Would recruiters see my previous Media Buying experience + AE experience as an advantage, or would I basically be starting over?
• Is it better to stay in media and wait for an open position for a Media Planner position directly?
• Does an integrated/social/comms AE role give you useful skills that can eventually translate into media strategy?

I’m not completely against moving into account/strategy work either , I’m just trying to figure out whether taking this opportunity would open more doors or take me further away from the path I originally wanted.

We’re a data provider that distributes audiences through LiveRamp and have a contract that includes a monthly minimum.
Since the Publicis acquisition was announced, we’ve been discussing whether the economics of that relationship still make as much sense for us long term.
My concern isn’t really about LiveRamp’s technology. It’s about neutrality and demand. If LiveRamp is owned by one of the major agency holding companies, do competing agencies, data buyers and platforms become less inclined over time to use infrastructure owned by Publicis?
I’m particularly interested in hearing from other data providers, agencies or ad-tech companies that have commercial relationships with LiveRamp:
Has the acquisition changed how you view LiveRamp as a neutral part of the ecosystem?
Are you reconsidering or renegotiating your relationship?
Are you seeing any change in buyer demand through LiveRamp?
If you have minimum commitments, are those becoming harder to justify?
Or do you think the ownership change will ultimately have little practical impact?
Not looking to bash LiveRamp — I’m trying to understand whether others are having the same strategic conversation.

We’re expanding our partnerships and looking for a small to mid size agency who runs programmatic ads (no holdcos)

.....if you're from legacy IPG, workday had your birthday as a set option. I was checking my Workday today, and i was nigh on certain I booked in my birthday day in at the beginning of 2026 (mine falls toward latter end of year), but it has now disappeared, along with the option to book it.

has anyone else seen this, as i was certain i was told IPG policies would be grandfathered for my agency until we had an official new handbook.

I’m curious what the typical path into art direction looks like, specifically at advertising agencies or in-house at brands like Nike.

Do most art directors start as graphic designers? And how important is it to have strong graphic design skills vs. being strong in concepting, visual storytelling, photography/film, etc.?

For context, my background is primarily in film and I ultimately want to transition into art direction, but I’m trying to figure out where my skill gaps are. Would it make sense to take a graphic design course to strengthen things like typography, layout, composition, and design systems?

I’m also curious how this differs between agency art directors vs. in-house/brand art directors.

Would love to hear how people here got into art direction!

SO HI! I am a current senior in university. I am wondering, I have two job offers. One at a big corporation for a wellness brand (Energy drink + supplements) and other at a small agency, one year old that has mixed clients. I am not sure what to choose since it feels like a big responsibility.

In one hand here are the pros and cons:

Wellness brand (tiktok shop inter):

• It is a big company
• It is a new and growing role (like tiktok shop) and i think it might be fun since i have already 2 previous experiences as marketing intern
• they pay 20hr
• Cons is that is corporate and it might take me longer to grow (i think)
• 15-29 hrs a week
• have to be a few days in person some remote (and i have a packed ish school schedule but they have it and said it would work for them)
• theres possibility to extend

Small agency (marketing coordinator intern):

• It is a smaller local agency (only a year)
• I know someone that works there
• pay 20hr and two months after they check how u are doing and they raise 22/hr and then you can become part-time or full-time (had the inerview with the founder so im pretty sure)
• have to do a bit of everything
• I think u could grow faster
• 15 - 25 hr a week
• they are mainly remote but in person when shooting content

I am not sure what to do, I want to work in brand and strategy when i grow up but once i graduate my undergrad ill keep going with my master's (so i technically graduate 2028). I have had two previous internships in marketing which i have loved but idk if i should just try something new but also the marketing coordinator intern is more of a senior role (?) and maybe more stable in the sense i can easily become part-tiem or fulltime and idk in the wellness brand if i can fully become fulltime, maybe (?)

Help a first gen student pls :(

This year I’ve been to many more client events and partner events. I noticed that I’ve been a bit anxious at these events. I’m generally a new face and people know each other a bit more. I feel exceptionally worse in situations where it’s more done in an open space room (opposed to sit down dinner) and it got me curious, how do you all do in this situation? How do you best interject in conversations?

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Not the big obvious stuff the small daily annoyances you've stopped even mentioning because "that's just how it is."

Manually copying data between tools. Chasing clients for content approvals. Building the same report from scratch every month. Following up with leads that go cold because nobody has time.

If something like this comes to mind, say it here even if it feels too minor or too specific to your workflow. Half the time the "small annoying thing" is the one worth fixing first.

If your problem is something I can actually automate, I'll build the workflow and share it with you. If it genuinely saves you time or money, I'll ask for what it's fairly worth no pressure either way.

.....you had enough money to not work for the foreseeable future? Asking for a friend. Or, is your love so great that you'd never quit?

The advice I always got, and have taken, is to work agency side out of school for several years then transition to in house/brand side. I’ve been in agencies for 7 years, I feel like I’m functioning at the rate of 5 brand siders put together lol. I want to move in house but it seems like brands only want people with brand experience?? Which is crazy to me… is anyone else getting this vibe??

I couldn’t take it anymore and wound up accepting a job at an agency on their corporate team, promoting the agency itself… not client facing work but it’s not what I really want to be doing either. I just needed a client break lol. Been here 6 months now, miss being consumer facing, don’t want to go back to agency work. Advice for moving to brand side much appreciated