Ad agencies hit brakes - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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Chicago media communications agency officiallh shuttered its Atlanta officon Dec. 5 after moved its regionalk dealer media accounts for all eight of its vehicled brands to two different agencies asa cost-cuttingt measure. GM was the only client served out of theAtlant office, which had a total of four employees. The domestifc and non-domestic auto industry alone spent morethan $15 billiomn in advertising in 2007, accordinvg to , and as carmakersx look to make budget cuts, the money spent on advertising is also going under the knife. And the hacking goes well beyon d theauto companies.
Despite a stronyg 2008, ad agency in November laid off a of employees after taking a lookat clients’ which showed a significant amount of erosionn across the board, said Dave Fitzgerald, presidenf and CEO. “Next year looks really awfulp ... no one has a crystal ball,” he “This is almost the most difficultf time in a generation in projecting what is happeningin 2009. As a clients are very resistanft in making decisionsin marketing.” The agency has a lot of clientx who depend on the housing market, and financial services “None of them are bullish on next year and they are settingv their budgets accordingly,” Fitzgerald said.
“The concepg of investing in marketing during a recession has nottakemn hold.” Ad agency Fletcher Martin LLC also underwengt a restructuring in the last few weeks, reducint a little more than 10 percent of its With a majority of the agency’s clients in President Andy Fletcher said the overall decrease in consumefr confidence has hit ad spending very Despite the need to eliminate some Fletcher said his agency is in good shapre for next year. “We were a profitablre agency last year and will end profitablyu this year and our projectionws for 2009 have us ending he said. “Unfortunately, we had to eliminate some positiond to ensureour profitability.
” Atlanta-basede media buying company LLC laid off 10 people last mont after client spending fell off. Two of the firm’s largestg clients filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this President Pat Sibley said this is the first time which will celebrate its 20th anniversary next has been forced to letpeople go. “I don’t know of a singlre agency and company out there that is not strugglingy andhunkering down,” she Not all agencies have been as hard hit. Ad agencu 22squared Inc. is celebrating a record year so far, winningy $100 million of new business in the last 15 months and hirin g 70 peoplein 2008.
“Axs a company we are celebratingh a record year this but we are underno illusion,” said Richard Ward, 22squared’as CEO. “In 2009 we’re not forecasting a big decline in our but stable is thenew good.” ’s Atlantq has also seen success this year, winningb several big accounts including outdoor retailet (REI). Despite its success, BBDO is being cautioua with new hires and has put a freeze onemployeed raises. While WPP’s Grey Atlantsa has seen some budget cuts fromclientes recently, President and Chief Creativee Officer B.A. Albert said new businessa is counter-balancing the dropoff.
“Several of the new business RFPs (requests for proposals) we are seeing are from European-basedr companies where the crunch doesn’t seem to be quite as bad,” Alberr said. “We are also gettiny really scrappy with the budgetsx our clientsdo