Pros
Being a small agency, you have the opportunity to touch all aspects of the business which is helpful if you are just starting out but you need to leave immediately after you get a bit of experience. I see many people putting the separate offices as a pro but I think that's a very, old set up. What's next, having a liquor cart in your office too and your own "girl" to get your coffee.
Cons
Wow, where do I begin?! The Management: Most of the higher-ups have been there since the beginning of time and ONLY have worked at this agency. No one understands strategy or analytics. It's just "Hey let's just do come cool stuff and convince the client it's cool regardless if it has any strategic value or merit". It would be helpful if any of the leadership has actually handled any large accounts and had some type of understanding of the process. It's pretty obvious that 2 of the managers are having an affair. I am a few years removed and it was going on while I was there and based on the other reviews, it appears it's still going down. The random long lunches, the giggling instant messages in meetings, the awkward conversations. We all know it's happening, just come clean already. I don't know how the President/ECD has been able to convince the CEO for so long that he is somewhat capable of running an agency or has any redeemable leadership skills. Maybe he is old and tired. Who knows. But what I do know is that the reason the President/ECD has been there like half of his life is because if he were to go to any large agency with substance, he would have his behind handed to him on a platter. You cannot lead a creative team when the only ideas you like are your own. What's the point of having a team? Oh I know, they are just the worker bees. Also I'm not even sure what accounts they have left but honesty I don't think they would know what to do with any business with substance. Working here made me actually question whether or not I wanted to be in advertising. Nothing made sense. We just pulled ideas out of nowhere and pitch them to clients without any type of research or strategy involved. It was like "Hey I got an idea, ok let's just do it!" So much time and money wasted on chasing down ideas that haven't been vetted out.
