• Ad agencies have cut thousands of jobs in the coronavirus pandemic, but agencies are still hiring in certain areas.
• The biggest growth areas are healthcare and precision marketing, while chief diversity officer is the hottest job right now, with pay going up to $350,000.
• Business Insider reviewed a number of top open positions ranging from a chief strategy officer paying up to $400,000 to a managing director paying up to $500,000.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The ad industry is going through its most dramatic contraction in decades, with revenue at the major holding companies down by double-digits and thousands of jobs lost as clients cut spending.

Yet the biggest agencies are looking for executives to fill top positions, according to current openings at the five largest ad holding companies, public job listings, and top industry recruiters.

Agency CEOs are looking for heads of new business, managing directors, and execs who specialize in fields like healthcare and ecommerce. Many are re-examining their C-suites, even if they're not ready to make headlining hires, said Claire Telling, CEO of executive search firm Grace Blue.

Healthcare and precision marketing are the top growth areas

Sasha Martens, president of creative recruiting firm Sasha the Mensch, said his agency clients are staffing up to service healthcare and pharma accounts, sectors that have been relatively insulated in the pandemic.

At Omnicom, for example, healthcare was the only area of growth during the second quarter of 2020, and a disproportionate number of job listings across holding companies are in its agencies' health specialty divisions.

Another hot spot at holding companies is precision marketing, where agencies get paid when customers take an action or make a purchase and where startup agencies that focus on performance marketing have introduced new competition.

Chief diversity officer is the single hottest job, with pay going up to $350,000

The big ad agencies also are aggressively hiring chief diversity officers or their equivalent as holding companies examine their diversity staffing records, revealing that fewer than 3% of executives are Black.

"Companies can no longer get away with not having a very strong diversity and inclusion policy," Telling said.

Several big agencies including Omnicom Health Group, Goodby Silverstein and Partners, and IPG's Hill Holliday have open listings for this role. The job is commensurate with other C-suite roles, and salaries can range from $250,000 to $350,000, Telling said.

Telling and Martens have also seen significant change in contract negotiations. Signing bonuses have dropped in the wake of holding companies enacting pay cuts, while incoming executives are more focused on safety net severance packages than in the past.

Here are top openings at the five largest ad holding companies

The salaries and salary ranges for the jobs below are estimates based on, variously, the US Department of Labor's Office of Foreign Labor Certification visa database, pay rates taken from the listings themselves, and those for similar jobs on platforms like LinkedIn and ZipRecruiter.

Dentsu is hiring an SVP of impact, data and technology at Carat, which pays up to $200,000

• HR director, Merkle: $75,000 to $100,000
• Analytics manager, iProspect: $120,000
• Paid search manager, Merkle: $90,000 to $135,000
• VP, group media director, Merkle: $130,000 to $165,000
• SVP, impact, data and technology, Carat: $175,000 to $200,000
• Executive creative director, 360i: $200,000 to $350,000

IPG is hiring a chief strategy officer at FutureBrand, which pays up to $400,000

• Director of digital partnerships, Initiative: $90,000 to $120,000
• VP, account director, oncology, Area23: $150,000 to $175,000
• Group director of product management, Huge: $150,000 to $200,000
• SVP, creative director, McCann Health: $175,000 to $250,000
• General manager, EVP of data and identity products, Acxiom: $250,000 to $310,000
• Chief strategy officer, FutureBrand: $200,000 to $400,000

Omnicom is hiring an SVP, group strategy director at Omnicom Health Group, which pays up to $250,000

• Supervisor of audience insights, NatGeo, OMD: $80,000 to $90,000
• Business development representative, CDM: $80,000 to $100,000
• Product manager, Apple, TBWA\Media Arts Lab: $100,000 to $125,000
• Account director, health and wellness, DDB: $120,000 to $170,000
• Senior account director, Omnicom Health Group: $125,000 to $200,000
• VP, associate creative director, TBWA\Worldhealth: $150,000 to $225,000
• SVP, group strategy director, Omnicom Health Group: $175,000 to $250,000

Publicis is hiring a creative director at Publicis Health, which pays $180,000

• Senior project manager, Razorfish Health: $90,000 to $110,000
• Director of business development, restaurants, Epsilon: $100,000 to $135,000
• Director of digital strategy, Digitas Health: $130,000 to $160,000
• Creative director, Publicis Health: $180,000
• VP, product management, Epsilon: $150,000 to $200,000
• Director of technology, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness: $150,000 to $200,000

WPP is hiring a managing director at Ogilvy Chicago, which pays up to $500,000

• Director of planning, Danone, Wavemaker: $100,000 to $130,000
• Director of shopper marketing, Team Unilever, GroupM: $120,000 to $150,000
• VP, healthcare public relations, BCW: $135,000 to $160,000
• Medical director, VMLY&R: $140,000 to $170,000
• Associate creative director, Wunderman Health: $125,000 to $175,000
• VP, pharma strategy director, Grey: $150,000 to $200,000
• Managing director, Ogilvy Chicago: $250,000 to $500,000

Read more about ad industry jobs:

• Top ad industry salaries, revealed: How much the biggest holding companies including WPP, Publicis, and Omnicom pay employees, from junior account directors to global creative leads
• Adtech salaries revealed: How much Roku, Xandr, and others pay employees, from software engineers to product managers
• Memo from Publicis Groupe explains why it froze raises for all 20,000 Sapient employees despite beating its financial forecast

Got more information about this story or another ad industry tip? Contact Patrick Coffee on Signal at (347) 563-7289, email at pcoffee@businessinsider.com or patrickcoffee@protonmail.com, or via Twitter DM @PatrickCoffee. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

SEE ALSO: PayPal's two top ad-side execs have just left in quick succession

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• Around 270,000 people worked as PR specialists in the US as of 2019, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• PR firms have cut hundreds of jobs due to the pandemic-related downturn, but the field remains high-paying and intensely competitive.
• To find out how much some top firms pay, Business Insider analyzed the US Office of Foreign Labor Certification's 2019 disclosure data for the largest independent and holding company-owned PR firms.
• Salaries range from $62,000 for a senior account executive at finance-focused Prosek Partners to $420,000 for a managing director at consulting firm FTI Consulting.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

About 270,000 people worked as public relations specialists in 2018, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. As of May 2019, their median annual pay was $61,150.

PR salaries can vary widely. A VP at privately-held consulting and PR firm Teneo can earn $205,000, while the same role at Publicis' MSL brings in a base salary of $165,000.

Competition in the job market is more intense than ever as top firms like Edelman, Ketchum, and Weber Shandwick have cut jobs in the face of the pandemic.

Independent and holding company-owned firms alike still pay top dollar for international talent. They are required to file paperwork for all employees on visas, and the US Department of Labor's Office of Foreign Labor Certification releases that information for all employers every year.

Negotiations for the salaries below are based on "prevailing wages," or the minimum amount companies must pay people for the jobs in question. In most cases, the salaries are considerably higher than the prevailing totals, which the Department of Labor uses to protect US employees' wages and prevent educated immigrant labor from accepting lower pay to get visas.

Some of the industry's largest firms did not apply for any visas during fiscal year 2019, which ended in March 2020. But Business Insider analyzed the latest available data from dozens of those that did file for permanent green cards and temporary H-1B, H1B1, and E-3 visas to offer an overview of what employees around the industry make in different roles.

These numbers don't include every type of visa or pay rates for US-born employees or include any form of compensation beyond base salary.

Spokespeople for all the firms listed either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.

Edelman, the industry's largest firm, paid a VP, tech and media specialist up to $155,000

Edelman is the world's largest PR firm by organic revenue, bringing in $892 million in 2019. The company employs around 6,000 people in more than 60 offices worldwide from China to its headquarters in Chicago.

In June Edelman cut 390 jobs, or 7% of its global workforce, and reduced salaries after clients in the travel, hospitality, and auto industries significantly cut their spending.

These are salaries and salary ranges for a variety of jobs across Edelman's US offices:

• Analyst, digital intelligence: $67,000
• Director: $101,774
• VP, operations research: $105,997
• Senior business analyst: $113,630 to $115,211
• Manager, enterprise systems: $151,000
• VP, technology media specialist: $135,000 to $155,000

Holding company-owned firms Marina Maher Communications and Hotwire paid VPs $170,000 and $185,000

Visa data is somewhat limited for the largest ad holding companies because they spend less recruiting international PR talent than they do for traditional advertising, which makes up a much bigger share of their business. At Omnicom, for example, PR accounted for only 9.2% of overall revenue in 2019.

Still, listings across WPP, Omnicom, IPG, Publicis, and Havas provide a clear range of salaries at top firms:

• Graphic designer, Havas Formula: $75,000
• Executive support manager, Hill + Knowlton Strategies, WPP: $76,211
• Senior account executive, MSL, Publicis: $77,000
• Senior DevOps engineer, BCW, WPP: $88,000
• Senior analyst, Ogilvy Public Relations, WPP: $70,000 to $95,000
• Director of strategic communications, Glover Park Group, WPP: $145,854 to $150,000
• Senior planner, Golin, IPG: $135,000 to $155,000
• VP, MSL, Publicis: $165,000
• Global VP, fabric care, Marina Maher Communications, Omnicom: $170,000
• SVP, strategy and development, healthcare, BCW, WPP: $178,000

Smaller holding companies like Enero Group, which owns Hotwire PR, Next 15, which owns M Booth, and Project Worldwide, which owns Praytell, also hired workers on visas.

• Senior director, marketing analytics and insights, M Booth, Next 15: $130,000 to $145,000
• VP, account strategy, Praytell, Project Worldwide: $145,000
• Executive creative director, Praytell, Project Worldwide: $158,434 to $175,000
• VP, global finance, Hotwire PR, Enero: $185,000

Independent firms APCO Worldwide and Mission North paid a specialist and an SVP $115,000 and $205,000

Some independent firms also brought on overseas talent, including APCO Worldwide, the second-largest independent firm behind Edelman, as well as specialized shops like Prosek Partners, which handles comms for some of the world's largest financial services companies, and crisis firm Sard Verbinnen & Co, which is backed by private equity firm Golden Gate Capital.

Here are salaries and salary ranges at several independent firms:

• Senior account executive, Prosek Partners: $62,000
• Associate, finance public relations, Sard Verbinnen & Co.: $75,000
• Account supervisor, Racepoint Global: $79,000
• Senior consultant, corporate communications, APCO Worldwide: $80,000
• Comms specialist, Prosek Partners: $80,000
• Senior associate, Sard Verbinnen & Co. LLC: $114,999
• PR specialist, APCO Worldwide: $115,484
• SVP, Mission North: $205,000

The PR divisions of consulting firms ICF, FTI, and Teneo paid top executives up to $420,000

Consulting firms with PR specialty divisions offer some of the industry's top-paying jobs.

ICF Next is part of consulting firm ICF International. It has applied for more visas than many larger organizations after forming from the 2019 merger of firms based in the US, Brussels, and the UK. FTI Consulting is a management consulting firm that advises its clients across restructuring, technology, and high-stakes moves like mergers, acquisitions and corporate crises.

FTI reported revenue for its PR business dipped 3.8% year-over-year to $56.9 million during the second quarter. For the full fiscal year of 2019, its PR revenue jumped 18.3% year-over-year to more than $243 million.

Teneo is a PR firm that only works with CEOs and charges monthly retainers up to $250,000; past clients have included Uber's Travis Kalanick and Dow's Andrew Liveris. Last year, it sold a majority stake to CVC Capital in a deal that gave the agency a valuation of more than $700 million.

These are salaries and ranges for jobs across ICF Next, FTI Consulting, and Teneo:

• Associate, organizational design and change management, ICF Next: $68,250
• SEO search strategist, ICF Next: $70,031 
• Senior consultant, FTI New York: $100,000
• Senior business analyst, ICF Next: $105,000
• Business intelligence engineer, ICF Next: $120,000
• Associate, Teneo: $63,000 to $126,000
• Senior solutions engineer, ICF Next: $131,858
• Senior director, FTI Washington, DC: $155,000
• VP, Teneo: $205,000 to $215,000
• Managing director, FTI New York: $300,000
• Managing director, FTI California: $420,000

Read more about the top PR firms:

• Edelman insiders describe layoffs at the PR giant after the CEO promised there wouldn't be job cuts
• Meet the 27 most influential fixers in public relations at companies like Google, Microsoft, and Nike
• PR firms are seeing a significant uptick in crisis work as more companies seek guidance in navigating responses to the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement

SEE ALSO: Top ad industry salaries, revealed: How much the biggest holding companies including WPP, Publicis, and Omnicom pay employees, from junior account directors to global creative leads

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The CEOs of the world's largest public relations agencies have weathered the downturn better than their advertising counterparts and are forecasting an upbeat financial future even as the larger ad industry takes a beating.

Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman, said his firm has clawed back about half its pandemic-related losses. BCW's Donna Imperato projects a mild revenue decrease in the low single digits this year. And FleishmanHillard's John Saunders said he expects the agency to have its "best year" in terms of profit.

"They need PR to help them through crises and they need strategic consulting versus going out there with 'rah rah' ads when people are not purchasing products," Imperato said.

Crisis has been good business for PR firms

The pandemic has been a boon for PR firms as CEOs call on them to help with situations like communicating to their employees on health and safety issues and reassuring shareholders on their recovery efforts. PR firms have seen this uptick before, during the #MeToo movement and increase in shareholder activism.

An Edelman spokesperson said its crisis assignments more than doubled over the past year. FleishmanHillard launched a new offering called recovery and resurgence in response to pandemic-related concerns from its clients.

PR agencies hope this uptick in crisis services will last as they show their value in helping protect corporations' brands and shareholder value.

"The coronavirus situation helped client see the real value of having a strategic consultant with an earned media legacy," Imperato said. "[We work on] reputation and everything critical to a corporate brand and can execute through every channel like paid media advertising to e-commerce to earned and digital."

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PR firms have also reported increased demand from firms looking for help on their stances around race-related matters in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests.

FleishmanHillard launched its own diversity, equity, and inclusion offering, True Mosaic, in June, and it's worked with more than 60 clients. Edelman's team for race justice issues has had more than 400 engagements since the Black Lives Matter started with clients like Good Humor, Dove Men + Care, and Mutual of Omaha. BCW created what it calls a Polycultural Consulting Unit to work with clients in industries like consumer electronics, consumer packaged goods, pharmaceutical, technology, and wine and spirits.

"We're going to need to staff up because the [polycultural] team isn't large enough to meet all the requests right now," Imperato said. 

PR agencies are taking aim at ad agencies with new creative and digital arms

In another example of how the lines between PR and advertising are blurring, PR agencies are pushing into new areas of business like ad creative and digital work that's traditionally done by ad agencies.

Edelman is trying to grow its advertising business by hiring ad agency veterans like Judy John and has won some business in the pandemic as clients halted traditional marketing and wanted to show how they were helping people in need.

WPP-owned BCW in 2018 acquired a 200-person creative and digital firm called HZDG and over the past year, has focused on creating an e-commerce team that's pitching the ability to build websites and apps for clients and run performance media campaigns.

FleishmanHillard is expanding beyond its core corporate and media relations services, hiring digital and creative executives to work with its account teams and pitch new services like design and production.

"I would like us to be able to win more creative work from our existing clients and build a melting pot for new opportunities," Saunders said.

These same CEOs expressed some caution about their business outlook, saying if coronavirus cases continue to rise, clients may pull back on PR campaigns.

It's also unclear how much market share PR agencies like Edelman can win from advertising agencies that have traditionally dominated.

Greg Paull, principal at R3 Worldwide, which runs ad agency account reviews, said his company has included Edelman in a "number of large-scale local and global reviews" because the agency has significantly improved its creative offering in recent years, hiring big-name talent.

"In the end, marketers want big thinking and innovation that will drive business outcomes for them – they don't care if it comes from an advertising agency or an agency historically strong at PR," Paull said.

SEE ALSO: FleishmanHillard is pushing into advertising services, and it shows how public relations firms are encroaching on ad agencies

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After big cutbacks in the pandemic, marketers are about to start spending again, and it could determine winners and losers in the ad industry.

Several big brands, including T-Mobile, Visa, and JPMorgan Chase, are reviewing their ad agencies, and 37% of marketers in a Marketing Charts survey said they planned to increase spending in the fourth quarter, which could make such pitches even more valuable to agencies.

Executives said the volume of money at stake may approach 2015's historic high that industry insiders called "Mediapalooza," when Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and other big names put nearly $20 billion in ad spend up for review. 

Agencies that don't quickly adjust to the new pandemic marketplace — especially the legacy holding companies like WPP and Publicis — risk being left behind.

Small and flexible agencies stand to gain from the spending boom

Ad-spending trends are working against the holding companies. Big advertisers used to consolidate their business with a single agency in the interest of simplicity and savings. But as chief marketing officers scrutinize their budgets more, they're dividing them among multiple agencies, Tom Denton, the CEO of consulting firm ID Comms, said.

Big holding companies have acquired specialty firms to position themselves as one-stop shops, but such agencies still stand out in a crowded market.

For example, Donna Sharp, the managing director of MediaLink, which advises marketers and agencies, now sees big advertisers hiring niche agencies just to handle their data needs, she said.

And experts said the pandemic has revealed more than ever before how the holding companies' hourly billing model favors them over the clients, because the more a marketer spends, the more an agency makes.

Employees are increasingly working remotely, and agencies that can cut office and IT costs may have a significant advantage in pitches because they can afford to charge less. Agencies like McCann Worldgroup and the holding company Dentsu have said they would seek to reduce office space.

Tech, consulting capabilities are more important than ever before

Many advertisers shifted big chunks of ad spend to platforms like Amazon in recent months as TV ratings declined in the absence of live sports, Sharp said, a trend that benefits specialty firms and makes agencies' tech capabilities particularly important.

Holding companies have adapted. Omnicom Media Group developed a custom Amazon interface that allows its agencies to quickly cancel or redirect ad buys in a crisis scenario when a product like toilet paper isn't available, and North America CEO Scott Hagedorn said prospective clients have asked how Omnicom could automate this process.

In other big changes to the agency world, clients also are shifting to consulting and in-housing services, which positions new and small agencies to benefit.

MediaLink's Sharp sees more demand by marketers for consulting on short-term projects, like adjusting to Apple's new policy for mobile-ad tracking.

Holding companies are trying to adjust to this reality. IPG recently launched a consulting firm called Black Glass, which is run by a former Deloitte Digital executive.

If there's a bright side for agencies, the trend of marketers doing more of their advertising themselves may have hit a bump. Sharp also said some MediaLink clients have delayed plans to in-house their marketing, and Hagedorn said some in-house teams weren't prepared to switch gears when the pandemic hit.

Denford, whose company just acquired the auditing firm PJL Media, said more clients were asking for audit services like ones provided by PJL because they realized that in-housing alone wouldn't ensure a better return on their investment.

More advertising will be up for grabs in 2021

Mitchell Caplan, the managing director of the consulting firm Flock Associates, said the businesses most likely to review their agencies in 2021 were banks, which have yet to feel the full effects of the pandemic; retail chains fearing another lockdown; automakers whose sales have dropped with plants closing; and pharmaceutical companies.

Olivier Gauthier, the CEO of the market-research firm Comvergence, said the big holding companies were in a Catch-22 because they need to grow but limited resources force them to focus on their largest clients.

According to MediaLink CEO Michael Kassan, the theme for marketers and agencies alike in the coming months will be "adapt or die."

SEE ALSO: After slashing costs, ad giant WPP is paying McKinsey to figure out how to shift back into growth mode

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The public relations industry is going through some big changes.

PR firms are investing more in data and analytics to defend the value of their services to clients and fend off the threat of consultancies and other potential rivals.

They're also pouring resources into building out new businesses like creative, digital, and ecommerce services.

Some firms cut staff and pay as clients cut back in the pandemic. But they've begun rehiring and restoring pay cuts. And some areas of their business have been booming, like financial communications and diversity, equity, and inclusion, and creating lucrative if high-pressure jobs.

Business Insider has been tracking all these trends at some of the largest PR firms including Edelman, Weber Shandwick, and Sard Verbinnen, and rounded up our coverage, including the hot practice areas that are boosting firms' revenue, how to get hired, and compensation. Here's the latest.

Hiring, compensation

• PR industry salaries revealed: How much top firms like Teneo, BCW, and FTI pay employees, from consultants to managing directors
• Meet 12 top public relations recruiters to know right now
• How to get a job at PR giant Edelman and what to expect if you land an interview, according to the company's recruiters
• What it takes to get high-paying jobs at strategic consulting firms like Finsbury and Kekst CNC, from handling tricky questions to nailing writing tests
• Tricky job interview questions to expect at strategic PR firms like WPP's Finsbury and Publicis' Kekst CNC, according to insiders 
• How to get a job at Publicis Groupe's Kekst CNC, the PR firm behind some of the biggest deals in the world, according to hiring execs there
• 22 top public relations pros on the job market right now

Financial outlook

• The PR industry got hammered by the pandemic. CEOs of the largest firms say they feel optimistic for the first time this year.
• Edelman CEO lays out how the world's biggest PR firm has recovered half of its decline after revenue fell as much as 30% in some markets.
• CEOs of PR firms like Edelman and BCW reveal why they're focused on winning business from advertising and consulting companies coming out of the pandemic.
• The CEO of BCW lays out how the PR giant plans to survive a tough year and win share from consulting companies.

Growth areas

• Public relations giant BCW is starting a new business building e-commerce sites, and it shows how the lines between PR and advertising are blurring.
• FleishmanHillard is pushing into advertising services, and it shows how public relations firms are encroaching on ad agencies.
• The Black Lives Matter movement has been an unavoidable subject for the C-suite — and PR giants are reaping the benefits
• Inside Hill + Knowlton's struggle to turn around the fading PR giant and a look at its strategy.
• These are the top 15 financial public relations pros CEOs call when their companies are on fire
• PR firms like Joele Frank and Sard Verbinnen are seeing a windfall from bankruptcy cases but some risk being sued by former clients — here's how agencies can protect themselves
• 18 top public relations experts CEOs scramble to hire in a crisis
• Internal communications business is booming for PR firms like Edelman, Prosek, and Kekst CNC as CEOs scramble to reassure remote workforces and plan for a return to the office
• Meet public relations' 27 most influential fixers at companies like Google, Johnson & Johnson, and Nike
• PR giants like Edelman and Sard Verbinnen are seeing a surge in demand as companies seek to minimize damage from the coronavirus pandemic
• The coronavirus will reshape the PR industry, from squeezing small firms to boosting internal communications

How PR is using technology

• PR agencies are beefing up their data services to keep consulting firms like Deloitte and Accenture from eating their lunch
  
• PR giant MSL breaks down how it's using tech tools to prove its work drives results for clients like P&G and Cadillac
• Cision and Meltwater, the two largest PR software companies, are planning a merger, and the DoJ has explored whether it would hurt competition
• A year after PR giant Edelman struck a 'first of its kind' partnership with Cision, the deal is no longer exclusive
• A leaked pitch deck from Cision shows the PR software giant is trying to sell a company it bought last year for $225 million

Diversity and inclusion

• A public relations giant lays out a 4-step plan to close the pay gap between white and BIPOC influencers
• A PR trade group representing firms including Weber Shandwick and FleishmanHillard is embroiled in disagreements over whether firms should have to reveal how diverse their workforce is and pledge to hiring people of color
• The world's two largest PR firms, Edelman and Weber Shandwick, pledged to hire more people of color in senior positions
• Insiders at Omnicom agency GMMB say the workplace is rife with 'systemic' racism, where people of color are tokenized and treated like 'the help'
• GMMB HR director Chandra Krohl is leaving the firm as it faces a reckoning over diversity and inclusion practices
• Omnicom Group-owned ad and public relations agency GMMB named its first Black partner and pledged other steps after staffers highlighted 'systemic racism' at the firm

Layoffs

• Edelman insiders describe layoffs at the PR giant after the CEO promised there wouldn't be job cuts
• PR giant Edelman is laying off 390 employees as business falls off because of the pandemic: Read the CEO's memo to staff
• Hospitality-focused PR firms are shedding staff and looking for new revenue streams as the pandemic wallops the industry

News

• 6 big advertisers who are scrambling to hire PR firms, and who could win the business
• Leaked documents show what WPP's PR firm Hill + Knowlton Strategies is charging clients for 2020.
• FBI agents talked to ex-employees at Ruder Finn right after the PR giant pitched a project to China — and it shows how the US is turning up the heat on firms trying to work for foreign governments
• Leaked document shows how Expedia planned to win back customers and repair its reputation after pandemic-related cancellations
• Robinhood's PR chief is leaving the popular trading app and the company is searching for a replacement

Join the conversation about this story »

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Early in the pandemic, FleishmanHillard laid off 60 employees and cut staff pay in anticipation of steep pullbacks in spend from clients.

Since then, the fourth-largest PR firm by revenue has restored those cuts and it now forecasts winning more than $160 million in new business, keeping new business flat with last year. Wins came from companies like Advance Auto Parts, March of Dimes, and the National Pork Board, and two dozen new clients were valued at $1 million-plus. 

All told, FleishmanHillard expects to overall revenue to decline but more important, profits to increase this year, per a knowledgeable source.

"Unless we mess it up for the next several weeks, this will be the best year in the history of FleishmanHillard," its CEO John Saunders said told Business Insider.

Saunders laid out how the Omnicom Group-owned agency has gotten through the crisis by growing in healthcare and technology, the bets it's placed on digital and creative, and why he doesn't mind his agency being considered boring.

FleishmanHillard is pushing into creative and research 

With help from a multimillion dollar investment from Omnicom, FleishmanHillard is pushing into creative services, the latest example of a firm encroaching on the work traditionally handled by ad agencies.

FleishmanHillard pitches its creative arm as a full-service offering that includes digital, social and experiential, and TV and video production, and it's been hiring creative directors for its account teams this year, including Colleen McTaggart, a veteran of FCB Chicago, and Dan Margulis, former head of creative at Doner Company.

FleishmanHillard also is leaning into influencer trends, merging its media relations and social & innovation practices and hiring Emily Duban from Weber Shandwick as its global platform lead, to help the agency apply the trend for its clients' benefit.

As clients demand PR agencies to show return on investment, FleishmanHillard is also building its research, analytics, and measurement practice, True Global Intelligence, hiring a new SVP of global intelligence in Chris Scotte. This unit has grown revenue by 26% in 2020, with 80% of its top 200 clients using it, a spokesperson said.

Read more: Public-relations giant BCW is entering into a new business building e-commerce apps and websites, and it shows how the lines between PR and advertising are blurring

Despite a pandemic-related revenue hit, FleishmanHillard had strength in technology and healthcare, crisis, and election-related work. Top performers were technology, representing 24% of revenue; and healthcare, 23%.

FleishmanHillard also picked up crisis work as corporations scrambled to respond to the pandemic, and similar to other firms like Edelman and BCW, has launched a diversity, equity, and inclusion practice called True Mosaic.

FleishmanHillard-owned but independently run GMMB netted more than $37.7 million in fees through work for Vice President Joe Biden.

A stable client base has also helped, with 80% of its top 10 accounts and 60% of its top 25 accounts having been clients for a decade or longer, Saunders said.

FleishmanHillard also established a new position in April called the client experience portfolio director to help account leads sell more services to its biggest clients.

While it looks for growth opportunities, FleishmanHillard still has a heavy focus on corporate work, helping companies with reputation management, positioning, financial communications, executive communications, Saunders said.

"It would be wonderful if we won more awards for creative work — we win some — but that's not the driver," Saunders said. "I remember John Wren [chairman and CEO of Omnicom] a long time ago said an analyst described Omnicom as boring but brilliant and he thought it was the greatest compliment ever paid. I've heard people say at times FleishmanHillard is boring, but it's brilliant as a corporate agency."

SEE ALSO: PR industry salaries revealed: How much top firms like Teneo, BCW, and FTI pay employees, from consultants to managing directors

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2020 rivals 2008-2009 as one of the most crushing years in memory for the ad industry.

WPP's GroupM, the world's largest ad-buying network, said overall US ad revenue declined by 9% this year to $214.6 billion, excluding political campaigns — $20.6 billion less than 2019.

The human toll for ad agencies has been higher than in the previous recession. Forrester estimated that 49,000 jobs globally have already been lost and that that US agencies will have cut 52,000 jobs through 2021. By comparison, around 24,000 jobs were lost in 2008 in the US.

Tech giants had big gains

Facebook, Google, and Amazon were this year's winners as advertisers shifted spending to flexible and performance-driven platforms.

The big three easily beat expectations for ad revenue growth in Q3 despite congressional hearings, antitrust suits, and political scrutiny, with Facebook almost entirely unscathed by the summer's big-name advertiser boycott as small businesses bought more ads on its platform to make up for pandemic losses.

Amazon's ad revenue shot up almost 50% in Q3 as more people shopped from home and marketers moved money to the platform and its ad-backed competitors like Instacart and Kroger. Amazon has been building an ad juggernaut in recent years under execs like sales director Ryan Mayward, who's been making inroads with big advertisers through the holding companies.

Their growth poses a risk to agencies, which still manage a big chunk of client spending on those platforms, but say such platforms are pushing advertisers to work directly with adtech firms and bypass agencies altogether.

Digital overtook all other forms of advertising for the first time this year, which also benefitted Google rival The Trade Desk, whose market valuation outstripped that of the two biggest agency holding companies, WPP and Omnicom, combined. WPP and Omnicom lost 30% and 20% of their value, respectively, in 2020.

Ark Advisors partner Ken Robinson said the pandemic has also been good for consulting firms like his, which help marketers find new agencies and review their business, as CMOs scrambled to save money or keep their jobs by launching agency reviews this year.

Insiders say many jobs aren't coming back

2020's biggest losers included agency employees, with every holding company going through a mix of layoffs, furloughs, and pay cuts.

Omnicom cut 6,100 jobs, or 8%, in the second quarter alone — well over the estimated 3,500 people it laid off in the wake of the last recession.

Some have begun to recover; sources said Dentsu US CEO Jacki Kelley recently promised employees that cuts of 10% and higher would be phased out by January 1.

But knowledgeable sources said that even agencies with open job listings, like WPP's Ogilvy and Omnicom's Siegel & Gale, have laid off employees in recent weeks.

Tim Young, a recruiter for agencies and tech companies like Google, said candidates started reaching out earlier than usual this fall in a sign of a particularly weak job field, and that only people with skills in fields like AI and UX are in demand right now.

Christie Cordes, another recruiter, said many have been unable to find work for months, especially executives over 50 and Black people, despite agencies' diversity pledges that followed the Black Lives Matter protests.

Young predicted that hiring won't pick up again until next spring, while Bob Hoffman, who writes the Ad Contrarian newsletter, doubted holding companies would return to pre-COVID staffing levels.

The pandemic will fuel entrepreneurship within and beyond the ad industry

There's some light in the darkness.

GroupM predicted a K-shaped recovery with improvement in the second half of 2021 as advertisers in hard-hit industries like travel start spending again.

Here are four bright spots:

• Agencies are capitalizing on changes in consumer behavior by launching their own e-commerce and consulting or digital transformation divisions.
• Tim Young said agencies that focus on healthcare and pharma did fairly well this year as their clients continued to spend.
• Digital-focused networks like You & Mr. Jones and Martin Sorrell's S4 Capital outperformed industry trends; You & Mr. Jones said it grew 27% in the first half of the year, and S4 reported 23% organic revenue growth in Q3.
• Forrester predicted this year's job losses will also lead to a big increase in startup agencies and ventures like freelancer network We Are Rosie and consulting firm Fndr.

Some traditional agencies have been resilient as well. Goodby Silverstein & Partners co-founder Jeff Goodby said he hasn't laid off any employees after doing more consulting projects and internal production work for "COVID-proof" clients like Doritos and Boston Beer.

Ken Robinson said the ad industry will return when clients are spending again.

"Agencies expand and contract like waistlines," he said. "When times are lean, they tighten the belt."

SEE ALSO: The rise and fall of J. Walter Thompson, the world's oldest advertising agency

SEE ALSO: 2020 was supposed to be a blockbuster year for media and advertising, but the challenges have only accelerated the industry transformation

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Procter & Gamble started taking programmatic ad buying for its baby products like Pampers and Luvs in-house this month, sources said, in a loss to Omnicom Media Group's agency Hearts & Science.

The move is the latest step in P&G's ongoing effort to handle more of its massive ad budget itself and shift it away from its agencies.

It's unclear how much P&G's business was worth to Omnicom. According to AdAge's Datacenter, the consumer goods giant spent $10.7 billion globally in 2019, surpassed only by Amazon. Research firm Comvergence said P&G spent $60 million on digital ads for its baby care products in the US from July 2019 to June 2020, including one-third on programmatic.

Omnicom Media and P&G declined to comment.

Read more: Meet 20 firms helping big brands like Sprint and Unilever take their advertising in-house

P&G has taken more control over its advertising over the years, creating multi-agency teams and in-house divisions to handle media planning and buying and creative work for brands like Secret and giving some of its divisions more flexibility to handle their advertising.

Its chief brand officer Marc Pritchard told Business Insider in 2019 this approach had saved more than $1 billion on agency fees and production expenses.

P&G has also gradually moved its business away from Omnicom. Dentsu won much of the work that Hearts & Science had in 2019, and sources said Omnicom declined to pitch for several categories in review at the time because of P&G's 120-day payment terms.

A person with direct knowledge of the situation said Hearts & Science still oversees ad-buying strategy for P&G's skincare and baby products and hasn't cut staff, while P&G employees now handle the actual bids on programmatic ad inventory for the baby category as well as oral and fabric.

The agency also handles some sports-related work for P&G's fabric division.

A Carat spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

SEE ALSO: Advertising giant Dentsu just announced huge job cuts. Insiders are speculating about how they'll play out and the growing influence of data agency Merkle.

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NOW WATCH: We tested a machine that brews beer at the push of a button

Hi! Welcome to the Insider Advertising daily for December 11. I'm Lauren Johnson, a senior advertising reporter at Business Insider. Subscribe here to get this newsletter in your inbox every weekday. Send me feedback or tips at LJohnson@businessinsider.com.

First: We want to hear from public relations executives. Please take our anonymous survey and tell us what you want to read about the PR industry in in 2021.

Today's news: P&G strikes another blow at agencies, Disney's top movie exec could be headed for the door, and why adtech firm PubMatic is going public.

• Patrick Coffee reports that Procter & Gamble is taking programmatic ad buying for its baby products brands in house.
• P&G spends an estimated $60 million on digital advertising for baby products and Omnicom media agency Hearts & Science previously handled the account.
• The move is the latest step in P&G's ongoing effort to handle more of its massive ad budget itself and shift it away from agencies.

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Facebook, Twitter, and Google have banned President Trump and accounts supporting QAnon and the "Stop the Steal" misinformation group while pausing political ads until after President-elect Biden's inauguration — but some interest groups want Omnicom and Home Depot to pressure them to go further.

Investors in those companies, two giant ad spenders on those platforms, filed resolutions in December calling for outside investigations into the tech giants' ad policies.

Read more: How Silicon Valley banished Donald Trump in 48 hours

Nonprofit Open Mic led the efforts on behalf of The Nathan Cummings Foundation, which owns shares in Omnicom, and Myra K. Young, who owns shares in Home Depot.

"We'd like Omnicom to ensure their advertising policies are not contributing to violations of civil or human rights," said Laura Campos, director of corporate and political responsibility at The Nathan Cummings Foundation.

She cited major brands like Disney and Nestle's ads appearing before YouTube videos promoting conspiracy theories, racist content, and soft-core pornography in 2018 and 2019. Facebook also recently ran ads for military-style weapons alongside stories that promoted false claims about the presidential election.

Campos said she also wants Omnicom to investigate whether its keyword blacklists, which can prevent ads from running on stories that include terms like "Trump,""election," and "coronavirus," harm the public interest by depriving credible news outlets of revenue. Campos said she believed the proposal would get traction in the wake of the attempted coup at the US Capitol Jan. 6.

If successful, the proposal, embedded below, would go up for a vote at the companies' annual shareholder meetings later this year.

Open Mic is active in the tech world and recently pushed Amazon to impose a one-year moratorium on providing its facial recognition technology to law enforcement.

Read more: Advertisers weigh canceling Inauguration Day ads as the Capitol siege raises fears of more violence

"Omnicom is committed to ensuring our clients' ads do not appear next to harmful content on social media platforms while holding them accountable to the ethical standards our clients are demanding and with which we are aligned," said an Omnicom spokeswoman.

The spokeswoman cited last year's launch of the Council on Accountable Social Advertising, a lobbying group formed by Omnicom Media Group, but did not directly address the shareholder proposal.

Open Mic executive director Michael Connor said the tech platforms have been slow to change for fear of damaging their ad businesses but that the agencies and brands that drive this spending often escape scrutiny.

Read more: Advertisers pull commercials around news coverage of attempted coup at US Capitol

Two Omnicom executives currently sit on Facebook's client council. "Despite what they say, I think they have the power to ask the platforms to do better," Campos said.

Representatives of top Omnicom shareholders, including Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street Global Advisors, declined to comment or did not respond to related requests.

Campos said The Nathan Cummings Foundation files 10 to 15 proposals each year. Recent successes include pressuring Discovery Inc. to diversify its board by adding BET founder Robert L. Johnson in December. Another proposal asking Amazon to better police hate speech on its platform received 34.94% of the shareholder vote.

Omnicom is the largest US-based ad buyer, overseeing more than $41 billion in spending each year by clients like Apple and McDonald's, according to management consultancy R3. Advertiser database Pathmatics reported Home Depot was the top advertiser on Facebook in 2019, spending around $178.5 million.

A Home Depot spokeswoman refuted that figure but said the company plans to formally address Young's proposal.

Home Depot founder and major Trump donor Ken Langone recently said he felt "betrayed" by the president, calling the Capitol attack a "disgrace."

Spokespeople for Google, Facebook, and Twitter declined to comment, but the latter two companies have recently posted about their updated brand safety efforts.

SEE ALSO: Advertisers pull commercials around news coverage of attempted coup at US Capitol

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NOW WATCH: We took a 1964 Louisiana literacy test and failed spectacularly

Hi! Welcome to the Insider Advertising daily for January 19. I'm Lauren Johnson, a senior advertising reporter at Business Insider. Subscribe here to get this newsletter in your inbox every weekday. Send me feedback or tips at LJohnson@businessinsider.com.

Today's news: Mobile ad tech firm Pocketmath shuts down, shareholders seek to pressure Omnicom and Home Depot, and how the vaccine could boost pharmacies' business.

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NOW WATCH: Sarah McBride made history becoming the first openly trans person elected to a state Senate seat. In 2018, she explained why the Trump administration wouldn't discourage her work.

The New York ad agency Hero Group sued the Omnicom-owned agency DDB in federal court this week, alleging DDB "exploited" Hero to win a US Army contract and didn't pay it for two years of work.

The suit filed in the US District Court for the Northern of Illinois stems from a $4 billion Army account that DDB won in 2018 and alleged the agency performed a "classic bait and switch" that included misrepresentation, breach of contract, and fraud. The suit says it is seeking $100 million in damages based on an estimate of the revenue Hero Group would have earned if it worked with DDB on the entire 10-year contract.

Hero Group founder and CEO Joe Anthony told Insider that then-DDB US President Paul Gunning brought him on to help pitch the account in 2016 because of his experience working with the Army's past ad agencies, McCann and Leo Burnett.

Hero Group specialized in targeting young people and would also help DDB meet the legal requirement to assign about 40% of the Army business to small and disadvantaged businesses or those owned by minorities, the suit said.

The suit also alleged Hero Group, which is also known as Hero Collective and has done work for Johnson & Johnson and Mattel, performed work for DDB from 2017 to 2020 but never received payment or additional assignments.

Read more: Pitch deck reveals how ad giant Omnicom won the US Army's $4 billion marketing business. Its first ads are about to hit digital and social media.

Gunning, the suit claimed, promised to make Hero Group DDB's primary partner if they won the review. The suit alleged Gunning wrote an email to Anthony that said: "I will look for you to make a serious impact on our pitch."

It also claimed DDB's pitch deck used a "substantial portion" of Hero Group's own proposals, like "Real Life Iron Man."

But in May, Anthony said, Army officials told him they did not know his agency had signed a contract with DDB.

Anthony told Insider he did not realize DDB was dropping his agency until he received a message from the Army saying that DDB could not find work that fit Hero Group's capabilities.

An Army spokesman previously confirmed to Insider that DDB never named Hero Group as its partner.

"These contracts are very lucrative; they're some of the last whales in the ocean," Anthony said of federal contracts. "Too much latitude is given to big agencies, which ultimately leads to dollars not making their way to the hands of those who truly need it."

A DDB spokesperson declined to comment, and Omnicom and the US Army did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

SEE ALSO: Meet the top executives leading advertising giant Publicis' turnaround as it takes on rivals WPP and Omnicom

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Public relations agencies have ramped up investments in data analytics as skeptical clients demand more precise measurement and proof that PR can produce tangible business results like sales and reputation lifts.

Advertising giant Omnicom's response is a new analytics platform, OmniearnedID, that it hopes will give its PR agencies an edge over its competitors.

Omnicom's agencies include FleishmanHillard, Ketchum, and Porter Novelli, and their clients include Wendy's, Levi Strauss & Co, and AT&T.

OmniearnedID is trying to measure for campaign results like sales and brand reputation and assess how many people will read a negative story or blog post in a crisis situation.

Read more: CEOs of PR firms like Edelman and BCW reveal why they're focused on winning business from advertising and consulting companies coming out of the pandemic

"Once someone consumes a piece of content, we can track them in any offline or online retail environment," said Mary Elizabeth Germaine, partner and managing director of global analytics at Ketchum, who tested OmniearnedID on several clients.

OmniearnedID also claims to analyze who is consuming media about a given brand or issue, and understand cultural trends and predict future trends.

It's common industry practice for brands to use survey data to build audiences and work with influencers based on their follower counts and followers' interests. 

Jonathan Nelson, CEO of Omnicom Digital, said OmniearnedID differentiates from other platforms. It uses anonymized data like demographics, firmographics, locations, brand affinities, media habits, and purchase behaviors, which is more precise, said Erin Lanuti, chief innovation officer at Omnicom Public Relations Group.

OmniearnedID's pitch is also that it gives brands and agencies more data to choose which influencers to work with.

OmniearnedID has been in development for more than a year and is an extension of Omni, a 2-year-old precision marketing and insights platform for brands that Omnicom spent more than $50 million and almost a decade to develop, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The idea is that expanding the Omnicom platform lets PR, advertising, and marketing agencies speak a similar language and integrate their campaigns.

Read more: 27 software firms that companies like Amazon and Unilever use to supercharge their public relations efforts

PR agencies and brands have historically bought the kinds of services OmniearnedID provides from software vendors. However, the vendor industry has consolidated rapidly over the past decade, driven by acquisitions made by the two largest players, Cision and Meltwater.

The launch of OmniearnedID shows holding companies' appetite to develop their own software. Weber Shandwick launched a data analytics division in January 2020. Later that year, MDC Partners launched PRophet, a tool that helps PR teams predict how a story will perform before they pitch it to a journalist.

Omnicom reported its third-quarter 2020 revenue declined 11.5% year-over-year to $3.2 billion, with its PR unit falling by 3.4% year-over-year. During the second quarter, Omnicom laid off about 8% of its workforce, or 6,100 jobs.

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Hello and welcome to Insider Advertising. I'm senior advertising reporter Lauren Johnson, and here's what's going on:

• CEOs stay clear of Fox News' Maria Bartiromo
• Ad agency Hero Group sues Omnicom's DDB
• How much Snapchat creators make from Spotlight

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The health-insurance giant Cigna has launched a review of its global marketing business, and it could mean a loss for its current advertising and public-relations firms IPG, Omnicom, and Edelman.

Three people with direct knowledge of the matter said Cigna issued a request for proposal encompassing creative and digital advertising, media planning and buying, PR, brand strategy, and sponsorships. 

The sources said Cigna's goal was to consolidate all those responsibilities with a single agency to streamline its ad business and save money.

IPG, Omnicom, and Edelman are expected to compete for the business.

Other big advertisers like Coca-Cola are also looking to slash the number of agencies they use.

Cigna is the fourth-largest health-insurance provider by head count, with more than 20 million members. The company spent just under $60 million on marketing in the US in 2019, according to the market-research firm Kantar, though that total does not include paid social campaigns.

Cigna hired IPG's McCann, Omnicom's OMD, and Edelman in 2014 when it significantly increased its marketing spend.

McCann and OMD later led Cigna's first global campaign, which aired in countries like Hong Kong, Thailand, and Spain. Edelman contributed to the subsequent "TV Doctors of America" integrated campaign, which starred actors from popular medically themed shows like "ER" and "Grey's Anatomy."

Cigna missed Wall Street's expectations for the fourth quarter of 2020, executives said, because costs related to COVID-19 testing and treatment outpaced profit increases.

The consulting firm Burnett Collective is managing Cigna's agency review.

A Cigna spokeswoman declined to comment. Spokespeople for Burnett, Edelman, McCann, and OMD declined to comment or did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

SEE ALSO: Ogilvy's new chief Andy Main is leading a massive turnaround at the storied ad agency, but some insiders are wary of the new direction

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NOW WATCH: How waste is dealt with on the world's largest cruise ship

TD Bank is reviewing its North American media and creative ad agencies, and it could mean a loss for Publicis Groupe, Havas Group and Omnicom Group's TBWA\Chiat\Day, according to ad agency executives with direct knowledge.

The agencies are pitching to defend their pieces of the account and possibly pick up more of the business from rivaling partners, execs at these agencies said.

One of the execs speculated that TD Bank was looking to consolidate its advertising with one or two agencies, as many companies have been doing. Hasbro, Energizer, Uber, Clorox, and TD Bank competitor Bank of America are among companies that whittled their agencies to one last year.

The sources also said the review is integrated, which means it entails both media and creative or more. Such reviews often result in consolidation. They said Joanne Davis Consulting, which typically oversees integrated reviews, is running the process. Founder Joanne Davis declined to comment.

TD Bank named Tyrrell Schmidt as US CMO and head of global brand last August, with responsibility for Canada as well as the US. Typically when there's a new CMO, a review follows.

Millions are at stake for these agencies. TD Bank spent $22 million on measured media in the US in 2019. Like many marketers in the pandemic, it cut its spending, to under $10 million in the first nine months of 2020, per Kantar.

Havas Media has handled all of TD Bank's US buying and planning since December 2016.

TBWA\Chiat\Day, meanwhile, has handled TD Bank's US advertising since December 2016, helping to create its "Unexpectedly Human" brand positioning in 2019 and related ads like "Dancer"— about a bank employee who interrupts a spontaneous dancing session to help customers arriving at closing with a transaction — in 2020.

Publicis handles TD Bank's media in Canada. Its agency Leo Burnett has developed ads such as last year's "Jealous Son," about a man vying to take over his mother's business after a TD Bank associate prompted some unexpected competition, since 2012.

TD Bank did not return multiple requests for comment. Publicis, Havas, and TBWA\Chiat\Day declined to comment.

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Advertising companies have struggled as the pandemic and downturn led brands to pull back on marketing in 2020.

IPG and Dentsu, for instance, reported year-over-year organic revenue declines of 6.5% and 11.1%, respectively, as the coronavirus caused clients to cut spending and event cancellations.

Still, Insider identified hundreds of open positions on Glassdoor at the five biggest ad holding companies — WPP, Publicis Groupe, IPG, Omnicom Group and Dentsu — some of which are expected to pay six-figure salaries.

Many of these roles are in healthcare marketing, media, strategy, and data and analytics. Holding companies have cited their healthcare divisions as bright spots in an otherwise pandemic-stricken declining industry. IPG reported that healthcare was the primary driver of revenue, generating 26% of yearly revenue, followed by the tech and telecom division, which contributed 16% of revenue.

Christie Cordes, an advertising recruiter for agencies and brands and founder of Ad Recruiter, said she's bullish on the 2021 ad job market.

Cordes said many brand marketers are looking for talent directors, who handle recruiting— a sign of marketer optimism and more business to come for agencies. Cordes also predicted agencies would start hiring more outside of healthcare and pharmaceutical marketing, where most of the job opportunities are today.

Here's a sampling of the top jobs the big five ad holding companies are looking to fill, in order of company revenue, according to Glassdoor job postings. Salaries are based on estimates from Glassdoor unless otherwise noted.

WPP

The world's largest advertising holding company has 238 open just within WPP not counting roles at its agencies like Ogilvy, VMLY&R, Wunderman Thompson, and GroupM.

Ogilvy, for one, has 76 open roles, many of which are concentrated in strategy, data and analytics, and public relations — an area where global CEO Andy Main is expanding.

WPP's open roles include:

• VP of healthcare communications at Ogilvy: $86,000 to $162,000.
• Business analysis director at Ogilvy: $85,000 to $158,000.
• Director of North America people planning and resource management at Ogilvy: $115,000 to $199,000.
• President of New York at Wunderman Thompson. Glassdoor did not list a salary estimate for this role but Cordes said she expects it will pay between $375,000 and $450,000.
• People director at Wunderman Thompson: $59,000 to $105,000.
• Data scientist at Wunderman Thompson: $74,000 to $120,000.
• Data lead at VMLY&R: $60,000 to $103,000.
• Senior strategist at VMLY&R: $65,000 to $119,000.
• Data scientist at GroupM: $67,000 to $118,000.

Omnicom Group

The holding company lists hundreds of job opportunities available across its agencies like DDB and TBWA\Chiat\Day. Healthcare in particular is expanding, with Omnicom Health Group posting 596 open jobs to Glassdoor.

Omnicom's open roles include:

• Chief client officer or president in New York at Omnicom Health Group. Glassdoor did not list a salary estimate but Cordes said she expects the job to pay between $350,000 and $450,000.
• SVP and director of integrated strategy at Omnicom Health Group: $136,000 to $257,000.
• VP and analytics director at DDB: $125,000 to $186,000.
• Senior business manager of PR and social at TBWA\Chiat\Day: $80,000 to $175,000.
• Senior director of strategy at Hearts & Science: $70,000 to $137,000.

Publicis Groupe

The French holding company lists 575 open jobs across the network, not including roles at agencies like Leo Burnett and Epsilon.

Publicis' open roles include:

• VP and head of retail media partnerships at Publicis Media: $121,000 to $207,000.
• Director of activation strategy across paid social at Publicis Media: $92,000 to $167,000.
• VP of analytics at Zenith: $140,000 to $294,000.
• Director of strategy and analytics at Epsilon: $119,000 to $213,000.
• Director of digital delivery at Epsilon: $107,000 to $226,000.
• Experience design director at Leo Burnett: $82,000 to $161,000.
• Senior project manager at Leo Burnett: $48,000 to $125,000.

IPG

All told, IPG agencies including R/GA, Huge, Mediahub, Weber Shandwick, Initiative, UM and Hill Holliday list hundreds of jobs.

IPG's open roles include:

• Director of financial planning and analysis at IPG: $84,000 to $145,000.
• VP, client experience at Weber Shandwick: $94,000 to $158,000.
• SVP, client business partner at UM: $167,000 to $320,000.
• Director of analytics at UM: $78,000 to $168,000.
• Director of business intelligence and accountability at Initiative: $143,000 to $217,000.
• VP of brand strategy for healthcare and pharma at Hill Holliday: $116,000 to $219,000.
• Strategy director of digital and commerce at Huge: $98,000 to $178,000.
• Director of marketing sciences at R/GA: $112,000 to $206,000.
• Executive creative director of experience design at R/GA. Glassdoor did not list a salary estimate but Cordes said an executive creative director for a holding company-owned agency typically pays between $175,000 and $225,000.

Dentsu

Dentsu's Merkle — the performance-marketing agency that is gaining more power at Dentsu — lists 1,100 open jobs listed on Glassdoor. There are hundreds of more job opportunities across Dentsu's individual agencies like Isobar, 360i and Carat.

Dentsu's open roles include:

• Two VPs and heads of diversity, equity and inclusion for the Americas (one for media and one for creative) at Dentsu: $64,000 to $124,000.
• Senior director of loyalty strategy at Merkle: $132,000 to $259,000.
• Strategy VP for the banking and consumer finance vertical at Merkle: $181,000 to $342,000.
• Senior strategist of social marketing and strategy at 360i: $91,000 to 158,000.
• TikTok creator at 360i: $50,000 to $93,000.
• VP and director of planning at Carat: $86,000 to $151,000.

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Advertisers slashed their budgets during the pandemic while suspending the long and expensive process of changing ad agencies.

But 2021 is expected to be an unusually active year for new business with accounts representing billions in ad spending expected to change hands.

Greg Paull, founder of R3 Worldwide, a consulting firm that oversees such reviews, said he expected renewed activity from industries like travel and tourism, which want to restart spending after being hard hit by the pandemic.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, for example, recently restarted its search for an agency after pausing the process nearly a year ago during the pandemic.

Below are 15 top accounts that are up for grabs, based on our own reporting and news accounts elsewhere, in order of estimated value to the winning agencies.

Unless otherwise noted, the companies did not respond to requests for comment.

Coca-Cola is the big prize at $4.2 billion, but most agencies will lose out.

Account: Coca-Cola

Estimated spend: $4.2 billion

The biggest account with the most ad dollars at stake is Coca-Cola, which plans to slash its budget by consolidating much of its ad business with fewer agencies.

Agencies including Wieden + Kennedy as well as holding companies WPP, Publicis, Dentsu, IPG, and MDC Partners are pitching to defend their business and grab a bigger slice of the pie. A Coca-Cola spokeswoman said the company plans to pick its new agencies by the end of 2021.

Ad Age, which first reported the news, said Coca-Cola spent $4.2 billion on paid advertising in 2019.

Home Depot is weighing ad giants Publicis and Omnicom.

Account: Home Depot

Estimated spend: $1.1 billion

The Home Depot continues its search for a new creative agency after firing The Richards Group in October after its founder, Stan Richards, made a racist remark that gained widespread media attention.

Reports say Omnicom's BBDO and Publicis Groupe's Leo Burnett are among the agencies competing for the business. The retailer also recently named Omnicom's OMD as its new media agency.

The Home Depot spent $1.1 billion on advertising in 2020, according to Ad Age's Datacenter.

A Home Depot spokesperson had no updates on its search.

Unilever is shaking up its US e-commerce business, and it could be a big loss for WPP.

Account: Unilever

Estimated spend: $900 million

CPG giant Unilever is looking for a new agency to handle its North American retail ad business in late 2020, several sources told Insider. The maker of brands like Dove, Lipton, and Ben & Jerry's will focus on e-commerce advertising, which has taken off during the pandemic.

Unilever is a critical client for advertising giant WPP, which is defending its business against competitors including IPG. An insider said the review came about because Unilever wanted to explore options outside WPP just as the company folded Geometry, the agency responsible for Unilever's US retail business, into its VMLY&R network. 

Unilever spent $900 million on marketing in North America in 2019, according to market-research firm Comvergence. A knowledgeable source said the retail part of the business would be worth $30 million in annual revenue to an agency.

Ad giants IPG, Dentsu, and Publicis are defending their Nestlé accounts in the US and UK.

Account: Nestlé

Estimated spend: $520 million

Nestlé is simultaneously searching for new media agencies to handle its ad planning and buying business in the US and the UK and Ireland as it competes with rivals like Mars and Lindt.

IPG and Dentsu, which work on the account in the US, are pitching; Dentsu recently won Nestlé's media business in China.

Publicis-owned Zenith, which oversees media for Nestlé brands KitKat and Nespresso, is defending its business in the UK. AdAge reported that Nestlé spent $432 million on paid ads in the US in 2019, and the company's UK budget in 2020 was 63 million euros, or $88 million, according to Nielsen estimates.

Nestlé declined to comment.

It's down to the wire for the US Navy's massive, five-year ad contract.

Account: US Navy

Estimated spend: Five years, $457 million

The US Navy announced in December 2019 that it would review potential agencies when its contract ends in May. The winner will be tasked with helping Navy increase recruits through 2026 through work like events, targeted ad buys, and email marketing.

Federal government clients are some of the most lucrative in the ad industry, and IPG took WPP to court in 2015 after it lost a five-year, $457 million contract. Now, IPG hopes to win back the business — another potential five-year contract — and make up for losing the even larger Army account to Omnicom in 2018.

People with direct knowledge said WPP's VMLY&R and IPG's McCann are the two finalists in the pitch, which is set to wrap up in May. The Navy declined to comment.

Philips wants to send its $300 million advertising and PR business to a single holding company.

Account: Philips

Estimated spend: $300 million

Philips started looking for an agency for its $300 million global advertising, PR, and marketing business in January, and holding companies IPG, Dentsu, and WPP are competing for the account.

The company's ad and media buying is being handled by WPP-owned Ogilvy and Wavemaker, but people close to the business said Philips plans to consolidate all work with one holding company to save money. The pitch is expected to conclude in May.

MDC Partners is pulling out all the stops to save its Infiniti account.

Account: Infiniti

Estimated spend: $150 million

Nissan-owned Infiniti is shopping for an agency to handle its global creative advertising.

Infiniti last June started looking for a new creative agency, potentially dealing a major blow to its agency Crispin Porter Bogusky, which has already lost top execs and its second-largest client, Domino's Pizza, in recent months.

MDC Partners-owned Crispin has handled Infiniti's creative business since 2014. Also vying for the business are holding companies Dentsu, Cheil Worldwide, WPP, Omnicom, and Publicis. Infiniti expects to have an update in the next couple of months.

Comvergence estimates that Nissan spends $1.5 billion annually on global marketing across its brands; 10% of that total, or about $150 million, goes to Infiniti.

Cigna is consolidating its ad, media, and PR work.

Account: Cigna

Estimated spend: $150 million

Cigna aims to cut the number of agencies it uses to one for its global marketing business, meaning a potential loss for its current agencies IPG, Omnicom, and Edelman. The winning agency will control creative and digital advertising, media planning and buying, PR, brand strategy, and sponsorships. 

As one of the five largest US-based health insurance providers, Cigna is a crucial client.

Comvergence estimates Cigna spends $150 million on global marketing each year.

Chocolate maker Lindt will be a sweet prize for a holding company.

Account: Lindt & Sprüngli 

Estimated spend: $145 million

The maker of Ghirardelli and Russell Stover recently launched a review of its media-buying business for Europe, according to several people with direct knowledge who said it spends around $145 million per year on the continent.

The company wants to consolidate all the work with one holding company and centralize its business to compete with larger rivals like Mars, Nestle, and Mondelez. WPP, Dentsu, and Publicis previously had longstanding relationships with Lindt in the UK, Germany, and France, respectively. They're all vying for the business, according to people familiar with the situation, as are Havas and Omnicom, which recently won Lindt's business in China. Consulting firm ID Comms is running the review.

Lindt & Sprüngli declined to comment.

Kaiser Permanente's $85 million ad business is up for grabs.

Account: Kaiser Permanente

Estimated spend: $85 million

Kaiser Permanente is shopping for agencies to handle its US advertising, media-buying, B2B, and digital experience work, according to people with direct knowledge and a leaked document reviewed by Insider. The outcome could spell a big loss for IPG, which has made Kaiser's ads for the past 17 years, and is expected to try and keep the business.

While many advertisers cut their budgets last year, Kaiser increased its spend, by around 20% to at least $85 million, according to Kantar.

JetBlue is looking for growth after getting slammed by the pandemic.

Account: JetBlue

Estimated spend: $66 million

JetBlue was one of the first in what's expected to be a wave of travel and hospitality brands reviewing their ad agencies in late 2020 and early 2021. Airlines lost an estimated $35 billion in 2020, and all brands, including smaller ones like JetBlue, are trying to attract customers while cutting costs.

JetBlue spent $66 million in advertising in 2019. But the airline industry slashed costs in 2020, and the winning agency will control a smaller budget; Comvergence estimates JetBlue spent as little as $4 million in 2020. It's unclear if IPG, which has had the business for 12 years, is pitching to keep its account.

TD Bank is reviewing its $22 million budget.

Account: TD Bank

Estimated spend: $22 million

TD Bank is reviewing its US and Canadian media and creative ad agencies, and that could mean a loss for Publicis Groupe, Havas Group, or Omnicom Group's TBWA\Chiat\Day.

Those agencies are pitching to defend and potentially grow their business, execs at these agencies said. One speculated that TD Bank was looking to consolidate its advertising with one or two agencies, going the way of others like Coke and Cigna.

TD Bank spent $22 million on paid media in the US in 2019, Kantar estimated.

ConEd is close to picking a new agency after dropping Havas.

Account: Con Edison

Estimated spend: $8.3 million

New York energy company Con Edison dropped its ad agency Havas— which handled its media and ad business since 2017 — and is expected to name a new agency in March.

The company started its search for a new creative and media agency around September, according to three people close to the situation. ConEd had hired a new head of branding and marketing last April, John Fredette, and the company has been building its own marketing team.

Havas did not pitch to defend the business. ConEd spent $8.3 million on measured media in the US in 2019, Kantar estimated.

Nutella is seeking an agency to grow its profile.

Account: Nutella

Estimated spend: Undetermined

In late 2020, Italian chocolate-maker Ferrero Group started searching for a new agency to promote the hazelnut spread Nutella around the world.

Ferrerro has shaken up the agencies it uses in recent months, moving its global ad-buying business from Omnicom to WPP and picking indie agency Terri & Sandy in the US. The winner of the ongoing pitch will create big-budget campaigns centered on holidays and other events.

Ferrero spent $22.6 million on marketing for Nutella in the US in 2019, according to market-research firm Kantar, but Insider could not determine the value of the current pitch.

Prudential is seeking an agency for the first time in a decade.

Account: Prudential

Estimated spend: Undetermined

Prudential is searching for a new agency for the first time in a decade.

The scope of the assignment is unclear, but people with knowledge said independent and big ad holding company-owned firms have been invited to pitch for the business after Prudential split with agency Droga5. This is another change for Prudential, which just hired a new CMO.

Prudential spent $53 million on advertising in 2019, excluding paid social campaigns, according to Kantar.

Employees of Zimmerman Advertising told Insider that the Omnicom-owned ad agency is pressuring staff to return to the office this week regardless of whether they are vaccinated and threatening layoffs if they don't.

Three employees at the Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based agency — which handles a large amount of McDonald's regional advertising — said they got calls from HR and leadership last week insisting they come back.

Sources said Zimmerman HR and at least in one case, president Ronnie Haligman, started calling them individually last week, first asking how they felt working remotely. The employees said they responded that they were happy working from home.

But while there was no explicit mandate to return, the employees said the execs told them they needed to come back, explaining that the company was having financial troubles due to employees being less productive while remote, and citing the loss of business such as La-Z-Boy and Party City to remote work.

La-Z-Boy VP, CMO Eli Winkler told Insider the company still works with Zimmerman but wouldn't say if there have been recent changes to their relationship.

One employee said an HR executive told them last week that there would be layoffs if employees didn't return and that while it wouldn't be mandated, it would be "highly recommended for me to go back to the office on Monday.""They are bullies," this person said. "I am so disappointed."

A second employee said Haligman started the conversation by asking how they were handling working from home. The person said they told him they were enjoying it and that it allowed them to be more productive.

"Ronnie's reaction was a little standoffish," the second employee said. "He asked what my ideal situation would be, and I said more of a hybrid model. He said, 'no, not going to happen.'"

This person said they told Haligman they were uncomfortable going back, explaining they're not yet vaccinated and have high-risk family members. They said Haligman then asked for a "yes or no answer" on returning to the office. The employee said they'd have to talk to family members first. The employee said Haligman expressed disappointment that the employee would put their comfort over the agency and its ability to employ people.

The employee said they haven't heard anything since. But the employee said that they needed the job and that if working remotely jeopardized their status, they'd return.

"People are definitely concerned they'll lose their jobs," said a third. "It's very upsetting."

An agency spokesperson declined to comment on the employees' specific allegations but said in a statement: "Zimmerman routinely checks in with its employees to discuss the agency's current status and each employee's comfort level in returning to the office. Zimmerman follows Omnicom's guidelines, which is that no person is required to return to the office if they are not comfortable in doing so."

An Omnicom rep referenced the holding company's policy that states: "No person will be required to return to the office if they are not comfortable doing so." According to the policy, Omnicom is in phase two of its return-to-office plan, which mandates agency offices must not exceed 50% capacity.

"In the year ahead, our focus remains the same, protecting the safety and wellbeing of our people, continuing to effectively serve the business needs of our clients and preserving the strength of our businesses," Omnicom CEO-Chairman John Wren said on the company's fourth-quarter earnings call. "Although we see hope as the vaccine rolls out, we know there are still significant challenges that will impact 2021."

The sources said Zimmerman leaders haven't sent any written memos communicating plans to return to the office, leading them to suspect the agency doesn't want to leave a paper trail.

The employees said some colleagues told them they already returned to the office on Monday out of fear they'd lose their jobs. They said they're unsure how much longer they can hold off from returning and worry about landing another position in a shaky job market. Advertising companies including WPP, Omnicom, IPG, Havas, Dentsu, Publicis Groupe, and MDC Partners have had layoffs since the start of the pandemic.

Some employees cited earlier pressure

Two of the sources said this isn't the first time they felt pressure from Zimmerman leadership to return to the office.

In late summer, long before people started getting vaccinated, sources said leadership told them in a virtual meeting that they needed to return to the office the following Monday.

"Lots of people had questions and were told to talk to HR," one said.

The sources said after that meeting, agency chairman-CEO Jordan Zimmerman sent staff an email reversing the mandate and saying he didn't know where that information came from.

"Just seeing this situation has made me question a lot about what this agency's intentions are and if they really care about their employees," the second one said. "I want to be at a place where I feel supported."

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Good morning and welcome to Insider Advertising for March 16. I'm senior advertising reporter Lauren Johnson, and here's what's going on:

• Zimmerman's return to the office.
• Memo's funding raise.
• Netflix's TikTok followers boom.

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Tips, comments, suggestions? Drop me a line at LJohnson@insider.com or on Twitter at @LaurenJohnson.

• Lindsay Rittenhouse reports that employees said agency execs have been pressuring them to return and that some are doing so for fear of losing their jobs.
• The employees said execs told them that remote work was hurting the company financially.
• According to the staffers, the execs said if they did not return to the office, there would likely be layoffs.

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