Stop firing people: The perils of operating like a modern ad agency
2025 has seen a quiet wave of redundancies across adland. TrinityP3’s John Minty argues these are a symptom of bad leadership and agencies not adapting their business model for the modern environment.
If you haven’t retrenched anyone in the last three years, and you’re absolutely certain you won’t in the next three, close this tab. This piece isn’t for you.
OK, now that we’ve cleared out the deluded, let’s get real. It’s a sad, predictable cycle: multinational advertising networks squeeze for more margin, or restructure to impress shareholders. A client cuts fees or walks altogether. An agency invests in all the wrong things.
Whatever the trigger is, the result is the same; the chopping block rolls out. You only have to look at the media and marketing trades at the moment to see there have been widespread but quiet redundancies across the sector.
Great article and very timely. In my almost 20 years in the industry, I have never encountered a time where things felt more pointless and miserable.
Finally, an article that calls Adland out for what it is.
A bloated parade of overpaid, non‑practitioner execs clinging to titles they haven’t earned in years. Still running the same tired playbook from the early 2000s, more interested in self‑preservation and office politics than delivering anything of substance. Many wouldn’t last a month outside the cosy, self‑referential bubble they’ve built…and they know it.
Australia’s redundancy system also needs a hard rethink. It’s become a get‑out‑of‑leadership‑accountability free card, exploited well beyond its original intent.
The correction is coming. And this industry cannot pretend it wasn’t warned.
Sounds like Mr Happy is one of the execs/owners waiting for his bonus or earn out while sacking half the staff that earnt it for him.
Great article. So many agencies push absolute bullshit but when things get slightly tough, senior executives with fancy titles who no one actually see’s during the week get together and decide which juniors to let go.
This commentary is an extremely ill informed and overly pessimistic view of an industry that is performing very well,despite the many challenges it continually faces.