AMV.BBDO IT trial could result in job losses

Omnicom-owned Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO is testing a new IT system that logs the progress of work and which could result in job cuts.

Any job cuts would be contrary to the agency’s stand on the matter of redundancy.

During the economic recession of the late Eighties and early Nineties the agency, then independent, held to its no redundancy policy.

The “New Progress System” has been developed by Electronic Solutions – a company that is part of the AMV.BBDO group. NPS enables staff to find out the status of work for a particular client, including cost of a job, archive information, and whether or not key staff are on holiday.

Michael Baulk, BBDO’s European head and group chief executive of AMV.BBDO, says that “it is too early to say” whether or not the new system, which has been in development for the past nine months, will result in job losses.

He adds that there would be no restructuring of the senior management team, which includes Cilla Snowball as managing director, Peter Souter as executive creative director, and Farah Ramzan as head of client services.

Baulk maintains that “BBDO’s business is in good shape” and that it has not been hit like other agencies that have IT-based clients.

But he admits that any chief executive would adapt to economic circumstances as those arose and that he is in the process of trying to assess the current advertising climate.