Agency news you need to know this week

Hello, and welcome back to Agency Brief. This week, we have the scoop on layoffs at VCCP and more RTO drama at WPP. Want to be included in a future edition? Reach out to ewan.larkin@adage.com and brian.bonilla@adage.com for consideration. Cuts at VCCP U.S. VCCP U.S. has laid off less than 10% of its staff, according to a person close to the situation. The agency, which is headquartered in London, has nearly 100 U.S. staffers, according to its 2025 Ad Age A-List entry. VCCP U.S. declined to comment. Some of the affected employees were on the West Coast, according to the aforementioned person, who said VCCP is looking to “recalibrate” its staff based on client needs. The agency’s U.S. headquarters is in New York, and most of the agency’s clients are on the East Coast. Some impacted employees were offered the chance to relocate, this person said. Earlier this week, VCCP U.S. was named the lead creative agency for cable and internet provider Spectrum, which is likely to become the shop’s largest client and will be serviced out of New York. Horizon Media, meanwhile, scooped up Spectrum’s media business. Read more: Ad Age Small Agency Conference & Awards FAQ WPP’s RTO saga continues WPP is experiencing some growing pains as employees return to the office on a four-day-a-week mandate this week. On the 12th floor of its One World Trade Center office in New York, where GroupM’s EssenceMediacom is located, employees are sharing stories on social media about having to sit at pingpong tables because of a lack of desks to accommodate the entire staff. As a result, EssenceMediacom told staff in an email this week that the agency will be shifting temporarily to a rotating “A/B” schedule—in which half the team will work a designated two of the four mandated days and the other half will work the other two—until the seating issues are resolved, according to a WPP executive close to the situation. That executive said that the challenge at EssenceMediacom isn’t finding enough desks or seats for every employee, but figuring out how to seat specific teams together. The four-day in-office mandate holds for every other WPP employee, as there are no other WPP agencies known at this time to be dealing with similar issues, this person said. WPP declined to comment. Also: WPP employees appear to push back on RTO policy ICYMI Here are a few of Ad Age’s biggest agency stories this week: Northwestern Mutual has a new agency The provider of financial planning and life insurance hired independent agency PMG as its U.S. media agency following a competitive review, a company spokesperson confirmed. PMG did not immediately provide comment. MediaLink handled the pitch. Horizon Media’s performance marketing arm, Horizon Next, was the incumbent agency. Quote of the week “Every professional services firm in the world is going to become much more of a SaaS and technology company. I don’t think the advertising and marketing business will be any different.”—WPP CEO Mark Read speaking about the agency group’s acquisition of InfoSum, which Ad Age first reported on Thursday. Just briefly BBDO united its Los Angeles, San Francisco and Dallas offices under the name West BBDO. Matt Miller will oversee West BBDO as CEO and chief creative officer, while retaining his title as chief creative officer of Omnicom for AT&T. AI studio Dolsten & Co. was named the first creative agency of record for Accelerator Active Energy, an energy drink startup backed by Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne. Terri & Sandy hired Tali Gumbiner as a creative director. Gumbiner, who worked on McCann New York’s famous “Fearless Girl” campaign, had been freelancing for the past six years. World of Hyatt, Hyatt’s guest loyalty program, has selected Stagwell’s Assembly as its paid global media agency of record. World of Hyatt formerly worked with several agencies, according to a person familiar with the matter. Contributing: Lindsay Rittenhouse and Brandon Doerrer Sign up for Ad Age newsletters

Agency news you need to know this week

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