Madison Avenue Makeover: The Transformation of Huge and the Redefinition of the Ad Agency Business

Madison Avenue Makeover chronicles Huge39s change of mission its new product strategy its reorganization from twelve independent global offices to one single global operation and its revolutionary threedimensional pod organizational structure involving client partners crafts and productsHuge39s transformation set out to correct the fatal deficiencies of the ad agency business creative work that has little impact declining prices and fees for agency services and commoditylike relationships that are unrewarding for clients and agencies alikeThe transformation is largely complete What remains is to see how Huge performs in the marketplace with its new mission and products All commercial signs are encouraging The new products are selling wellBaxter is Australian and only 44 years old but he has a wealth of industry turnaround experience behind him He learned the media business at Zenith in Australia and he later became a cofounder of Naked Australia CEO of UM Australia and the Global CEO of Initiative IPG39s media agency in the USHuge is Baxter39s first creative agency gig He was appointed by Philippe Krakowsky IPG39s CEO to turn Huge around Baxter left Initiative and joined Huge in June 2021During the past sixteen months Huge39s Executive Leadership Team ELT conducted three offsite retreats The first retreat in October 2021 created agreement on Huge39s growth acceleration mission for clients The second retreat in May 2022 reviewed the progress of more than twenty related change projects led by ELT members The third retreat in October 2022 examined the functioning of the new organization and finetuned its operationsThroughout Huge benefited from the involvement of The Business Model Company TBMC a Londonbased specialized consulting firm that focuses on company transformationsDuring 2022 ELT was running quotold Hugequot and setting the stage for quotnew Hugequot delivering its budgeted numbers to IPG while beginning to sell its innovative approach and product lines to new customersThe current organizational challenge is how to develop a new global company culture with employees who have been working remotely for more than two years and have expressed a desire to continue to work remotelyBaxter and ELT understand that remote working is effective for certain types of work like progress reviews and information exchanges but strategic and creative thinking for clients require something more substantive like facetoface brainstorming meetings in physical locations Huge sees itself as a quotflexible workplacequot allowing remote working when appropriate but believing that facetoface work is still required particularly for developing high valueadded client workHuge is not alone among companies in thinking about how to work more effectively in the postCOVID environment However with a new mission a suite of new products a new global organization and the positive buzz from working in a transformed company under a new CEO Huge believes that it is in strong position to take on the challenges of 2023 and beyondThe book documents the intensive effort required by the CEO and the ELT to dig Huge out of the industry39s hole Are there lessons for other agencies Certainly but as the Huge story clearly shows transformation is not for the faint of heart It takes more than winning new clients and investing in creative capabilities to transform an agencyMadison Avenue Makeover will be released in June 2023 and will be available on Amazon and at other booksellersClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Madison Avenue Makeover: The Transformation of Huge and the Redefinition of the Ad Agency Business

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Michael Farmer

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Madison Avenue Makeover: The Transformation of Huge and the Redefinition of the Ad Agency Business

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