Leo Burnett Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Leo Burnett full-time for more than a year

Pros – Big agency experience, largest planning department in the country, library of resources is thorough, and the quant research team is strong.

Cons – Traditional planning frameworks can limit the openness to try something new. The creative rarely pushes boundaries.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Leo Burnett full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Benefits were very generous with 3 week vacation starting second year and summer days off. Not to mention flex tiime. happy hour once a month with beer which is a plus if you drink. Most people there are very bright and courteous. Great to build up your portfolio working on big time clients.

Cons – It can be a bit of high school atmosphere there as you have quite a bit of quirky people in some departments. There can be some high school type drama, cliques, tantrums there as it's more laid back atmosphere and most people working there are in their twenties or early thirties.

You can expect to work long hours depending on the client and/or project. Pay increase is practically non-existent and no bonuses. If you move up or get promoted or threaten to leave, that
 would be the only ways you can get a pay increase most of the time. A lot of people seem to stay there for the relaxed casual clothing/attitude/non-micro managing environment that it offers.'

There is definitely favortism there more so than at other companies I've been at. If you're not part of the favorite crowd, no matter what you do or how hard you work, will go unnoticed and unrewarded. Learn to detect this early on so you're not wasting your time and you can move onto other things sooner than later.

Lastly it's an advertising company with strong marketing skills and as such, it's way too easy for younger impressionable people to drink the kool aid there and get hyped up and believe in whatever they say.

Advice to Senior Management – Look at more into the people doing the actual work than the people leading, and evaluate from the bottom up. You would not be where you're at without the people doing the core work. Listen to what they have to say but more importantly, ask them how things can be improved. The core people are the ones that know the most.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Leo Burnett full-time

Pros – -good compensation
-lots of production with big budgets
-good work/life balance, mostly 40-50 hour work weeks
-if you like your group, you'll be happy

Cons – -groups are segregated from each other
-no mobility between groups or within groups
-extremely political
-conservative clients, lots of testing
-creative development can move at a glacial pace
-there are a handful of creative "darlings", everyone else is a leper

Advice to Senior Management – Throw each group a bone. A nice pro-bono project every year will go a long way to help morale.
Make it easier for creatives to "stretch" on projects for other groups.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Leo Burnett full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – I love the people. Great culture. Its nice to be around the big ideas and creativity. Great people on the ground floor. Great place for anyone working in traditional channels and in creative and production.

Cons – Senior leadership have traditional backgrounds and can't get digital right. I do give them an A+ for effort but its not working out.

Advice to Senior Management – As a technologist I see my expertise being continuously marginalized. You're only as good as your people and if people in my group keep feeling left out they'll leave (I'm planning to leave soon). The Agency believes that all is needs to do digital is production and that technology and UX don't matter. This is not a viable strategy for success in digital.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Leo Burnett full-time for more than a year

Pros – High profile clients. Good production experience. Fun work parties.

Cons – Uncompetive salaries. Little room for advancement. While the clients are high profile, they're a bit old world and don't provide many opportunities for groundbreaking work.

Current Employee – been working at Leo Burnett

Pros – - Leo loves to win awards
- vacation time, is vacation time
- many accounts at Leo (McDonalds, Allstate, Norton, and Nintendo to name a few)

Cons – - Poor management on some accounts
- It's hard to work across different accounts
- work vs. life balance is not good on some accounts
- some accounts don't work efficiently

Advice to Senior Management – My biggest issue is poor management. In many occasions there's a lot of time spent scrambling because the higher ups look at briefs/work a day or two before presenting to client. Which, means less time is spent concepting. Never makes sense to me.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Leo Burnett

Pros – Some of the hardest working creative professionals who are passionate about delivering best in class work. Successes are celebrated and recognized via elaborate or simple company wide treats like free lunch or afternoon off, etc. Many free training opportunities and activities to participate in if you have bandwidth.

Cons – Still focused on awards as a measurement of success and salaries leave much to be desired.

Former Employee – worked at Leo Burnett

Pros – People are nice
Great location in downtown Chicago
Opportunity to do lots of TV commercials
Christmas party also known as the "Burnett Breakfast" is legendary

Cons – People are stuck in the old way of doing things
Too many teams working on one project
Not a lot of inspiring creative directors
Clueless about how to approach digital media

Advice to Senior Management – Throwing more creatives at a problem doesn't solve it.

Former Employee – worked at Leo Burnett

Pros – Intelligent, Creative People that are very driven.
The vacation, health insurance, dental, and vision plan is quite nice compared to other companies.

Cons – Many people feel that they are overworked and unfairly compensated in terms of salary and bonuses. It used to be more fun to work here.

Advice to Senior Management – Ask for more open feedback from your employees whether it be from surveys, forums, or really anything to hear what they are thinking.

Former Employee – worked at Leo Burnett

Pros – It's a great place to get your 'first big agency job' right after college. In fact, being young, cute and fairly naive works to your advantage. The culture is perfect if you're thinking to make the transition from the frat house to the work place. it's fun and filled with plenty of social opportunities to meet your coworker. Friday night happy hours, parties and random in office celebrations are part of the normal work week.

Cons – Once you figure out that working round the clock to sell diapers isn't all that great - it's kinda a bore and a drain. Work life balance is questionable and contingent on being blessed with an active and dedicated manager (not an easy find).

Advice to Senior Management – Stop sending video emails.