Digitas Reviews

Pros

+ Great, vibrant, and energetic culture
+ Very smart group of extremely talented professionals
+ Fair benefits, both hard and soft
+ Fluidity across disciplines - if you decide you want to try on a different hat and you've demonstrated you're a rockstar, they will make room for you to explore another capability assuming you have some foundational awareness/knowledge
+ Lots of employee recognition for top notch work
+ Packed full of extremely hard working and dedicated people

Cons

- Very matrix heavy - the hierarchy and chain of command is often unclear, muddied, tangled, or non-existent.
- Lots of ego. Big gigantic egos.
- Senior management often rests on laurels of their reputation without engaging and evolving their business strategy. Lots of kings and queens of knowledge - very little acknowledgment that learning is evolutionary. It doesn't and shouldn't ever stop.
- Senior leaders are too stretched and have very little time to focus with 100% attention - if they do, it's often after normal business hours.
- Easy to get lost in the shuffle. I have known several instances of people lost in the company without managers, or growth & development plans to ensure success and maturation within the company.
- Personal/Professional touch is missing. Very messy internally.
- Discontent among the different disciplines is rampant. Collaboration is rare, but when executed well it can be inspiring and flawless.

Advice to Senior Management

In order to inspire, you must align.

Pros

Great people, good location, decent hours

Cons

So so pay, boring work

Advice to Senior Management

Don't treat people like numbers. Take the time to notice the hard-working employees which sometimes don't have the biggest mouths.

Pros

The opportunity, the scale, the culture, the benefits, the pay.

Digitas is a fun and fast paced agency to work for.

Cons

You don't get to the position as an agency that Digitas has achieved without the blood sweat and tears of your employees. Make no mistake... you will work hard. All of the perks help make this more bearable.

This is no different than any other agency. You are expected to work hard. At Digitas at least you are proud to do it.

Pros

The pay is good, the team of peers overall is talented and fun to work with.

Cons

Projects are managed poorly. Interactive projects, which they are supposed to have a reputation for producing well, are not cutting edge or pushed to the level of creativity they could be. If you are 'in' it's a great place to be, they treat freelancers like dogs even if you knock one out of the park. They will lay you off with no notice but expect you to stay around as long as they need you.

Advice to Senior Management

Be able to see and keep talent when they show up and produce. Acknowledge talent when you see it and see what you can do to keep them around. You need better designers & programmers and less VPs and Marketing people.

Pros

-Strong and diverse L&D programs
-Not pompous
-Good feedback from your boss
-Great culture

Cons

- Digital advertising is Digitas's main service, so if you're looking for traditional advertising (TV, print, etc.), you should look elsewhere.

Advice to Senior Management

N/A

Pros

The culture is really fantastic. Employees are really happy there. The company is in a really great place to grow and succeed in the next 5-10 years.

Cons

Because they have built their success on smart marketing, they are not known as a creative shop. However, there is serious opportunity for them to achieve new levels of creativity and I know that they are going after it.

Advice to Senior Management

I'd say just continue to seek creative opportunities to put Digitas on the map as a force to be reckoned with.

Pros

Digitas is a great place to work when starting out your career. You work on Fortune 100 clients and work on some interesting projects. If you pay attention, you can learn some pretty interesting things about the way the advertising world works. Digitas is also notorious for hiring/producing good talent, so it's a great stepping stone in your career.

Cons

Digitas offers a lot of parties and drinking events. This works great for bringing new talent and attracting people to the company. Unfortunately, after about 6 months you'll be so busy you'll never be able to take advantage of these benefits. When they put a freeze on promotions and pay raises, you'll question if they really needs bagel fridays and kegs of free beer. The turnover rate is really high, and the average employee doesn't last more than 2 years. However, upper management doesn't really seem to care and tend to label those who leave as "people that couldn't hack it". The reality is, it's extrememly hard to stay at Digitas even if you like your job, because of the burn out factor of working in such a high-stress/high hours environment.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your employees better, they might be more likely to stick around.

Pros

Great folks, great place to arrive at each day. One of the very good places to launch your career from.

Cons

Still in Detroit, but that is to be expected. Lot of skitshish nerves with the issues going on within the auto industry.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep seeking out non-automotive work. Continue to communicate on the behalf of the PMs in their efforts to work with marketing.

Pros

Fun Environment, Support during any personal difficult times, Learning opportunities if only you were lucky to have a supportive manager

Cons

Have to be politically savvy and connected to get the growth and promotion. Some Managers are insecure and try to take credit of your work. Also create extra work knowingly during review and rewriting of work to create the billable hours. Unethical, yes, but happens truly.

Advice to Senior Management

Get a better understanding of how new employees are faring at the company, know what is actually happening at that level. Just budgeting and having fun environment does not help completely. How much growth opportunity is being provided..?

Pros

The benefits of having a French parent company are unbeatable.

Cons

The political atmosphere is just exhausting—almost unmanageable.