Digitas Reviews in New York City, NY Area

Pros

Good place to freelance, as the rate is decent and they are pretty flexible about coming and going if you have other projects.
Work and assignments are reasonable and can make good portfolio pieces.

Cons

Seemed very account management heavy with a lot of disconnects between the creative and delivery teams.
Some of the delivery team can be a little self-absorbed and condescending, especially to freelance staff.

Advice to Senior Management

I'd take a look at the delivery structure and balance out the creative vs account management staff. Some teams can get a lot more done with a lot less management structure.

Pros

Good Salary
People are friendly
Good name to have on resume

Cons

Totally top heavy - too much senior managment.
Hindered by process.

Advice to Senior Management

Streamline process and reduce the amount of hierarchy

Pros

Digitas hires some bright, enthusiastic, type A's (for the most part...some duds always manage to sneak through). Which other type A's will love, because most take ownership over their individual projects and responsibilities. There is also a sense of commraderie, that each team is in it together (though this depends on the team). The pace is fast, each day is never the same. Upper management also makes an effort to recognize that their employees are busy, busy, busy and typically a bit stressed. This means the perks such as "recess" (beer/beverages, snacks for an hour or afternoon on a monthly basis), great parties (when there's funding), tons of clubs (if you have the time to join them).

Cons

All those type A's make it a competitive place to work, which means long hours are expected. "Process" requirements also bog down each project making it also take longer than needed - but these processes are thought to be put in place to avoid errors. However, insanely tight timelines pretty effectively force teams to circumvent these processes. These timelines also cause a great deal of stress to teams, because your constantly working against the clock.

Also, encouraged to "just listen" to clients, vs. working with them to a creative and intelligent solution. Very frustrating.

Finally - for a digital agency, wayyyy too much is outsourced (as much as possible) to a "b" team.

Advice to Senior Management

Chill out on the process restrictions and foster great CREATIVE work.

Pros

Everyone always says it's the people and they're right. It's what keeps the long hours and stressful days tolerable.

Cons

Work life balance and the time between promotion rounds.

Advice to Senior Management

Re-evaluate the heavy process that often hinders performance and great work.

Pros

Digitas' relationships with its clients are often unusual for a marketing agency--in addition to the usual work on brand/creative/etc, it has a consulting-like relationship which allows us to make an impact on client strategy as well. It's very rewarding to be adding that sort of value.

I have immense respect for my co-workers, and especially many of the senior managers I've worked with. Broadly speaking, the people are also very friendly--I've made a lot of good friends while working at Digitas.

Very reasonable hours--most people work roughly 9~6 from Monday through Friday on the big accounts, although when things are very busy that definitely changes.

Cons

Digitas can often be belabored by its own process. There's a lot of paperwork and bureacracy, which makes many projects (offline especially, more so than online) arduous and frustrating. It feels like a small agency that grew overnight into a bigger one--which is pretty much accurate!

Some of the clients (e.g. American Express, General Motors, pharmaceuticals) are very traditional and careful marketers, so there's less opportunity to do exciting/cutting-edge creative or work in exciting/cutting-edge channels. That can be pretty frustrating sometimes.

It feels like Account Management has a disporportionate amount of power/control relative to the Creative teams--and I say that as an Account person. I think that situation sometimes handicuffs and demoralizes our art directors and copywriters, which obviously has a negative impact on our work.

Advice to Senior Management

Less process!

Pros

You get the typical media perks: free stuff, dinners from time to time. There are plenty of opportunities to learn a lot about digital media. Lots of responsibility is put on your shoulders right off the bat.

Cons

Days involve long hours with average to low salaries. As the agency grows in size, adds clients and offices, it becomes easier to get lost in the crowd. Entry-level new hires have a lot expected from them right away. There isn't a formal training or onboarding program. There also seems to be favoritism towards employees working on the bigger clients. Working on Amex definitely gets you ahead.

Advice to Senior Management

A more organized onboarding process is needed. New hires shouldn't be expected to save the world right away. Promotions/raises need to be more common--if someone isn't promoted within 1-2 years, they will go somewhere else where they will be recognized for the hours of hard work they put in.

Pros

experience, knowledgable people, nice office

Cons

too big, can get lost in the storm unless you make your presence known

Advice to Senior Management

manage clients!

Pros

Professional, organized, great at getting and keeping business. You can learn a lot from the people here.

Lots of focus on career development, they really take this very seriously here, and make it clear that you have options to move laterally within the company if you are not thriving in your current position.

They seem to be weathering the economic crisis very well and have a wide range of customers. They take a very long range approach to clients, trying to always be the agency on record (unlike many smaller shops, that tend to do one off projects and suffer enormously when economy tanks)

Cons

Junior people seem to go through the mill rather quickly and get burned out and bail in first year. The company can ask a lot, and if you're not used to setting limits you can get used up. It seems like sometimes senior management looks the other way while the kids are putting in massive hours per week.
Happiness can be quite variable, depending on which group/project you are on. Some teams are ultra pro, some are pure monkey chaos and to be avoided at all costs. (But even monkey chaos here is better than I've seen at many other shops!)

Senior people tend to have an easier time here.

Advice to Senior Management

Look out more for the younguns!

Pros

Digitas is pretty good at hiring smart people. With only one exception, everyone I have worked with was good at their job! The culture is great - non competitive, but people take their work seriously. Things like community service day are really well executed, fun, and meaningful. As a recent college grad I learned a lot quickly about how to navigate and get stuff done in a large organization. The GDP goals program makes sure that managers have to spend time with you, which is good. Diversity seems to be a priority, with women and minorities in highly visible leadership and management positions. This isn't a 50s style "boys club" mad. ave ad agency. But I can't emphasize this enough: people, really good people.

Cons

However, the rigid 6 month promotion / raise cycle makes it hard to advance quickly. If you miss your promotion, but would have been ready in a month, you get screwed. Also: Long hours. Really long hours.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't over allocate people to 115% FTE. Keep them at 100% please.

Pros

Great people. Interesting projects. Big name clients. I like that I get to work on a variety of projects. I have gotten to learn a lot from working on a wide variety of projects. Be careful about getting type cast. The free food is awesome.

Cons

Late hours. Crazy deadlines. Project managers don't always know what they are doing. Freelancers currently having to go home or come in late if they don't have 100 % billable hours. There IS some downtime on projects that happens.

Advice to Senior Management

Train..train..train the project managers on what is needed from the Interaction Designers, especially when they change accounts. A