TBWA Worldwide Reviews

Pros

Worldwide information sharing is excellent.

Cons

Big network means sometimes individuals are not treated as individually as they deserve.
Overtime is commonplace but not remunerated.

Advice to Senior Management

Profit margins should not be more important than your people.

Pros

some good brands to work on
quite a lot of freedom to do things
sound philosophies like disruption & good strategic skills

Cons

creative department is all over the place
No leadership, especially in creative
Some favoritism
No mentor ship and proper talent management

Pros

-Great Creative Group.
-Some innovation and Interesting ideas
-Good for new Grads looking for experience
-Ability to work at other Global Offices

Cons

-Poorly managed Production process
-Horrific Work/Life balance which can be attributed to the combination of (time) Management on the part of Account and Production Teams.
-Account Teams don't know the balance between the best Interests of the Agency and the Client.
-High-school/Cliquey Culture
-A lot of passing the buck - little Accountability from Account/Production teams

Advice to Senior Management

Fire the "Bad Apples", aggressively pursue New Business so the Revenue isn't so tied to the whims (no matter how outrageous) to one or two Clients.

Pros

Nice laid-back, interactive work environment
Newly renovated office building
Great coworkers, friendly senior figures
Good learning and working experience
Big name clients

Cons

Late nights are fairly common

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work

Pros

TBWA has one of the warmest corporate cultures in advertising. People are genuine, there are frequent community activities - and no one takes themselves too seriously. Our planning tools are the envy of the industry and we have huge marquee clients - whose marketing challenges we take on in a very typically daring, fun way. We don't strive to be McKinsey or even DDB. We have a lot of fun working - everyone comments on our positive energy! I can honestly say my direct report is the best boss I've ever had. We don't have politics; we have family fights. And we solve them, eventually.

Cons

The informality of our culture has bred a lack of systems and I feel, competitiveness. I'm glad we're not cutthroat but we're also lacking friendly-one-upmanship. We're lagging in digital creative. But our biggest problem by far is the archaic dominance of The Creative. The world has changed but they haven't realized this. Its just not possible these days to compete without real collaboration and integration. And the work has become bland and not as daring as the good old days, not too long ago.. Unfortunately, that's damning news for one's career growth in a digitally obsessed world.

Advice to Senior Management

Redefine the Creative Team, over-invest in digital (it'll pay dividends), re-define the client relationship. Employ grown ups in account service who can manage clients towards great work, develop a clearer idea of who we are in this fast changing world. We Disrupt. Or we die.

Pros

Work with creative minds, work with awesome clients, work at a multinacional company, the people are great and lots of oportunity to do a great job.

Cons

TBWA is really big, so sometimes we have so much political issues to complete a adverting campaign, and it`s turn the aproval slow.

Advice to Senior Management

TBWA have some of the best clients of the world, my advice is keep an creative and free mind to prospect more clients and be the #1

Pros

There is a great global network, amazing clients, creative atmosphere, dog in the workplace, young social staff, supportive senior management (not in all cases), great opportunities for growth and advancement, encouraging of continuing education.

Cons

Big agency means LOTS of red tape and politics. Promotions and raises (ha!) take about twice as long as they should, the pay is notoriously low, creative directors treat junior account managers like dirt.

Advice to Senior Management

Creative dept. is too top heavy. Need more junior and associate creatives.

Pros

- Big accounts with big budgets
- Super creative people that all desperately want to do great work
- Open office setup makes collaboration very easy

Cons

- No career development- certain people often get "punished" for their success and don't get to move accounts to keep them fresh and interested
- Poor compensation. The only reward for success at chiat is more work! It's also a well established rumor that you only get money if you get another job offer
- No communication from upper management.

Advice to Senior Management

Be open with us. We can take it! And have the department heads start coming up with ways to help develop the careers of younger people so they don't need to leave when they're ready for change.

Pros

Great name and looks great in your resume. You will work with some of the biggest accounts and biggest names in the industry.

Cons

Difficult to be recognized. Promotion within the company is slow and very structured based on time spent at the company as opposed to merit.

Advice to Senior Management

Performance reviews should be conducted more regularly and promotion should be based on a meritocracy as opposed to the current structure implemented.

Pros

Great client roster; relaxed, fun environment; cool, smart people; dog friendly policies; employee oriented; decent medical benefits; liberal vacation and holiday package.

Cons

Rapid growth resulting in the loss of a "personal" environment; easy to get lost in the constant shuffle of changing clients and ever-changing management.

Advice to Senior Management

Be open and transparent to your employees. They are smart, hard-working souls and deserve to be treated as the professionals that they are.