Wieden And Kennedy Reviews

Pros

its challenging and rewarding.
encouraging and good at giving me a way to create as well as live a fuller life.

Cons

I'm not at work enough.

Advice to Senior Management

keep doing what youre doing! YAY! 18 Cannes!!!!

Pros

AWESOME building, people are great, good pay, great time.

Cons

Sometimes boring work- but you have to earn your way up.

Pros

Strong creative focus.
Challenging projects.
Interesting people, who will challenge you.
A unique experience.
It can only be as good, or bad, as you make it.
The culture, though not for everyone, is something special.

Cons

Can be difficult to maintain work/life balance.
It can only be as good, or bad, as you make it.
Portland is not for those who need vitamin D, or who are allergic to weird.

Advice to Senior Management

Politics play far to large a roll in the internal day to day at the agency, I have no idea who to cut back on it, but if there was something to think about carefully it would be reducing the internal political BS.

Pros

Smart and talented people to work with and learn from.
Inspiring energy – many people bringing their best game, which challenges you to do the same.
Figures from a variety of creative fields are brought in to speak or perform – an unusually enriching workplace experience.
Good benefits, including eventual sabbatical time.

Cons

High profile agency and accounts = W+K can under-compensate employees.
Work/life balance: no. Intentional 'culture of chaos' translates to many unnecessary evenings, weekends, and occasional all-nighters, even for non-creatives.
Manager feedback may be held back until annual review, then used to impede salary increase and advancement opportunities.
Some managers/superiors may take credit for employee's ideas and innovations.
In short, same old workplace politics in slightly trendier outfits.

Advice to Senior Management

Winning awards, campaigns going viral, etc. – you must be doing a lot of things right.
Culture of chaos seems to work in some areas (creative,) but not so much for employees with less elastic deadlines, where more methodical planning and execution produce a better result.

Pros

-Independent, creatively led
-Profit Sharing/Benefits
-Paid Volunteer Work
-Lots of promotions from within the agency
-Unique and non-traditional talent pool

Cons

-Ego comes first. Not the work.
-Pay for entry level positions is slightly above poverty level for a family of four.

Advice to Senior Management

Spend one day a week in each department to find out what employees jobs actually consist of rather than what you THINK they consist of.

Pros

Independent
Taking risks and pushing the work are absolutely part of the culture.
Work hard and play hard
Some of the smartest and most creative people I've ever met.

Cons

Everyone will say it, and to a certain extent it's true, W+K doesn't pay as well as some of the other shops (might be because you get to retain your soul).

Advice to Senior Management

Continue challenging the future leaders to push for what is right and for great work. At the same time, go outside the network to find those who can bring in new thinking.

Pros

Intresting accounts and willing to push the limits. They are intresed is doing what they believe to be best for the client and push the indusrty to follow.

Cons

The work life balance was non existent. They Don't always provide what client wants but what they want to present.

Advice to Senior Management

They have to figure out all the changes and make sure to adapt. Need to get some new clients in the door.

Pros

Open to hearing new ideas, be it creative, management, client...anything. Great benefits, treated with respect.

Cons

Not sure what the management's long term goals are. With the acquisition of large retail clients -- are they wanting to bend on some of their strict creative practices in order to meet those client's needs?

Advice to Senior Management

They don't need advice or feedback from me.

Pros

Amazing work environment, the people are creative, interesting and the agency does a lot of things beyond straight up advertising. And every day it feels like you're reinventing the way you advertise. Clients don't come to Wieden unless they're ready to do something new and different.

Cons

Lack of structure can be frustrating but the chaos theory that has always been at the core of wk's working philosophy does work. Politics and egos get exhausting. Often it's the person who speaks loudest who wins, not the best idea which is going to hurt this agency in the long run. Lack of strong vision and leadership. There have been a lot of management changes in the recent past and people are wondering who is steering the ship and where we are going.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't let the agency become too traditional.

Pros

Everyone is very inspiring. Everyone is super nice. Egos are kept to a minimum. The work is fun.

Cons

Nothing ever goes right. The company puts a project in one groups hands. You should put it in multiple hands and see which idea is better. I guess it's too much work and too little people.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more receptive to ideas.