Big agency experience with outdated big agency culture - Digital Marketing Specialist DDB Employee Review

2.0
Aug 5, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Big agency, big clients, big budgets - Have the ability to recruit top talent, if they stick around, so the team can be great depending on where you're coming in - International agency so often has access to unique enterprise-level resources - Canadian agencies specifically tend to collaborate on national projects

Cons

- Ruthless culture that isn't responsive to heavy, unsustainable workloads - Overtime isn't compensated for or even really acknowledged, the workload is simply dumped down from management and the people doing the work are expected to just deal with it - When workload issues are expressed, the blame is turned around on the employee for not dealing with it sooner before it became unsustainable - If you're keen and take on work outside of your role, you will be exploited, take on far too much work and responsibility, and then won't be offered new opportunities since you've shown that you'll do the work within your current role - For new/emerging departments, there's no real structure or path forward, so management has the ability to claim it's a "flat" organizational structure while still holding people at different levels for arbitrary differences in experience levels. - Generally favours older employees that have families as they're seen as more reliable and relatable. There's a clear differentiation to how management speaks to those people versus younger employees that are getting established, where they'll generally be more hostile and aggressive toward younger employees. - Generally out-of-touch management style and culture that might've made sense decades ago, but hasn't been updated for the 21st century. And the turnover rate shows that.

Explore other reviews about DDB

5.0
Mar 14, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Lots of opportunity, large clients.

Cons

Long hours, slow on promotions and raises.

3.0
Apr 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good place to grow, strong brand

Cons

No culture anymore, very siloed

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