Adland holds its breath as layoffs begin

Singapore - With major account losses combined with the recession acting as a double whammy, several advertising agencies in Singapore have started to tighten their belts and make staff cuts with Y&R, ZenithOptimedia and Saatchi & Saatchi feeling the heat. 

In a move that will surprise few, Y&R Singapore is letting staff go after it lost the coveted Singapore Tourism Board account. Tanuj Philip, CEO of Y&R Singapore, said 5% of the agency's headcount, believed to be around six staff, have been made redundant.

Philip said even though Y&R is laying off some staff it will continue to invest in areas like digital.

ZenithOptimedia Singapore has refused to confirm or deny that it has made any staff redundant, despite massive account losses in the past few months. Sources indicate Zenith has been forced to let staff go after losing the giant global HP account to PHD recently, as well as locally losing the StarHub and Aviva media accounts to MindShare this year.

Management at Zenith had not returned repeated calls from Marketing at the time of writing.

Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore confirmed it is making staff cuts but refused to put a number on the amount being let go. The spokesperson said that the number of redundancies is minimal and is across the agency rather than in any particular department.