Leo Burnett has had to make a number of redundancies in the Middle East and North Africa following the loss of the Chevrolet and Aldar accounts.
Although the total number of redundancies is not known, Raja Trad, CEO for Leo Burnett Group MENA, said the total would equate to “barely one per cent” of the workforce. The group employs 750 people in the MENA region.
Going foward, Leo Burnett MENA will no longer work on Chevrolet – a brand it has worked with in the region for the past 13 years – following a global pitch held in North America. However, the agency will continue to work with General Motors on its other brands, namely GMC, Cadillac and ACDelco.
“As a result of losing Aldar and the global re-alignment on Chevrolet, we have had to make a few redundancies,” said Trad. “This constitutes barely one per cent of the work force. We have also taken care to ensure that other job opportunities were found for some of the people within the network.
“Given our scale of operations and our regional presence as a network these have been very measured and have taken into account operational efficiencies. Given our track record in terms of new business wins and our long standing partnership with key brands, we have no doubt that this is a temporary phenomenon.”
Leo Burnett was named both network and media agency of the year at the Dubai Lynx in March, whilst Trad was named advertising person of the year. Last year the agency retained du and Saudi Telecom and alsowalked away with the Qtel business following a hard fought review. It also consolidated its position with McDonald’s, winning the local account in Saudi Arabia following its landing of the regional business the year before.