MediaCom Wins Adweek’s Global Agency of the Year Award 2020

It’s one thing to espouse a “People first, better results” philosophy; it’s another to actually practice it in the middle of a global crisis.

In 2020, MediaCom proved its devotion to that creed, deciding early on to invest in talent and save as many jobs as possible globally at the expense of short-term losses.

“Our ambition was to make sure we came out of it together, our culture intact. We spent the best part of 20 years building MediaCom’s culture,” MediaCom global CEO Nick Lawson says. “Protecting that culture was really our No. 1 priority.”

The process was not painless, with employees making salary sacrifices or transitioning to shortened workweeks to help save jobs. In the end, the WPP media agency claims it avoided layoffs entirely in the U.S. while reporting a 7% revenue decline globally for the year.

The agency’s investment in talent is already paying off as a deep bench helped MediaCom win new business, grow relationships with existing clients and expand capabilities while steering brands through the unique challenges of 2020. In the U.S., MediaCom increased its revenue 4% on the year, despite its commitment to avoiding layoffs. MediaCom also earned recognition for its DEI practices in the U.S. and committed to further progress globally.

Read more from Adweek here.