Inside Empower’s staff exodus to P&G amid culture clash after ownership change

Cincinnati-based Empower Media is facing massive staff departures, many of them to Procter & Gamble Co., and the loss of two of its biggest clients only nine months after its sale to Ashlee Clarke, who’s also CEO and chief creative officer of New York-based creative and media agency NitroC. People close to the family-founded agency describe a culture clash with new owners Clarke and her husband, Empower Executive Chairman Chris Clarke. Among other things, they’ve brought in a host of holding company veterans to help run an agency that under prior management proudly billed itself as “The Un-Holding Company.” Two principals of Empower who remained with the agency after it was acquired—former majority owner and CEO Jim Price and Chief Investment Officer Cathy Shaffner—took early buyouts and left. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs That “Un-Holding Company” philosophy at Empower began in the wake of industry controversy that began in 2015 over alleged unreported rebates and other transparency issues. The slogan was also meant to convey that the agency’s independent ownership gave it financial and management flexibility that holding company shops lack. Ashlee Clarke declined an interview for this story. An agency spokesperson said that Empower has moved away from that motto as it looks to bring in talent from holding company shops. “To keep up with the ever-changing times, we have purposely hired industry leaders, who are shaping a new evolved direction for Empower,” the spokesman said in an email. “While we have kept many of the great talent that existed at Empower, we have also invested in best-in-class talent in both Chicago and New York along with a robotic process automation platform that now allows Empower to drive real-time optimization across all media channels, which has been our primary initiative for 2023.” P&G pipeline Ad Age found via LinkedIn searches that at least 14 of Empower’s employees have left for P&G, less than a mile away from Empower’s Cincinnati office, in recent months as the packaged-goods behemoth staffs up its in-house media operation. That prompted Empower to write a cease-and-desist letter seeking to stop P&G from “poaching” its employees, the agency spokesperson confirmed. P&G declined to comment regarding the letter. A person familiar with the matter said P&G is an attractive employer in marketing and advertising, particularly in Cincinnati, and that such an influx doesn’t necessarily mean the company is “poaching” from a particular agency. People leaving for P&G, while clearly attracted by better opportunities, were in many cases long-term Empower employees unlikely to have left without the ownership change and disagreements over the management of the agency, said another person familiar with Empower. Ironically, Empower was founded in 1985 by former P&G media executive Mary Beth Price, whose son Jim was principal owner and CEO before selling it to Clarke in January. Former top P&G media executive James Van Cleave was once an adviser to the agency. Decades later, the flow of the talent pipeline has reversed back to P&G. (P&G is the third-largest advertiser in the U.S., according to the Ad Age Datacenter.) From January: Empower sells controlling stake to Ashlee Clarke Account losses Besides losing staff, Empower is dealing with the loss of two of its biggest accounts since the deal was done in January, though the agency said those accounts were on the way out prior to the ownership change. One of Empower’s biggest accounts, Brooks Running, moved to Stagwell’s Assembly. One agency that received the RFP for the Brooks account said it arrived on Jan. 13, the day after the Empower acquisition was announced. According to a person familiar with the matter, Assembly, at the client’s request, accelerated the transition from June to April because of staffing issues on the incumbent team. A Brooks Running executive didn’t respond to a LinkedIn query. Assembly declined to comment. From May: Assembly launches advocacy consulting platform Another Empower client, Bush Brothers & Co., consolidated its media account with creative agency Carmichael Lynch, according to a statement from Empower. Bush Bros. announced its intention to consolidate accounts in January, according to Empower. Bush Bros. Chief Marketing Officer Stephen Palacios declined to comment. Yet another person familiar with the matter confirmed that the accounts were in trouble before the deal was done. A former employee said the Brooks review was scheduled as part of a three-year automatic review cycle. At any rate, neither the Brooks Running nor Bush Bros. accounts were figured into the agency’s final valuation as part of the sale, according to an Empower spokesman. Jim Price declined to comment. Early exits Some Empower staff departures this year have been involuntary, including a 15% reduction in force under Price announced in January just before the sale of Empower was announced. More recent departures appear largely voluntary and go beyond P&G or Cincinnati. That includes the resignation last week of Shaffner, who confirmed the move to Ad Age but declined to comment otherwise. Empower in a statement said Shaffner departed “as a minority shareholder of Empower as part of the full buyout and her final payment received.” Price, who was to have stayed on as non-executive chairman of Empower through January 2024 according to the deal announcement, “has also departed on an early buy out,” according to Empower’s statement. Price declined to comment, other than to confirm that he still owns the building where Empower is headquartered. Several people familiar with the agency questioned how long Empower will remain there in the sprawling space carved out of the 19th-century brick buildings of Cincinnati’s trendy Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in 2017. The agency itself only occupies one of four floors now, they said. Empower’s spokesperson noted that “the building’s owners” long have leased part of its space to outside tenants. Media specialists leaving Departures haven’t been limited to Cincinnati. Jason Kogut, a former Mindshare executive and Empower employee, who rejoined the agency’s Chicago office in February as one of three senior VPs and co-heads of communications and media planning, has left already, according to people familiar with the matter. Kogut declined to comment. Amy Johnson, Kogut’s Cincinnati-based peer as co-head of communications and media planning, left Empower for P&G in July, according to her LinkedIn profile. She’s one of 13 media specialists who have left Empower for P&G since April, according to their LinkedIn profiles. Others have left Empower for other Cincinnati area agencies or marketers, including Connie Rankin Ross, an 11-year Empower veteran who was VP and chair of diversity, equity and inclusion. She left in July for a talent management position at Kroger Co.’s 84.51. Executives of other Cincinnati agencies report a steady stream of inbound inquiries about job opportunities from current or recently departed Empower employees. More than 100 departures overall A search on LinkedIn shows more than 100 employees have departed Empower since February, mainly from Cincinnati but also from Chicago and Atlanta. That includes the 14 who left for P&G. Others have left for Kroger, Publicis Media and affiliates, S4 Capital’s Media.Monks, GroupM and Mindshare, Omnicom Media Group and its shops, The Trade Desk, Abbott and retail media units of Target (Roundel) and Walgreens among other places. Only a few indicate they’re still looking for work. Fewer than 100 current Empower Media employees can be found on LinkedIn, of which 26 have been hired since February. Those totals don’t count recent hires or any departures who haven’t updated profiles. A spokesman for Empower said employment was never higher than 233 and now stands at 170 across locations. A former employee familiar with the agency’s staffing said it peaked above 275 in 2022, which was before several departures later in the year and the 15% layoff announced in January the week before the sale. The Un-Un-Holding Company Ashlee Clarke has brought in some executives of NitroC to help run Empower, billed as the largest woman-owned media agency in the U.S., though a spokesman said the company, while in the process of meeting the targets, has yet to reach the majority female-owned-and-operated threshold needed for third-party certification of that claim. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Empower Media (@empoweragency) Empower also has recently hired Yating Sun, a former marketing science executive at Meta, as exec VP and head of marketing science, and former GroupM executive Art Zambianchi as chief operating officer. Some close to Empower describe an uneasy fit between a Midwest media agency and the Clarkes, who in their spare time are co-producers of Broadway shows and have brought a growing cast of former holding company executives to the agency. “We do not support the ‘Un-Holding Company legacy’ narrative from previous ownership,” according to Empower’s statement. “We think there is strength and talent in the holding companies, and we have great respect for them, so much so that we have actively recruited incredible talent to elevate our team from some of the best holding companies.” Ashlee Clarke was a TV anchor and personality for several TV networks before starting NitroC. Chris Clarke was a co-founder of digital agency Nitro before its sale to Sapient and was executive chairman of the combined agency when it sold to Publicis Groupe in 2014, according to his bio. At that time, SapientNitro had 9,500 employees, nearly 50 times as many as Empower when he arrived in January, according to his bio. It’s also clear that though Empower is based in Cincinnati, its new owners are looking to build staff in Chicago, the city whose skyline and riverfront feature prominently on the agency’s website. “Since the acquisition of Empower in January 2023, we made a conscious decision to build out the Chicago market, with Empower Chicago tracking to be 100 people by year end,” according to the agency’s statement. Resistance to change “Change is always difficult,” said one recently departed employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It’s even more difficult when the change doesn’t make any sense.” The culture clash is evident in that people who push back against new management's decisions were “ostracized as ‘old Empower,’” this person said. But this person said it wasn’t made clear what the new Empower was going to be, or why anyone would buy an established media agency only to drive away much of the staff. While this person acknowledged a shift to AI and automated planning and buying could work, this person said it wasn’t obvious that the agency was hiring people who could accomplish that, and the recent lack of any new business wins just added to doubts. The high turnover has resulted in some employees being thrust into roles they’re not familiar with and new senior hires being asked to “get their hands on the keyboards,” this person said, for work they’ve had little experience with lately. Empower's long-term plan Empower said it has not actively pursued new business for a reason. “In 2023 the focus thus far has not been pitching any new business, as we have been solely focused on getting the right talent, systems, process and automation in place, so we are in a superb position to offer the best services and platform in the industry,” Empower‘s spokesman said. “We are now gearing up to pitch new business and to underscore this goal, on Monday [Oct. 2] we announced New York media icon Alex Marshall [former managing director of Mindshare U.S.] is our new chief growth officer based in our Chicago office.” Empower has “kept the great talent we wanted to retain,” the spokesman said, “as well as upgraded the overall team and all of the executive leadership team. No one that is senior talent is hands on keyboard; however, why would that be a bad thing if they were?” “We do have high expectations for performance as we demand to deliver the best product for our clients,” the spokesman said. “Unfortunately, many former employees weren’t up for the task and therefore made the decision that our ‘client first’ culture wasn’t for them. That made room for the massive improvements in talent we have made.” The spokesman said Empower’s entire C-suite has “been fully upgraded to a team of Industry elite superstars. Our roster of talent is loaded for growth as we have invested the last nine months evolving a sleepy but good Cincinnati agency to a best-in-class woman-owned creative and media agency filled with iconic industry talent and a fully integrated and automated platform to serve our clients better.” Media measurement blog Tracking TV, social and digital updates Click here

Inside Empower’s staff exodus to P&G amid culture clash after ownership change

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