Madison Avenue Makeover

The transformation of Huge and the redefinition of the ad agency business

Michael Farmer

• Publisher: LID Publishing
• Year: 2023
• Topic: Economics
• eBook ISBN:
  9781911687658
• Subtopic: Sustainable Development
• Index: Economics

In August 2021, author Michael Farmer was invited by Mat Baxter, the new CEO of Huge, the global digital agency owned by Interpublic, to become an independent "fly on the wall" observer to record the strategic and operational transformation of Huge. Baxter was Huge's fifth CEO in four years. Huge had had a history of slow growth, client churn and marginal profitability. This book is the riveting story of Huge's journey through its transformation effort - from its initiation in 2021 to a rethink of the transformation in May 2022 to a revised structure and plan that put the program back on course - with some significant delays. "It's one thing to organize a change plan that assigns responsibilities to senior executives, " mused Baxter, "and another thing to have the sum of their efforts add up to something greater." Madison Avenue Makeover provides a unique insight into how one company changed in order to survive, and at the same time, redefined the advertising agency business.

Table of contents

• COVER
• BACKCOVER
• TITLE
• CONTENTS
• FOREWORD BY CHRIS ZOOK
• INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER 1 HUGE – SUCCESS & STAGNATION
• CHAPTER 2 MAT BAXTER – FROM ZENITH TO NAKED
• CHAPTER 3 MAT BAXTER – FROM AUSTRALIA TO NEW YORK
• CHAPTER 4 INDUSTRY PRICING, REMUNERATION, AND SCOPES OF WORK
• CHAPTER 5 THE HOLDING COMPANY OWNERS
• CHAPTER 6 THE FIRST OFF-SITE MANAGEMENT RETREAT
• CHAPTER 7 THE BUSINESS MODEL COMPANY LIMITED
• CHAPTER 8 HUGE’S PRODUCTIZATION STRATEGY
• CHAPTER 9 REORGANIZATION
• CHAPTER 10 MANAGING RESOURCES – GLOBALLY
• CHAPTER 11 CRITICAL REVIEW
• CHAPTER 12 ASSESSING PROGRESS – THE THIRD RETREAT
• CHAPTER 13 PROGRESS
• CHAPTER 14 PARADIGM SHIFT
• APPENDIX HUGE’S REORGANIZATION: FAQS
• NOTES
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• COPYRIGHT