Madwell lays off 10% of staff

Independent agency Madwell has laid off 10% of its staff of nearly 150 employees. The Brooklyn-based agency has a footprint in Denver and Hong Kong as well.

“For nearly 13 years, Madwell has grown consistently, retaining our team through ups and downs, and even the worst of the pandemic,” David Eisenman, CEO of Madwell, said in a statement. “As an independent agency, we have prided ourselves on our ability to make decisions not purely guided by the bottom line. Unfortunately, shifting economic realities and client budgets have required us to adjust accordingly. It was a gut-wrenching decision, but a necessary one for the continued health of the agency." 

Madwell is the latest agency to go through rounds of layoffs. Last week, Huge laid off 3% of its staff. Also last week, Dentsu let go of 30 employees among the 12,000 people comprising Dentsu Americas.

Several Madwell employees shared tweets describing how they were notified of the layoffs. One wrote that the agency told staff to not come into the office one day because of construction. Mary Ergul, whose LinkedIn identifies her as a senior brand strategist at Madwell, tweeted she was available for hire.

Some of Madwell’s top clients include Verizon, JobsOhio, and Everly.