Advertising Companies That Had Layoffs in 2022: IPG, Oracle, and More

SoftBank-backed adtech firm Permutive just laid off around 12% of its workforce, or about 30.

The company said the decision came amid concerns about the economy's impact on ad spending and venture capital funding. It had paused hiring in June.

Read the full story: SoftBank-backed adtech startup Permutive lays off 12% of staff as recession fears hit ad industry

Social media marketing firm Hootsuite laid off 30% of its staff, TechCrunch reported. "We need to refocus our strategies to drive efficiency, growth and financial sustainability," CEO Tom Keiser told the publication. The company has raised $300 million, per Crunchbase, and lists more than 1,800 employees on LinkedIn.

Layoffs hit Oracle's marketing team in August, with potentially thousands impacted. The marketing team was gutted and is being replaced by a larger revenue operations group.

The layoffs followed smaller cuts in Oracle's advertising unit in June and July, which angered some who said they would lose out on money from restricted stock units that were about to vest. 

Read the full story: Oracle insiders describe the 'complete chaos' from layoffs and restructuring while employees brace for more

NextRoll, a tech firm that helps small and midsize brands run marketing campaigns, has laid off just under 3% of employees, a company spokesperson confirmed in July.

The cuts affected NextRoll's sales and recruiting teams, according to a source with knowledge of the cuts. NextRoll has 874 current employees, according to its LinkedIn page.

Read the full story: Marketing tech firm NextRoll has laid off about 3% of staffers, as cuts hit the ad industry

IPG agency Huge announced in July it would cut 3% of staff, or about 37 people, in July. Huge Global CEO Mat Baxter blamed the layoffs on clients pulling back spend due to concerns of a recession, noting the agency's heavy exposure to financial and crypto clients, which have been cutting marketing spend.

Baxter said Huge has also historically relied on project- versus retainer-based work, which tends to be the first area of marketing to be cut, and said the company was shifting its focus to digital transformation work and away from traditional advertising.

"I hate to have to be the CEO where layoffs are happening," Baxter told Insider. "Unfortunately, it's unavoidable. This is never a nice thing. But I don't think we're the first and I don't think we'll be the last to be taking actions like this."

Read the rest of the story: IPG ad agency Huge just laid off dozens as recession worries mount

Bizzabo, an event management and marketing platform, said in July it would cut 30% of staff to prepare for the economic downturn and possibility of a recession, Skift reported.

Bizzabo is one of the best funded event tech companies, having raised close to $200 million. Its business boomed during the pandemic when it pivoted to virtual events. While scaling back, the company expressed confidence in the future of virtual events and its plan to use wearables to make events more data-driven.

Sprinklr, a publicly traded customer experience software platform, laid off dozens of employees in late June, Insider learned. The cuts affected at least 50 roles in the company's global marketing department, sources with knowledge of the situation said.

Sprinklr, which helps clients including L'Oréal, UBS, and IKEA software manage their relationships with their customers and market to them on digital channels like social media sites and messaging apps, posted a 31% lift in revenue year-on-year in its most-recent quarter.

However, the company warned that this growth could slow, citing tough comparisons with 2021 and the broader economic and geopolitical environment.  Sprinklr CEO Ragy Thomas said on the company's June earnings call that while it hadn't seen a slowdown in demand, broader conversations with customers about "uncertainty and pullback" have ticked up.

Read the full story: Software company Sprinklr just laid off dozens of staffers in its marketing department

R/GA, another IPG-owned agency, told staff in June it would cut 5% of staff at its New York office, or about 20 people, Adweek reported. The company cited the "current market downturn" leading to a "uniquely challenging financial situation in 2022." Nick Allen, the evp, managing director of R/GA New York, also announced his departure.

Adjust and parent AppLovin laid off 12% of their staff in late June, the company confirmed. The combined companies listed around 1,700 employees on LinkedIn.

"As we face uncertain economic conditions, we can confirm that we have made the difficult and prudent decision to reduce our workforce across our global organization by approximately 12%. Taking this proactive step allows us to optimize our resources so we can continue to focus on innovation and increasing shareholder value," an AppLovin spokesman said.

AppLovin, which makes monetization tools for app developers and also runs mobile game apps, acquired Adjust, a mobile measurement and marketing company, in 2021. It was one of a rash of adtech companies that IPOed in 2021 but which have since been hurt by Apple's privacy changes that have pinched app developers' ability to target ads to Apple device users.

Independent ad agency The Many cut nearly half of its 130-person staff in two rounds of layoffs, in April and early June, Adweek first reported.

One current employee blamed the first round of layoffs on the agency losing Google Shopping as a client, which they said made up a large portion of revenue. This person said leadership told employees after the second round of layoffs that they'd overstaffed last year to a level they couldn't sustain when growth slowed.

Los Angeles-based The Many has clients like Panda Express and NBCUniversal, for which it handled the promotion of its "Chucky" TV series. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.