Lacks Leadership - Anonymous employee Irban Group Employee Review

The company is primarily a strategy agency working with some of the biggest brands in the world. Having worked at a number of agencies big and small, I was really able to own my client relationships here. I led meetings with senior levels at our clients usually at the VP/CMO level which is pretty rare and was trusted by management to lead. I enjoyed my time here.

From an account person's perspective, I didn't have negative experiences with the client or my team. This isn't a "creative" ad agency so that may be why designers may left negative reviews. The work our clients engaged us for was more strategy vs execution which means creative really was focused on concepts or bringing to life a strategy...frustrating maybe for a designer but its what our clients were paying for. Because of this, the company did hire junior designers who didn't have a lot of experience at other agencies. Having worked at these larger firms, I can say the creatives here were given a lot of freedom and leeway. Changing deadlines, client directives, and ideas not being "bought" is par for the course in client work.

- This is a very small company, which means you must be good at doing a lot of different things. I think this is a pro, as I enjoy working on a variety of projects. - The owners do care, even if they are sometimes misinformed on the dynamic of the creative team. They are genuinely concerned about everyone's personal wellbeing. - Culture is good, and the employees get along - Average salary, but end of year bonuses can help that - Vacation is average, but you have incredible flexibility with your work schedule, as long as you're getting work done on time. - It's a good place to learn. They have large clients which are good for resume building.

If you're on the creative team, you're not going to have the easiest time. Deadlines constantly change, you aren't given freedom to speak up about your ideas or justifying your work, and if you do, you're perceived as being negative or fragile or not a team player. If you say a project will take X amount of time, that leads to intense questioning about why a project is taking a certain amount of time. Budgets on projects are pretty low, which invariably leads to over-budget work, which falls on you. While trying to push for a more holistic culture, it seems that creative teams are mere order takers at points and don't really get to do fun, interesting, creative ideas. Big pitch ideas are almost always cut to small executions, and are recycled for many clients. Don't expect to do groundbreaking stuff.