I could sum up the cons of working at Clickthrough in one statement:
When I started working there, we had around 50 people. Out of those original 50 people, there are four left. Four. Some of which had been long-serving and loyal employees for several years. What does that tell you?
These experienced, skilled employees have mostly left due to a change of management a couple of years ago. What once was a supportive, caring, passionate and people-focussed company very quickly turned into a place where people were more like robots, client results became all about profit and everyone was disgustingly overworked - and underpaid.
It was very sad to see such a promising, vibrant place shift so dramatically in a matter of months. Granted, the pandemic did not help. But as other reviews have mentioned, it really did seem as though the leadership team sadly took advantage of the circumstances of the pandemic. We were told that people had to be furloughed to save jobs. They furloughed half the staff, leaving the leftover employees with double the workload at a time where everyone was already extremely stressed. Next, we all had to take a pay cut to save jobs. We all accepted this pay cut. Then, we lose ONE client and suddenly 12 people have to be made redundant; even after all the efforts the employees went to in order for this not to happen. Some people were working 12 hour days to get their work done in time and because of the pay cut were literally below minimum wage. It's no surprise that staff retention dropped exponentially. Every week, someone else was handing their notice in. The final straw for most people was the fact that after 12 people were made redundant, new hires were made. I obviously can't state it as fact, but it seems that management spotted an opportunity to get rid of 'dead weight' or people they didn't particularly like and went ahead with the redundancies they promised time and time again wouldn't happen.
Because of the amount of skilled marketers that left the business, clients quickly followed - some of which had been clients of Clickthrough for 5+ years. But when clients pay you for the skills of the people on their account and continue being a client because of how great those people are, it causes a real issue when their entire account team has changed practically overnight.
There's also a real problem here with over-promising. The sales team would offer the world to new clients to the point where they were made to believe that their account team had experience in channels/departments that they definitely didn't. But once they had the sale, the client was no longer their problem. Cut to a month later where the poor account team are taking abuse from the client about standard of work or results for something they shouldn't be doing in the first place.
I really don't know what it will take for Clickthrough to realise that their new client system and structure is a complete and utter failure. There certainly hasn't been a lack of feedback; just a total lack of any real action or change.
They have a real opportunity to create a buzzing, innovative, fun agency that onboards genuinely interesting clients, but unfortunately I think they've taken a different direction that has ultimately led them down the wrong path. If you're looking for an agency role where you'll be supported, valued and paid appropriately, I don't think this is the place for you. Three years ago, I would have recommended Clickthrough to anyone looking for experience in digital marketing. Now, I wouldn't consider it even for a second.
