The aggressive sales tactics promoted by the American head quarters do not work in the European market. The American office push a service called VVM (Vayner Volume Model) which promotes creating social content at quantity over quality - this quantity-led workflow consistently burns out strategists, account directors and creators - leading to employees being rotated between client teams so that everyone “has their turn” on the worst clients. In theory, the VVM model leads to work that is strategically embedded in culture, but the London office has failed to ever bridge content to a wider campaign.
Leadership: Vayner at large is run by media mogul CEO Gary Vee. The London office has very little to do with the American Tycoon and leadership openly mock his sales tactics in meetings. 4 of the 7 department heads quit within 6 months, which is unsurprising given how openly they undermined and belittled each other. Leadership seem to care more about building their own personal brand than providing any form of actual mentoring. It’s common to not have any one to one time with your line manager for weeks on end. Rather than making a positive impact on industry working standards, leaderships' motto seems to be "if I struggled through long hours and oppressive workloads to get where I am then I don’t see why you shouldn’t either".
To combat the extortionate turnover rate there is a constant stream of new joiners picked by a consultant-recruiter firm who seem to have no knowledge of the advertising industry. It’s common for probation periods to be extended from a month, to 3 months to 6 months and then for the individual to be let go immediately - mostly because they weren’t vetted for the right skills in the first place.
HRs door is “always open”, but it’s nothing more than a sounding board and very little effort is made by them to change a toxic culture - but can you blame them when there is a near-constant stream of exit interviews and new hires to organise? Token yoga mornings and one free Cafe Nero a month are used to plaster over a harmful working environment, with days frequently ending at 10pm multiple days a week.
Creatively, there’s a hoard of strategists and creators waiting for that “one big project” under their belt before they can throw in the towel. The project never seems to come though with entire teams dedicated to writing one tweet. The A/CDs, visibly exhausted by the work, do what they can to support their teams on the short leashes they are permitted. Creatives spend much of the day waiting to be briefed by strategists, meaning consistently working evenings to make the ludicrous deadlines pushed by the account directors. Briefs sit with strategy for 3 weeks, giving the creative department 1 week to create a response.
Office socials: Buy your own drink at the work bar at £10 a pop. Most of the team are there after work drowning their sorrows. Tears are common, but if leadership aren't there at least you can vent.
