Pros
— Area 23 has lot of delightful, talented people. This agency has some of the hardest workers, smartest thinkers, and nicest teams in the industry. —There's quite a few creative directors that both forward-thinking and invested in the growth of their employees and team. It's hard to find that combination in pharma. —The What If program has created some amazing ideas and campaigns. It's something more agencies should implement. —Routing and overall process within the agency is top-notch. The editorial department is extremely thorough. —Good lunch options in the neighborhood; high dinner expense limit for overtime meals.
Cons
—Not enough space or offices to go around. Scrambling to find an empty office for a client call or finding out your conference room has been double booked is a daily occurrence. —This agency is very top-heavy. Often the most junior person on a team will be a low-level supervisor with no juniors to manage. It makes internal growth difficult and it results in a lot of employees doing work that's below their title. — There are ACDs (or higher) being hired for their creative minds, not for their supervisory or brand-managerial capabilities, and teams often have to scramble to make up for that disadvantage. Day to day work often takes a back seat here, despite being the moneymaker. — Only select teams and people get the opportunity to work on pro-bono or award-centric campaigns. The average employee is encouraged to work on What If ideas for their brands, which clients rarely approve (on a creative or budgetary level). —Severe lack of creative department updates or meetings. What is Area 23 submitting for awards this year? What are some cool things the teams are working on? Are we doing any pitches? Who knows. The account team has periodic meetings about this; creative doesn't. — Teams are a little bit isolated. It's hard to get to know people outside of your direct team; there's not a lot of co-mingling or parties within the office. —The VPN is so slow it's borderline useless.