Vibrant Media Reviews

3.2

45% would recommend to a friend

(81 total reviews)
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Craig Gooding

59% approve of CEO

39% positive business outlook

Vibrant Media has an employee rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 81 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Vibrant Media employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media and communication industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

81 reviews
1.0
22 Sept 2014

The BlackBerry of Advertising?

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Used to be amazing with a great reputation in the industry (after all that's why we joined), but now this company is like a lost dog wandering the streets looking for scraps with no idea of where it should be going, and everyone watching on both inside and out knows it. The people here are what makes this place work and that's what keeps you there, but after the fun, you start to actually want to do something meaningful and that's where it all starts going wrong. Socializing here is pretty much the highlight of the company, but of late even that felt forced, like a desperate attempt to play happy families and cling on to the past. Bahamas for the holiday party, or did that get promised and cancelled, again?

Cons

Unfortunately, this is the easy bit. With revenue dwindling every year for the last 3 or more years (I hear the company is now 50% of the revenue it did back then), options are always limited for this company. Layoffs are now the norm with two rounds this year so far, and of course at each one you get told this is the last time, cost savings are everywhere they can, except the senior management team seem to spend their lives flying to New York, as they desperately try and get back to the black. I wouldn't be surprised to see many more cuts. This is ultimately though all an excuse for a sales team that cannot deliver in maybe more importantly a market that is no longer interested in what Vibrant has to say. This is a company with a leader that although appears smart, isn't ever visible, is stuck in the past, and as lots of people already point out, hides away in his office or his house in France. This is a company that hasn't actually done anything new since the day it did what it did well all those years ago (BlackBerry?), and cannot organize itself internally to get anything done. They don't finish anything they start, don't have anyone who is experienced at what they do as most leaders are promoted through attrition, and they are therefore winging their way through life with quite frankly very predictable results.

1.0
2 July 2014

Time to put this dog down....

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

0 cost health insurance. Snacks galore. New computer equipment.

Cons

Like a dog, after 14+ years, Vibrant is on its last breaths.... The cons start at the top. Senior leadership lacks integrity and any real gumption in strategy, decision making, and purpose. The current CEO shows a complete lack of interest in running the company. The company is HQ'ed in New York, yet he's hiding in some villa in France, not really showing his face to the company. After numerous rounds of layoffs in 2014, the C-Suite still had the audacity to hold yet ANOTHER FRUITLESS yacht party in Cannes. For years now, they've held these yacht parties to portray this image of a thriving and fun advertising company, even in the face of hiring freezes in past years, and layoffs this year. Two years ago, the C-Suite even held a town hall to talk about how "they were the life of the party, sipping on Rose" and building traction for future big sales to justify the yacht party during a hiring freeze.......financial windfall from previous yacht parties: layoffs to 30% of workforce in 2014. It's amazing they held it again this year. As for the rest of the senior team, it is composed of long tenured members who have made it there by attrition and by being enablers. What do I mean by enablers? When the old C-Suite was managing the company, making bad decision after bad decision getting Vibrant Media in its current dire state, their trusted executive foot soldiers (the current C-suite) just marched along executing these bad decisions, knowing full well these were bad strategies. They played the political game right for personal gain. Now the company is unable to attract outside talent and now you have leadership filled with long tenured members with stale ideas and no experience outside of Vibrant. It sucks to see Vibrant in its position now, because it was a great place. To compound matters, its long time competitor Kontera only sold for $150 million. This does not bold well for Vibrant's investors' exit strategy. It has already reached its final destination of irrelevancy. Now it's time to say a sincere sad goodbye to this once best in show.

2.0
17 May 2016

Painful Experience

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-Learned more here than any company I've worked for -Some of the employees are genuinely nice people -Free insurance

Cons

-Work hours are bad (9a-6p) -Work/life balance only applies if you live in Manhattan -Senior Mgmt is completely clueless -Cronyism is the way of life here -Entitlement of Senior Mgmt is out of control -Promotion through attrition is an everyday occurrence -Zero formal training -No 401k match -Salary not competitive -Silos built between departments -Frequent rounds of layoffs to save money -Constant, blatantly stupid ideas and demands that waste money and bring in zero revenue

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Glassdoor has 89 Vibrant Media reviews submitted anonymously by Vibrant Media employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Vibrant Media is right for you.