Cliff Freeman to Shut Down After Series of Weird Events (and Client Losses)
Cliff Freeman & Partners is to close down, reports Noreen O’Leary at Adweek. The move is not unexpected. BNET noted in February that the venerable agency’s new accounts did not seem large enough to replace the ones it had lost. Those losses included Quiznos, Shoney’s, Bonefish Grill and Snapple.
But it wasn’t just the losses. It was the increasingly weird chain of events the shop was involved in, coupled with the inability or refusal of Cliff Freeman himself to either sell his brand or retire with dignity into consultant-hood. Those events include:
- Former CEO Jeff McClelland blasting Freeman as a ruinous control freak stuck in the past and threatening the future of his own shop.
- Former creative director Lee Seidenberg leaving the shop to start an advertising school that charged $350 for 10 lessons.
- A Facebook page that included a message indicating that Freeman thought some clients were “stupid.”
- Another former CEO, Clayton Ruebensaal III, briefly started and then abandoned a Twitter account.
- And when Freeman exited the MDC Partners holding company his deal was unwound for a mere $800,000.
Adweek has some excellent detail on Freeman’s final days: The shop let its domain name lapse, staff are packing boxes and the CFO ankled today.
Toldya: A few days ago BNET expressed skepticism over the fact that MDC — Freeman’s former parent — had published a “preliminary” earnings report that did not include its actual profit. That skepticism proved justified today when the company filed a 10-Q with the SEC. Profit was down 51 percent to $2.2 million on revenues of $135 million.
- Previously:
- MDC Partners Q3: Net Income Not Noted in “Preliminary” Numbers
- Ex-Cliff Freeman CEO Says Former Boss Was Ruinous Control Freak
- Cliff Freeman’s Seidenberg Starts an Ad School ($350 for 10 Lessons!)
- Cliff Freeman CEO Exits After Fla. Lottery Pitch Loss; Twitter Trail Tells Strange Tale
- MDC Partners Q4: Cliff Freeman Mystery Deepens
- MDC Cuts Cliff Freeman Free; Venerable Agency’s Options Get Narrower
- Cliff Freeman Loses Quiznos; Agency Survival in Question
- Cliff Freeman in Freefall? Client Gains Don’t Seem Big Enough to Cover Lost Revenue
- Cliff Freeman Names New CEO; Turmoil as Usual
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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