In August 2021, author Michael Farmer was invited by Mat Baxter, the new CEO of Huge, the global digital agency owned by Interpublic, to become an independent "fly on the wall" observer to record the strategic and operational transformation of Huge. Baxter was Huge's fifth CEO in four years. Huge had had a history of slow growth, client churn and marginal profitability.
This book is the riveting story of Huge's journey through its transformation effort - from its initiation in 2021 to a rethink of the transformation in May 2022 to a revised structure and plan that put the program back on course - with some significant delays. "It's one thing to organize a change plan that assigns responsibilities to senior executives," mused Baxter, "and another thing to have the sum of their efforts add up to something greater."
Madison Avenue Makeover provides a unique insight into how one company changed in order to survive, and at the same time, redefined the advertising agency business.