Pros
The creative and strategic staff up to Director level were uniformly excellent and it was always exciting to come into work, with huge clients, plenty of fresh ideas and a friendly, brainy atmosphere. (In London! Paris was weird, New York demoralising.) Obviously it is fun to work with some of the bigger names. There was also a decent amount of travel. And the team approach to projects meant you were always learning. The Utopia Cafe was a major plus. Food at Interbrand London was a daily delight thanks to the cooks!
Kontras
Interbrand is clueless about digital and getting worse. There were several junior staff who knew exactly how the web worked but their insights were wasted or at best, gave a gloss to Powerpoint presentations about brand identity. Proper, forward-looking agencies know that although digital is difficult and confusing - it is now the core of brand management! Sticking a Facebook App into your suggestions list does not cut the mustard. Generally, the place is also a bit of a sweatshop. Senior managers conspire to put every single project on a two week turnaround. Only the most heroic Creative Directors would use their own foresight to get us in shape over a longer time period. I think the approach was dictated by a fundamental arrogance. There are great people at Interbrand, therefore senior managers expected us to produce great work no matter what the constraints of time and budget. As a result, we did some amazing projects of which I am truly proud, working all day and night - and we did some really embarrassing rubbish. There's nothing more dispiriting than slipshod work.