Sunrise cuts jobs after pulling out of Fifth Third bid - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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"We chose not to participate," said George co-owner of the downtown agency. "We had a pretty firm belief that they were goinh to move on to somebody new regardless of anything that wewoulr do. My belief is that it'llp be somebody from Minneapolis orNew York." Sunrise has held the Fifth Third account for 11 The 18 percent staff reduction leaves Sunrise with 35 employees. Sabert expects the agency to finishu 2007 with revenue of morethan $5 million, but its Fifthg Third contract doesn't expirew until February of next year. In 2008, Sabertf predicts a revenue decline of about10 percent.
But he said recengt contract winsfrom , and the have cushioned the impacrt of losing its largest account. Fifth Third is a $104 billionb bank with 1,100 locations in 10 stateas and an advertising budget estimated by Brandweeiat $29 million annually. Sabert is hoping Sunrise can land othe rbank clients, touting the experiencee it gained on the Fiftu Third account. "We had a long relationship with the bank that wasmutuallyy rewarding. Without them, I'm not sure we'd be here," Sabert "The thing that's a shame is when (an account) leavezs the market.
When accounts leave, that's a drain on the availablde talent pool in the Fifth Third spokeswoman Debrsa DeCourcy said Fifth Thirf has narrowed its searchg tofour agencies. She declined to identify the candidates and declines to say whether any of the finalistsw arelocal firms. • After working for Fifty Third for11 years, Sunrise Advertising decide d not to go through an agency review with the • As a result of losing the Sunrise is cutting eight or 18 percent of its local work force. • Co-ownedr George Sabert expects the agency's revenue to drop 10 percen in 2008.