As the Optus media and creative pitch comes to a close, the company is undergoing a root and branch restructure, with the creation of a standalone Marketing division and numerous redundancies expected.
The restructure will see managing director of the Optus Consumer division Michael Smith become managing director of the Marketing arm.
Under the previous structure, Optus was divided into a Consumer division and an SMB division, each of which contained it own marketing, sales and customer functions.
The new structure will see the company split into three “functional” divisions, which are Marketing, Sales and Customer. Hundreds of redundancies are expected through the internal restructure.
One source has said the movement of Smith is essentially a demotion, which will see him moving from a managing director position to a role which is akin to a marketing director role. But an Optus spokesperson said it is a sideways move.
It is understood the marketing function at Optus will be one of the hardest hit by the restructure. As the marketing departments from the old Consumer division and SMB division are brought together into a single Marketing arm, it is understood there will be numerous redundancies.
Optus declined to comment on how many redundancies would occur, or what divisions would see the most redundancies.
A spokesperson said, “With respect to redundancies, over the past few months we have been undertaking a review of our local operations aimed at creating a stronger organisation with a clearer focus on the customer. Redundancies are likely to result from this review however we are still working through the detail and are not in a position to comment on how many people are likely to be affected at this stage.”
The Optus media and creative pitch is currently coming to a close. AdNews revealed exclusively that Starcom is the frontrunner in the process, and that the agency is likely to be officially appointed within days.
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