Webfluential: influencer firm to shutter agency operations

Influencer marketing company Webfluential has confirmed that it will be shutting down its local agency operations, Memeburn has learnt.

The news comes after Webfluential announced that it would be “increasing its local partnerships” in 2017.

The company said that it would be offering a self-service platform for brands to manage campaigns. It added that for more complex campaigns, it has recruited “strategic partners”.

Webfluential also said that its existing account managers would be working from within these partners.

However, a source has contacted Memeburn to dispute the claims.

“As for their account managers that will be ‘working from within the partners’, they have told their whole operational team (including account managers) that they no longer have work,” the source alleged.

Webfluential has confirmed that agency operations in South Africa will be left to partners

Webfluential co-founder Murray Legg responded to the source’s comments, telling Memeburn that employees working in the agency division have indeed been offered employment at partners.

“Webfluential is no longer operating its agency business in 2017, all retail and execution is being channeled through the partners that were on-boarded recently, that now run the Webfluential technology,” Legg elaborated.

“For the staff that work in the agency division, to ensure continuity and career growth, they’ve all been offered positions at the various partners. The source’s interpretation of this is rather extreme, but all due processes are being observed with the staff.”

The co-founder added that staff in the agency division have been offered “their exact roles within the partners” with no change to their benefits or salaries. Legg said that this has already happened with four staff in November, moving to Clockwork Media.

No retrenchments, co-founder says

The source claimed that employees were “being pushed to resign instead of receiving formal retrenchment packages”. But Legg says the company is following the law when it comes to dealing with affected employees.

“As per the employment act, they are given the option of changing employers under the same contract or electing to transition to another position and then terminate their own employment contract.”

Legg added that “nobody has been made redundant, or will be retrenched”.