GSD&M
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| The GSD&M logo | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Advertising |
| Founded | Austin, Texas (1971) |
| Headquarters | Austin, Texas |
Key people | Steve Gurasich, co-founder Roy Spence, co-founder Judy Trabulsi, co-founder Jim Darilek, co-founder Tim McClure, co-founder |
Number of employees | 400+ |
| Website | www.gsdm.com www.ideacity.com |
GSD&M Idea City is an advertising agency located in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1971 by graduates of University of Texas at Austin. Since 1998, GSD&M has been part of the Omnicom Group.
The main office of GSD&M is located on 6th Street in Austin, across the street from the Whole Foods Market headquarters. Satellite offices are located in Chicago, Illinois and New York City, New York.
The agency was known as GSD&M until August 27, 2007 when it changed its name to GSD&M's Idea City.[1] "Idea City" was previously the name of the agency's Austin headquarters.
Clients
Of their current clients, some notables are: AT&T, BMW, MasterCard, Hallmark, Southwest Airlines, the U.S. Air Force, the American Red Cross, the PGA TOUR, AARP, and John Deere. They recently added L.L.Bean to their roster in the Spring of 2008. In 1986, the agency created the Don't Mess with Texas anti-litter slogan for the Texas Department of Transportation.
The agency started with local retail accounts and expanded to more regional work. In the 1990s GSD&M began to acquire more national brands outside of Texas and was regarded as a "creative hot-shop."[2]
The agency relinquished Chili's, Dreamworks, Frito-Lay, Fannie Mae and UnitedHealthcare in 2006-2007. The agency's Omnicom sibling, BBDO, was given the lead on the AT&T account, although GSD&M still works on it. However, on August 27, 2007, the same day GSD&M changed its name to GSD&M's Idea City, AT&T announced that it was planning to consolidate its media planning and buying work with one agency. GSD&M, which handled media planning and buying for AT&T's landline services, is one of the incumbent agencies that has been invited to pitch for the business.[3]
AARP
The agency won a regional ADDY for their Divided We Fail campaign and lovable half-donkey half-elephant logo, Champ. [4]
American Legacy Foundation
The American Legacy Foundation was established in 1999 to counter the smoking epidemic. The most recent Idea City campaign is "Become and Ex," shown on the website, BecomeanEx.org [5]
AT&T Real Yellow Pages
Real Yellow Pages provides listings of local business.[4][citation needed]
BMW
Idea City has been with BMW since 2005. The Relearn to Drive campaign won an Effie in 2008, and their 1-series viral effort, the Ramp, received coverage on both CNN [6] CNN Money.com; and the Wall Street Journal [7]
Hallmark
Idea City works with the Hallmark mass channel brand, and the agency added the client to the roster in January 2006.[citation needed]
John Deere
John Deere was added to the Agency’s roster in June 2007.[8]
Kohler
Idea City’s concepted the “Bold Look of Kohler” tagline and print work.[citation needed]
Lennox
Idea City has helped Lennox achieve record sales years for 2005 and 2006.[citation needed]
MasterCard
As their media agency, Idea City has worked with Mastercards Priceless campaign for over a decade.[citation needed]
Marshalls
GSD&M Idea City added Marshalls to their roster in June 2008. [9]
NCL
Idea City has helped define the relaxed, "Freestyle Cruising" approach. NCL is distinguished from its competitors by not having a formal cruise itinerary.[10]
PGA Tour
Idea city helped develop the tag-line, These Guys are Good.[citation needed]
Popeyes
GSD&M Idea City also added Popeyes to their roster in June 2008. [11]
American Red Cross
GSDM's Idea City helped develop the advertising materials for the American Red Cross.[citation needed]
Southwest Airlines
As an agency client for over 27 years, Idea City has helped translate their low fares into their freedom-to-fly mantra [12] Today, they are now one of the largest carrier of domestic passengers in the country and the most consecutively profitable airline in the industry. [13]
Texas A&M
Idea City has helped with the repositioning Texas A&M.[citation needed]
United States Air Force
Idea City helped conceive the “Do Something Amazing Campaign” and the new, “Above All” tagline used by the USAF. [14]
Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM
Idea City currently does the creative and media for Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM [15]
Wal-Mart
From 1987 until 31 January, 2007, GSD&M was one of two agencies that held the Wal-Mart account. In October 2006, Wal-Mart moved its $580-million account to Draftfcb, but Draftfcb soon lost the account when, on 7 December 2006, Wal-Mart fired two marketing executives who had led the account review and initiated a second review, alleging that the executives had accepted gifts from the agencies under consideration.
Draftfcb was not permitted to participate in the second review. GSD&M was invited to take part, but declined. "We helped build Wal-Mart from $11 billion in sales to $312 billion," said one of the agency's founders, Roy Spence, "We declare victory, and we are moving on."[16]
Trivia
The founders noted that their initials, which formed the company's name, could also stand for "Greed, Sex, Drugs, and Money", all of which could be factors in an advertising campaign. [17]
References
- ^ "Idea City: GSD&M Retools for the Future," Adweek Online December 27 2007. [1]
- ^ Imperato, Gina (1997). "Greetings from Idea City". Fast Company. Retrieved 2008-08-09.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Steve McClellan, "AT&T Media Contest Begins," Adweek Online December 27 2007. [2]
- ^ http://www.austinadfed.com/about_press.shtml Austin Advertising Federation
- ^ http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=79507 MediaPost, March 31, 2008
- ^ http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/25/news/economy/cho_bmw/index.htm?postversion=2008062517
- ^ http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB121391470578790089-fNEzO7uAqg5WRiEDSfDRX6_aRVE_20080719.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top June 20th, 2008.
- ^ “GSD&M wins Deere ad account” June 19, 2007 Austin American Statesman
- ^ AdWeek, “GSD&M Snares pair” http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/account-activity/e3ie4014cd99a43c45e582fc782c0451fd7
- ^ “Norwegian Cruise Line Floats 'Unrestricted' Vacation Idea”, May 15th 2007. Brandweek
- ^ AdWeek, “GSD&M Snares pair” http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/account-activity/e3ie4014cd99a43c45e582fc782c0451fd7
- ^ Chicago Sun Times, June 6th 2006. “Southwest has an edge in Rare Fight”.
- ^ “Southwest. Way Southwest”; New York Times; February 13,2008; http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/business/13southwest.html
- ^ “GSD&M keeps USAF] April 3rd, 2008 Adweek http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3i2eba2a8405f7548266ebecbad5f6ce7d
- ^ http://adage.com/agencynews/article?article_id=123122
- ^ Stuart Elliot, "Why an Agency Said No to Wal-Mart," New York Times 15 December 2006, p. C4.
- ^ Mark Morrison, "Herb Kelleher on the Record, Part 3," BusinessWeek Online December 24 2003. [3]