GSD&M

GSD&M is an advertising agency headquartered in Austin, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1971 by graduates of University of Texas at Austin – Roy Spence, Judy Trabulsi, Tim McClure and Steve Gurasich, and others, as AdVantage Associates.^[1] After the 1972 political campaign for former Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough, it re-organized with the 4 principals, as GSD&M. Since 1998, GSD&M has been part of the Omnicom Group. A satellite office is located in Chicago, Illinois.

Clients

Longtime clients include: Southwest Airlines ^[2] (30+ years), the PGA Tour (20+ years), Lennox International (15+ years), AT&T (15+ years), the U.S. Air Force (10+ years). Other notable clients include Walgreens,^[3] PetSmart,^[4] Northwestern Mutual,^[5] Popeyes,^[6] John Deere and Goodyear.^[7]

Recently the agency was awarded the business for Chipotle^[8] and Hampton Inn and Suites.^[9]

History

The agency started with local retail accounts and expanded to more regional work. In 1986, the agency created the Don't Mess with Texas anti-litter slogan for the Texas Department of Transportation.

In the 1990s GSD&M began to acquire more national brands outside of Texas and was regarded as a "creative hot-shop."^[12] 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 has a portion of the business.

The agency was known as GSD&M until August 27, 2007 when it changed its name to GSD&M's Idea City.^[13] "Idea City" was previously the name of the agency's Austin headquarters. The "Idea City" name was dropped from the firm name in January 2011.^[14]

On February 5, 2009, GSD&M founder Roy Spence published It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For. The book, co-authored with Haley Rushing, is a business book that suggests the key to high-performing organizations is that they have a purpose. Purpose, according to the book, is defined as “a definitive statement about the difference you are trying to make in the world.”

GSD&M uses "Purpose-based branding" in its approach to their clients.^[15]

In 2001, following the September 11th attacks, the firm created the public service announcement short film I am an American for the Ad Council.^[16]

Wal-Mart

From 1987 until January 31, 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 lost the account when, December 7, 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."^[17]

References