GSD&M's Idea City
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| GSD&M Idea City | |
|---|---|
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| Type | Public |
| 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 |
| Industry | Advertising |
| Employees | 879 |
| 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.
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[edit] 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, World Market, 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 early 1990s GSD&M began to acquire more national brands outside of Texas and was regarded as a "creative hot-shop."[citation needed]
[edit] 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."[2]
In addition to the Wal-Mart account, the agency also 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]
[edit] 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. Company clients still jokingly make a note of this nickname. [4]
[edit] References
- ^ "Idea City: GSD&M Retools for the Future," Adweek Online December 27, 2007. [1]
- ^ Stuart Elliot, "Why an Agency Said No to Wal-Mart," New York Times 15 December 2006, p. C4.
- ^ Steve McClellan, "AT&T Media Contest Begins," Adweek Online December 27, 2007. [2]
- ^ Mark Morrison, "Herb Kelleher on the Record, Part 3," BusinessWeek Online December 24, 2003. [3]
