GSD&M

GSD&M

Type	Public
Industry	Advertising
Founded	1971
Headquarters	Austin, Texas
Key people	Duff Stewart, CEO Marianne Malina, President Steve Gurasich, co-founder Roy Spence, co-founder Judy Trabulsi, co-founder Tim McClure, co-founder
Employees	400+
Website	www.gsdm.com

GSD&M headquarters in Austin, Texas

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. 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 ^[1] (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 L.L.Bean, Marshalls,^[2] American Legacy Foundation,^[3] Popeyes,^[4] John Deere and ACE Hardware.

Most recently, the agency was awarded the business for Walgreens,^[5] Pacifico and Victoria Beer and HomeAway.

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."^[6] 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.^[7] "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.^[8]

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.^[9]

In 2001, following the September 11th attacks, the firm created the public service announcement short film I am an American for the Ad Council.^[10]

Wal-Mart

From 1987 until January 31, 2007, GSD&M was one of two agencies that held the Wal-Mart account.^{[citation needed]} 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."^[11]

References