I thought they already were called Idea City. I took this photo last spring, and Idea City is already on the front of the building. Seems like a lame topic for a press release...
Big Changes for GSD&M - WSJ.com:
Advertising agency GSD&M is set to announce as early as today management changes for senior executives and a new name for itself: GSD&M Idea City.
The Austin, Texas, shop, created in 1971 and now a unit of Omnicom Group, has been run by its four founders and was known for its work with clients including Southwest Airlines, Brinker International's Chili's and AT&T. But the ad shop stumbled last year when it lost longtime client Wal-Mart Stores.
...“We knew that in some moment in time that we wanted to pass forward an opportunity for the people who worked with us to build something special,” Mr. Spence says. “GSD&M is who we are, our values and our purpose, but Idea City is what we do.”
The agency's founders will take on new titles. Mr. Spence, who has been president, will become chairman and chief executive officer. Executive Vice President and Executive Media Director Judy Trabulsi will become chairwoman of the agency's leadership council. Steve Gurasich, currently CEO, will become vice chairman, overseeing innovation. And Tim McClure, executive producer of Mythos Studios, will serve as a member of the board and continue as president of Mythos Group, a film-production unit of GSD&M. The founders will also focus on bringing new business to the agency.
Agency veteran and current Chief Operating Officer Duff Stewart will be promoted to president and will head the 16-member leadership council, which will take over day-to-day operations at the shop. The agency will also launch an external search for a “chief idea officer.”
Technorati Tags: advertising, Austin
update: AdAge writer's Brooke Capps and Matthew Creamer claim the reason for the name change is to disguise an agency in disarray. Could be so, but seems improbable.
As of today, the company known for 36 years as GSD&M becomes GSD&M's Idea City.Sure to go unmentioned amidst the Texas-size pomp and circumstance is a sad fact: A once-great agency is adrift. Recently defected or shrinking accounts such Wal-Mart and AT&T haven't been replaced. And GSD&M's time without a big new-business win or truly breakthrough creative work can be measured not in months but in years, eons in an agency business where momentum is everything.
It's not the Alamo yet, but Idea City is already under siege.
In recent months, Chairman-CEO Roy Spence has been under intense pressure from the leadership of parent Omnicom Group, a sure sign of trouble given holding company CEO John Wren's typical hands-off attitude toward his agency brands. The main concern, insiders said, has been the ebb of key clients such as Wal-Mart, Brinker International and AT&T, which most recently shifted lead account duties to Omnicom sibling BBDO. Since that shift, these people said, there has been talk of the much larger agency network absorbing the struggling GSD&M. An Omnicom spokesman couldn't be reached for comment.
Mr. Spence, in an interview Aug. 24, denied any forthcoming changes in his agency's place in the Omnicom organization chart and denied that today's announcements are a reaction to any bad news
Perhaps GSD&M should have remained independent.
