With persistence and a fondness for Sun Tzu, GSD&M gets Land Rover and much more

On an unusually warm afternoon last March in Austin, Texas, about 400 GSD&M employees, some in T-shirts and sleeveless blouses, gathered outside the agency's front doors. As traffic crawled past the shop's trademark glass walls and palm trees, one vehicle turned off Sixth Street and slowly climbed the agency's concrete steps. It was a Land Rover.In characteristic showman fashion, agency president Roy Spence jumped on top of the SUV to break the news: The shop had won the spirited contest for the $40 million Land Rover business. Cheers and applause erupted. The Land Rover account helped push GSD&M over the magical $1 billion mark in billings—the first Southwest agency to scale such heights. For a shop that was already a heavyweight, last year brought a financial windfall. Adding more than $150 million in new business—and even more from existing clients—the agency boosted billings by 21 percent and revenue by 40 percent. Those gains, along with a stellar reel and a solid management team, make GSD&M Adweek's Southwest Agency of the Year for the sixth time. "Although clients might not be spending more in media, our efforts are much more comprehensive, and we have been rewarded for it," says Spence, 52. Land Rover, a landmark win for GSD&M that puts it into the coveted automotive category, is a case in point. The agency pursued the account with unprecedented vigor. Before attending a briefing with the client, it completed some comprehensive and costly homework: interviewing employees at nearly every one of Land Rover's roughly 65 dealerships nationwide. "We fanned out for a month, had 10-15 people on the road calling in and sending fax updates," Spence says. When the new-business team, led by the recently recruited Deborah Cavanagh, 43, finally sat down with Land Rover, they were confident. As it turned out, their saturation technique matched an internal research process at Land Rover known as "getting dipped in green"—a reference to the automaker's green logo. "One of the things they told us after the pitch is we were already dipped in green without even having the business," says Spence. Within weeks, the research led to the "Courage" branding campaign. The first spot, showing a couple rescuing a stray dog on a highway, had little to do with Land Rover's functionality. But its uplifting, emotional spirit resonated with consumers and generated thousands of supportive calls and e-mails to the company. It also boosted sales, says Land Rover representative Mark Schirmer. "That campaign started in the spring and ran through June, July and August. We were running ahead of '99 during those months, and July 2000 was the best month ever for any year for the Discovery," says Schirmer. "The category is very crowded now, so we have to be distinctive about what we stand for," says Spence. "Value-based branding is at our core." For Spence and the three other top executives—CEO Steve Gurasich, 52, executive media director Judy Trabulsi, 52, and evp Tim McClure, 53—the challenges of growth are varied. One major hurdle comes from the U.S. Air Force's $50 million account, which GSD&M recently wrested in a review from longtime incumbent Bozell Kamstra in Irving, Texas. The Air Force contract, initially fee- and incentive-based, was rewritten during the review to be completely incentive-based. Before GSD&M sees a dime of profit above cost of labor, the client must register a 2 percent increase in recruiting. (The goal is 34,800 recruits.) The edict follows the first year in the Air Force's history in which it failed to meet its recruiting goal. "They were pretty thorough with their contract," Spence says with a laugh. "But we are so confident with this brand and our research. ... We believe very strongly we will build their business and help them recruit and retain the best of class." To explain his strategy, Spence quotes Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu on the art of war: "Know thy enemy, know thy friends and know thyself." "We want to know our competitors, ourselves and our market constituency," he explains. "We're practitioners. When we're at our best, we're strategists. We bring flanking maneuvers. The basic premise of Sun Tzu is, if you are positioned correctly, you will win before you fight. That is our position. We will win before we enter the marketplace

Brand Marketing

With persistence and a fondness for Sun Tzu, GSD&M gets Land Rover and much more

Adweek Staff

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