Why Goodby Silverstein & Partners Is Opening an Office in New York Again

The revolving doors of Goodby Silverstein & Partners' New York office have swung open once again. Five years ago, the San Francisco-based Omnicom agency closed GS&P New York after less than three years in business in the wake of Comcast's failed merger with Time Warner. During its initial run, the New York office independently won new business with the New York Post, Zillow-owned StreetEasy and ZocDoc. At its peak, the office employed nearly 20, but was down to eight employees when it closed. While a number of GS&P employees have been working out of various locations in New York over the past couple of years, the agency has now made its return to Manhattan official by opening up a new office at 200 Varick Street. The office's leadership team includes executive creative directors Danny Gonzalez and David Suarez, who have partnered with clients Liberty Mutual and Pepsi across coasts, as well as on new business efforts; group brand strategy director Katie Coane, who returned to the agency after a stint at Droga5 and works across Comcast and Liberty Mutual; account and operations director Katie Lancaster, who also rejoins the agency from Droga5 and Cam Miller, who returned to the agency after a stint at Grey New York as creative director for Liberty Mutual. Suarez will physically join the New York team in the spring. We caught up with GS&P via email for a few questions regarding the decision to return to New York and open up an office during a pandemic. The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. Adweek: Which clients is the New York office servicing? GS&P executive creative director Danny Gonzalez: We're currently working with Pepsi and Liberty Mutual Insurance. We just won three new pieces of business that we’ll be announcing really soon. GS&P NYC also created last year's holiday shoppable windows for PayPal, which won a Gold One Show Pencil. GS&P managing partner Brian McPherson: Since the start, we’ve embraced a bicoastal model. So every client we work with that has an east coast presence has team members from both offices. We think it’s a good way to stay connected culturally and practically to things in SF. How did client relationships impact the decision? To what extent did new business wins influence the decision? McPherson: We had a collection of leaders and staffers who wanted to move to New York, yet didn't want to leave GS&P. In a sense, we opened this office not because we had clients asking for it, but because we had our people asking for it. Having an office in New York makes a lot of sense for a number of reasons, but the office's opening was driven more by current and former employees who found themselves in New York for different reasons, but still really wanted to be a part of GS&P. How much of a factor did access to talent play in driving the decision? GS&P partner, CCO Margaret Johnson: New York City has always been a center of fashion, music, art and culture. This opens up a new pool of diverse and talented people for GS&P. Why did GS&P decide to open this new office now? Gonzalez: We’ve been slowly growing our presence in New York City for a few years. And now on the heels of new business wins and some work we’re really proud of on Liberty Mutual and Pepsi, it felt like the right time to finally make it public. What went into the decision to open an actual office space when it may still be some time before office space environments are safe to fully reopen? Did GS&P consider officially operating in New York without a physical office location? How long has this move been in the works? Gonzalez: We’ve had teams working out of different office spaces throughout the city since 2018, most recently calling 75 Varick Street home. But over the summer a larger space became available at 200 Varick Street, so we "moved" there, and we're patiently waiting to break in the new office. How might this move impact new business opportunities and strategy for GS&P? McPherson: We have a great current roster of East Coast clients, including Pepsi in New York, Comcast in Philadelphia, BMW in New Jersey and Liberty Mutual and the Boston Beer Company in Boston. While everyone is remote right now, the hope is this will be an open door for more to come. This news comes just five years after GS&P closed its New York office. In retrospect, was that decision premature? McPherson: We felt that closing the office several years ago—which at the time was about eight people—was the right decision for the time. That office primarily was opened to help service our largest client, Comcast. When a New York presence became less of a client priority, while a difficult and sad decision, there wasn’t a business reason to keep it open. It's the main reason that this time around, we have approached it differently, with this bicoastal model in mind. And we want to work on things together. Since the office closing in 2015, we've won many large East Coast clients like Boston Beer, BMW, Liberty Mutual and Pepsi. Gonzalez: No one in New York wants to create a different or separate culture here; we are all just GS&P. We think of ourselves as one office that just happens to have people in two locations.