Roy Spence
He won't let Austin ad agency GSD and M grow stale
GSD and M cofounder Roy Spence credits "naivete" with helping the Austin advertising agency create campaigns such as "Don't Mess With Texas" and Southwest Airlines' "You are now free to move about the country." Located light-years away from Madison Avenue, GSD and M's founders "didn't have anyone to talk to when we did this," says Spence. "We didn't know any better." They spent time talking to entrepreneurs, not other industry types, giving them a better view of what clients needed. The result: The agency took more risks, like telling Southwest Airlines to paint Sea World's Shamu across airplanes.
The distance also kept the agency from emulating the executive layering of most ad firms. While the industry may be in the creativity business, the structure of many firms remains stodgy, says Spence. He says that he learned to put some thought into company culture from Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and Southwest chief Herb Kelleher, making GSD and M a fun and egalitarian place to work. At Spence's agency, everyone-including managers-works on client business. That emphasis on relationships has allowed GSD and M to hang on to Wal-Mart's business since 1987, a rarity in an arena where most companies switch agencies every few years. Spence was meeting last week with Wal-Mart executives in Bentonville, Ark., to help them on a new campaign.
The agency's hands-on approach led it to create "Don't Mess With Texas," its famous antilitter campaign 20 years ago. Cofounder Tim McClure thought up the slogan after an early-morning stroll through his trash-strewn neighborhood. Spence says GSD and M saw that most antilitter campaigns targeted people who already pick up after themselves. The agency wanted to create a message that would "go after a 16-year-old in Tyler, Texas, who thinks it's a rite of passage to throw beer cans out the window," says Spence. The campaign appealed to the Lone Star State's strong sense of pride.
After 35 years in business, Spence says that he refuses to let GSD and M grow stale-by staying curious. Next up is an online networking tool that will allow agency employees to collaborate with authors, writers, and poets. The firm already has Generations authors William Strauss and Neil Howe on retainer, because Spence sees targeting various generations as the next big marketing trend. "I know people talk about this," he says, "but we are all over it."
This story appears in the September 25, 2006 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.