Reinventing Goodby Silverstein: The Derek Robson Interview (Pt. 1)

Call it “How Goodby Got Its Groove Back.”

As I reported early last year, legendary ad agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners – increasingly finding itself less relevant in an emerging, transmedia world of user-generated content, mobile, Internet video and more – set an ambitious goal to completely revamp itself for the digital age.

“Our goal is to be unrecognizable 12 months from now,” creative director Jamie Barrett told ADWEEK at the time.

The idea: transform the agency from one known primarily for eye-popping television spots into a bad ass, multiplatform marketing machine.

The effort has clearly paid off.

Over the last year, Goodby has seen revenues leap 20% to $102 million while transforming itself for the future.

Just a year earlier, 80% of the 23-year-old agency’s revenues came from traditional advertising campaigns (and less that 20% coming from digital initiatives). Today, it’s 50/50.

And a team once vexed by what it called “Crispin Envy” for all the attention Crispin Porter+Bogusky was getting for its groundbreaking digital initiatives, found its own footing – and then some - with blockbuster interactive work for the likes of HP's Personal Systems Group, HD DVD Consortium, and Comcast.

Indeed, so remarkable has the transformation been that ADWEEK named the resurgent Goodby as its U.S. Agency of The Year.

And while many have driven this transformation, no one has received more credit as a catalyst for change than Derek Robson, 40, who Goodby recruited from Bartle Bogle Hegarty in London.

As the agency’s new managing partner, Robson immediately began implementing some strategic changes that have helped the agency retool, reconfigure and recalibrate itself for an amazing new era. He broadened the agency’s definition of “creative talent” to include more interactive capabilities – including a new in-house digital animation department. And, perhaps most interesting of all, he combined media and planning under one department.

I recently caught up with Robson for a GEN WOW interview to get his perspective on his approach to fostering transformation, and his advice to marketers and agencies hoping to do the same.

PART 1: Agent Provocateur (Approx 9.25 min.)

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