"We're very excited to have Dom & Nic," explains Tom Gilmour, senior VP group creative director at GSD&M. "They are very talented with a style that is perfect for what we want to showcase for the PGA."

The campaign will feature various players on the tour, highlighting their shot-making abilities and obsession with the perfection of golf.

"The spots are essentially comedic situations showing the obsession that these guys go through," continues Gilmour. "The spots show golfing in unusual, unpredictable situations - for example, one spot has a golfer carving out a green in his living room with a lawnmower."

The agency continues to supply branding, creative and media planning to some of the most recognized brands in America, stepping up its pace of late to include a Kohler campaign (shot by Dominic Murphy of Partizan, currently in post with 501 Post's Angelo Valencia). Also, Dial soap recently selected GSD&M to handle its $15-20 million personal cleansing business.

"We've kept busy with the upcoming launch of Kohler, the US Air Force work that will be shot in August, plus a new branding campaign for Land Rover to be shot next month," explains Jan Wieringa, senior vice president, head of broadcast production and Idea Studio at GSD&M.

Idea Studio is a venture that Wieringa feels has much potential as a division of GSD&M. It will focus on projects outside the realm of traditional commercials in areas such as film, music and TV.

"We have a couple of small movie projects that are already happening - an Imax movie for the Texas Museum plus a screenplay we're putting together to be taken out to the studios this fall," outlines Wieringa. "We won't try to produce it, as it's in the $75 million range, but it will be something for us to receive a nice credit on."

Preparations are also afoot for GSD&M to launch a small independent film division funded by outside investment to specialize on flicks in the $500,000 range.

"Part of the reason [for opening the film division] is to attract interesting talent to Austin; the biggest challenge I see here in Texas is to attract better and better talent," explains Wieringa. "We're also starting to look at sponsored programming a la BMWfilms, carefully considering which of our client might be willing to do something unusually different."

Wieringa is aware that careful consideration is the name of the game in the new media league.

"I'm spending a lot of time looking at each account to decipher which ones we can approach with some new ideas," she says.

"Any agency that isn't trying this stuff and giving those opportunities to their clients might get left behind. There will always be room for the more conventional, traditional advertising but to stay ahead in the creative business you need to be on the cutting edge of what's happening out there."

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