5 Minutes with… Otis D. Gibson

Twenty-one years is a long time to run an independent agency, particularly one that has grown largely through relationships rather than relentless pitching or PR. But that’s exactly how Otis D. Gibsonhas built GERTRUDE.

Founded in Chicago after a career that took Otis through agencies such as Leo Burnett and DDB in New York, London, Paris and Chicago,, GERTRUDE began as an attempt to create the kind of creative environment he wanted to spend the rest of his career in. Over time, that vision has expanded into a multi-disciplinary business working with brands like Coca-Cola, Mattel, Fisher-Price and Diageo.

Alongside its core strategy and brand development work, GERTRUDE now includes divisions dedicated to digital design, experiential, architecture and content innovation, allowing the agency to approach storytelling without being tied to a single format or channel.

LBB’s Addison Capper caught up with Otis to reflect on how a chance introduction to the industry set him on this path, the philosophy behind GERTRUDE’s steady growth, and how the role of agencies has shifted over the past two decades, as clients increasingly seek deeper collaboration and business partnership.

LBB> You started GERTRUDE 21 years ago. When you look back at yourself “falling in love with the work” (to quote you) back then, what would surprise you most about where the agency is now?

Otis> Being 21 years old now, I’m sort of reconciling that. I wouldn’t say we’ve ‘made it’, but I would say 21 years isn’t nothing.

And we work for Coca-Cola, Mattel, Fisher-Price, Diageo. I have to pinch myself. In that aspect, I’m still falling in love with the work. Because it’s working for your heroes – the brands you grew up loving. You’re going from a call with the Coca-Cola Company, and then you hang up and you’re getting on a call with Mattel. This is daily. That takes a little getting used to, and maybe one day we’ll be used to it.

But I don’t take it for granted. I’m still in awe that we’re able to do what we’re doing. The key is keeping it fun and maintaining that sense of optimism every day, which is very difficult to do in this world. But at least when I walk in the doors here, it should be a joyful place.

It’s hard work, it’s stressful, it’s got all the things that come with running a business. I’m not going to romanticise it. But it’s supposed to be fun. We spend more of our days in this building than at home, so I don’t want to spend most of my time in a place that isn’t fun.

LBB> You’re 21 years old, independent and you have never done tons of PR or anything like that. So, how have you grown the agency? How have you built relationships with these clients? And how does joy and good energy influence that?

Otis> Obviously, there’s a lot more to it, but I think it takes a healthy dose of optimism and belief in yourself – and belief in your team. Because it’s not just me. There are more people who’ve been along for the ride. My president, Heather Knapp, has been here for 15 years. She’s been a co-pilot. We’ve white-knuckled it together. And then I have creatives who’ve been here for 10 years, five years, even 15. People stick around.

One aspect is that every project we did had to lead us to another project. That was something we consistently kept our eyes on – especially in the beginning, when we weren’t working with Fortune 100 brands. Maybe we were working on a small piece, or someone let us in the building on a tiny project. But that project – the thinking behind it – had to be big enough to get us to a bigger one.

It’s been a ladder, rung-by-rung mentality. That’s how we built the shop.

I used to have our work displayed all around the agency, and I’d say, if I ever saw anything crappy on the wall, it would have to come down – it meant we were doing something wrong. As long as you’re walking through the agency and the work around you is something you’re proud of, you’re OK.

LBB> And how do you feel the role of an agency has evolved? As an agency owner, is it still much the same in your mind?

Otis> Absolutely not. I feel there’s a lot more collaboration now. They want to partner, to come along for the ride, and to understand that the agency can no longer run away, create a secret formula, and come back with magic.

There’s a lot more accountability through collaboration – working on how we solve a problem together, no secret rooms. That’s a big difference. We’re fortunate to have information shared with us that’s very confidential and internal. None of it is creatively focused; it’s about the business, the numbers, what they’re trying to accomplish as an organisation. Creativity and strategy are the means for us to achieve that goal.

That’s a privilege compared to how it was in the beginning, when – and maybe it depends on the scale of the client – agencies were often treated as, ‘Here’s some money, now go make a pretty thing for me to show off my product.’ That’s a huge difference, and we’re seeing more of that change across every facet of the business.

LBB> And it’s a good way for you to prove the value of what you do.

Otis> There’s no faking it. No BS or pretending. Either you understand business or you don’t. If you’re going to say, ‘Oh, I’m just a creative’, then OK, you’ll be treated like that. But if you want to be a business partner – a collaborative business partner whose output is creative – that’s a much more desirable place to be.

LBB> How did you actually end up doing this? You were 19 when you got into advertising – what made you fall in love with it?

Otis> The old-fashioned way: my friend’s dad got me a job at an agency.

I had a friend from high school who was my roommate in college. His dad worked at an agency in New York and said, ‘Hey, you’d probably really like this. We have an internship available. I can set up an interview for you.’

I can’t lie about it – it was a fortunate opportunity that just presented itself. I’d never heard of an agency, never been to one, never thought about one. I was interested in design, but that was it. Then I walked into the agency and was blown away that all the cool stuff I saw on screen was being made there. I thought, I want that job.

LBB> Right place, right time!

Otis> Frank – the guy who got me my start – really changed the trajectory of my life. Because not only did he introduce me to something new, it turned out to be something I was fluent in. And I was actually on my way to law school. I was studying architecture. It would’ve been a very different life.

I walked into an agency and immediately understood it. I didn’t know what I was doing, didn’t know what I was looking at, but it felt right. It was intuitive. And it turned out I wasn’t bad at it – I was actually pretty good.

LBB> And how did it come to be that you launched your own agency?

Otis> I worked in New York, then in London for a while, Paris for a while, North Carolina, and eventually moved to Chicago to work at Leo Burnett. I was there for a couple of years, and I basically ran out of places to work in Chicago. I loved the city – I freelanced there, met amazing friends there – but I’d already worked at DDB, Element 79, Burnett. I was either going to move back to New York or go overseas again.

But I really loved Chicago and thought, I want to see if I can set up the kind of place I want to work at for the rest of my career. What does that shop look like? I’m going to go build it.

So I set out to create my own job. And I’m incredibly happy I did, because there were some realisations I’m glad I had in my mid-career, in my early 30s. I looked around and thought, it’s never going to say ‘Leo Burnett and Otis Gibson’ on this building. I should probably find a way to have some sort of independence. But again, that’s just my mentality.

LBB> You mentioned that whenever you take on a project, you think about how it can lead to a better one. So, as a business owner, how do you balance taking calculated risks versus playing it safe, knowing the consequences ultimately land with you?

Otis> It comes down to a couple of things. Category is a big deal in this business. Is it a category that GERTRUDE can win in? Is it one we understand? Is it one we can excel in? There’s no reason to put yourself where you can’t win – that’s foolish.

A few years ago, we mapped out a shift when we went from calling ourselves an agency to a consultancy. GERTRUDE doesn’t like to pitch. No agency likes to pitch, but we really don’t do well in that blind-dating scenario.

The second truth was that clients who hire GERTRUDE aren’t just looking for an agency – they’re looking for GERTRUDE to solve problems the GERTRUDE way.

The third thing is that clients who feel they need a category-specific agency are generally not a good fit for us. For example, if a car company says, ‘We need an agency that only works on cars’, well, there are maybe four agencies like that. Goodbye. We shouldn’t even pursue that business, because they want an agency that will make the same kind of work they’ve always made. And that’s fine.

That applies across every category – CPG, alcohol, whatever. The clients we succeed with are the ones who say, ‘We understand you’re incredibly smart, and you approach our business in a unique, creative way. We’d like to see what you can do for us.’

That’s where we calculate risk. We want to push the work, not repeat the formula. If a client feels they need to see 500 QSR spots before they feel we can make a burger commercial, we’re not the right fit for them.

LBB> In terms of interesting and unique ways to tell stories, you have the capabilities of GERTRUDE, and then you’ve got subsidiary companies as well. So I guess your options for how you tell those stories are quite far-reaching within the business?

Otis> Correct. And I’m very proud of this – we don’t have a predetermined way of telling stories. We’re not leading with TV first or print first. Some stories need to be told through activations, some are social-first.

We’re working on a couple of things that are literally designed to be told one-to-one on social. So we like to keep ourselves open to that approach and not have a predetermined format, like a TV commercial, three outdoor boards, two print ads, one newspaper ad, and one radio spot. It just doesn’t work that way anymore.

LBB> In an op ed you wrote for LBB, you stressed your opinion that independence is the ideal for most agencies. How do you feel about that opinion?

Otis> I don’t have any ill feelings toward holding companies. The same way I don’t feel like we’re competing with another agency. I’m not competing with anyone but me and us. There are 8 or 9 billion people on the planet. There’s room for everyone. Go and thrive.

But you’re right. It's become even more glaringly obvious what the benefits of independence are. If you really break it down and ask, what do you need from a holding company? What is a holding company actually offering?

It’s a bit like a bank. A bank says, ‘We’ll lend you money to buy your dream home.’ Great – but now I owe you for 30 years, and technically, you own the home. It’s similar with a holding company. What do I really need from you?

LBB> And there's the scalability aspect. 

Otis> That’s not to say there aren’t benefits. There are, particularly in terms of scalability. We’ve thought about that. We’ve looked around and asked, ‘Where does GERTRUDE want to go next? How do we want to get there? Do we want to scale? What’s going to make us happy?’

Scaling could mean pursuing more clients and perhaps a partnership with a holding company that gives us greater access. But as part of that, we’d have to give up a piece of our independence. And once you do that, your entire business model changes. You have to answer to someone else.

We don’t like saying no to business – I’m in business to take business. But under that model, your joy is at risk. You might find yourself having a bad day but still needing to take on work just to keep the machine fed. It’s like in life – the mortgage is due, the car payment’s due, the kids need to eat, the dog’s hungry and doesn’t have a job – so you get up and do what you have to do.

But this is one part of life where we can preserve independence. Where we can say, we’re making a living doing work we love. It’s not about being precious, but about protecting the magic. Before we ever partner with a holding company, we’d have to ask, what are we going to lose?

That’s a big gamble. And frankly, I haven’t found the nerve to leap off that cliff yet. I’ve stood at the edge and thought, I don’t know… I might hit a rock on the way down.

Written by Addison Capper. Read the original feature at LBB