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The US hotshop Goodby, Silverstein & Partners faces the perennial

problem of all great agencies - how to maintain its unique creative

culture while delivering sufficient growth to please its owner, the

Omnicom group.

Now the San Francisco agency, which is renowned for award-winning, fresh

and unpredictable advertising such as the recent ’Louie the Lizard’

campaign for Budweiser, has announced a creative restructure.

Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein, its founders and two of the most

respected creatives in the ad business, are handing over day-to-day

creative responsibilities to the next generation - Steve Simpson, 40,

and Paul Venables, 34.

It’s a reaction to years of high-octane effort by the founders - Goodby

has said he was starting to feel like ’a creative-direction vending

machine’ - and a chance to give other creatives the opportunity to

shine.

A group of about ten associate creative directors will report to Simpson

and Venables and will be given greater control over the accounts on

which they work.

Silverstein explains: ’If you empower talented people they will rise to

the challenge.’

But the decision to take more of a back seat was also prompted by a

desire to focus their attentions on the long-term future strategy of the

agency.

’We are still going to be involved, but we will be guiding the

positioning,’ Silverstein says.

The 16-year-old agency is performing well. It posted billings of dollars

671 million last year, a significant increase on the previous year’s

dollars 395 million. In the face of such growth the founders must fight

to stay faithful to the Goodby brand.

Goodby Silverstein still has a ’boutique’ mentality - something the

partners are determined to maintain, whatever the size of the

agency.

However, healthy billings and the ever increasing list of global clients

- including Hewlett- Packard and Pepsi - mean that a substantial part of

the partners’ new role will include addressing expansion.

There have been rumours that the agency is opening offices in New York

and Silverstein says that this is something he still has to address.

’Agencies have to evolve - you can’t be stagnant,’ he says.

Silverstein hints that European expansion, perhaps into London, could be

on the cards. He says: ’Rather than draft in a European agency, we would

prefer to do it ourselves. The world has just become too small.’

The partners have also expressed an interest in setting up a production

company - or making TV programmes or films - in order to give staff

further opportunities to explore their ideas.

Silverstein is confident that they are leaving the reins in capable

hands.

He says: ’Steve and Paul know the culture pretty well.’ He is adamant

that they won’t need to interfere with their creative management,

saying: ’We really respect their opinion. That has never been an

issue.’

He adds: ’The Goodby brand has always been maintained by the personality

of the people who are in the company at the time. I don’t see that

changing.’