BMW Drives Media To GSD&M, Austin Shop May Lose DreamWorks

GSD&M, the Austin, TX-based agency known for its creative work, might lose its big entertainment account, DreamWorks, next year, but it looks to be driving off with BMW's media account.

GSD&M, which recently won BMW's creative account, has also picked up the $160 million media buying and planning account, MDN has learned. That's a significant blow for Publicis' Optimedia unit, which has worked on BMW's media for years, and was a key player in innovative media strategies, such as its landmark BMW Films effort.

Calls to Optimedia executives and to BMW were not returned by press time.

About a month ago, GSD&M won the creative business from BMW after a review among KB+P of New York, The Martin Agency of Richmond, Va., and Anomaly of New York. It has been at Fallon, Minneapolis, which had resigned the account after a decade of work.

GSD&M, however, is also getting some prospective bad news, albeit somewhat expected. Client DreamWorks decision to sell its live action theatrical unit to Paramount Pictures last week, as well as striking a distribution deal for its animated movies with Paramount, is expected to send its $200 million media account to Paramount shop Mediaedge:cia.

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"It'll probably be rolled into Paramount's agency, Mediaedge:cia," said one veteran West Coast theatrical media executive familiar with the situation.

A GSD&M spokesman would not comment, and referred phone calls to the client. DreamWorks executives didn't return phone calls by press time.

A Paramount Pictures spokeswoman would only say, "It's way too early yet to talk about that."

Paramount's media agency is WPP Group's Mediaedge:cia, which took over from Publicis Groupe's MediaVest Worldwide earlier last year. Paramount spent $389 million in U.S. media in 2004, according to TNS Media Intelligence--down 7 percent versus 2003. DreamWorks spent $318 million in total U.S. media spending--double the total of $155.5 million in 2003, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

Depending on the yearly schedule, DreamWorks animated movies comprise 40 to 60 percent of its total yearly media budgets for such titles as "Shrek," "Chicken Run," and "Madagascar," in terms of theatrical and home video entertainment media spending, according to media executives. DreamWorks also gets anywhere from $20 million to $40 million per animated movie from its promotional partners--which in the past have been major companies, such as Burger King.

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