Kirk Souder wrote down his notion of what an entrepreneurial boutique ad agency should be and proceeded to go out and launch it with partner Court Crandall in 1993. The shop was Ground Zero and it went from a handful of staffers to about 100 in a relatively short span and turned out assorted pieces of lauded work over the years–and continues to do so today, well after Souder’s departure.
From the grass-roots origin of that shop, Souder went on in ’03 to become part of the multi-national Publicis organization, becoming president/executive creative director of Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco. During his tenure there, the shop created notable content for HP and Sprint, among others.
But Souder longed for a change that went beyond the advertising world. Over the years, prior to and extending throughout his advertising career, Souder, a cancer survivor, has been counseling cancer patients. He found this endeavor personally gratifying and wanted to get better at it so he left the ad biz in fall of ’05 to study at the University of Santa Monica and pursue a Master’s degree in spiritual psychology.
His experience there not only improved his prowess in counseling but crystallized his desire to be involved in creating content that helps to promote positive change in people. He thus created and directed a documentary, titled Freedom To Choose, about women lifers in a Central California prison that could now serve as a catalyst for rehabilitation of prisoners there and in other institutions throughout the state..
And then came the recent serendipitous career match of Souder now being able to tackle other social causes and promote positive, life affirming change in the newly created role of executive creative director/partner at GMMB, a leading strategic communications firm specializing in issues and advocacy..
SHOOT: What caused you to gravitate to the opportunity at GMMB?
Souder: My studies in spiritual psychology centered me in wanting to be involved in content that creates positive change for people. My documentary sprung from that and when I began looking around for my next career step, this firm–GMMB– came into my world. When I researched GMMB and saw their list of brands and clients, it was like a greatest hits list of causes that I wanted to create content for–from Save Darfur to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for Health Care Reform to Obama America.
Here is an agency with a business mantra to do the kind of work I wanted to do. Thankfully it all culminated in my joining in the newly created position of executive creative director and partner. This is the perfect match for me, uncannily well timed. I think it is something that was meant to be. I don’t believe in accidents.
My family and I have moved to Washington, D.C. which is where the social advocacy world is centered. Right now D.C. is an exciting place to be. But if someone had told me six months ago when I started to do this search that I’d relocate from Los Angeles to D.C., I absolutely would not have believed it.
The other major dynamic that attracted me to GMMB is the group of people throughout its offices. These people have an internalized belief that what they’re doing is worthwhile and important. They are good hearted activists who are respectful and kind to each other.
SHOOT: You were diagnosed years ago with terminal cancer and wound up beating the disease. From this came your taking on peer-to-peer counseling for cancer patients which in turn led to your studies at the University of Santa Monica and a new career path in advertising. Take us through that journey.
Souder: I’ve been doing peer-to-peer counseling for 20 years. Five years after my last surgery, I became a counselor at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. That continued for quite some time and then I started to get referrals from other doctors and different people who knew me.
I became involved with different cancer patient advocacy organizations and have continued counseling to this day.
One of the main reasons I pursued the Master’s degree in spiritual psychology was to get even better at counseling. My studies helped me do that but they also made me fully realize that I want to help people through the creation of content that I put out into the world.
My one-on-one counseling is helping people on a personal level. But the work I do professionally can help on a mass level. In a sense they’re both very much geared to healing and making a positive difference.
SHOOT: Tell us about Freedom To Choose, the documentary you did prior to joining GMMB.
Souder: It centered on a lifer, Rhonda Leland, at Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, a town in Central California. She was helped by and is now helping others through a spiritual psychology program from the University of Santa Monica that helps get inmates out of the sense of “victimhood” and what put them in prison in the first place so that upon release into society they are free internally and thus can be highly functioning and constructive. And they can also be that if they’re still in prison.
It’s a rehabilitation program that the prison system in California has become so taken with that they are interested in having their staff people and parole boards trained in it.
Right now there’s a 20-minute version of the branded content documentary which the University of Santa Monica has been using as a web marketing tool.
Over the next couple of months we plan to wrap up the feature-length version of the documentary with the intent of getting it exposure on the festival circuit and through some kind of broadcast or theater distribution.
SHOOT: What tops your agenda at GMMB as its creative director? What lessons did you learn at Ground Zero and at Publicis & Hal Riney that you now bring to GMMB?
Souder: The prime focus is to bring into the creative mix the idea of huge creative platforms for the brands and causes we believe in. The platforms have to be capable of being multi-channel and well integrated across the board so that we can make the greatest impact possible for a brand, a social advocacy client and for corporate social responsibility.
One of the really unique tools and services that traditional agencies don’t have is fully in place here at GMMB–a whole department geared to making creative platforms that spur on grass-roots movements.
In many respects, my agency experience is well suited for GMMB today. Ground Zero was very much a shop that grew from a grass-roots foundation. Then I was at Publicis which is a multi-national firm.
On one hand GMMB is a very independently minded shop. At the same time it is a global company with offices all over the U.S. and in London. GMMB is both big and small simultaneously. And it’s a place where people love what they do.
At traditional agencies, you would live for those occasional pro bono projects that could do good for others. It’s the kind of work that makes you feel good, that nourishes your soul and fuels you creatively. Now at GMMB I am at a place which is full of those types of opportunities.
