Men who have revolutionized their profession and left their mark on their era are rare.
Like Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, who elevated advertising to an art form, Gilbert Gross, who passed away on March 27, transformed the world of media buying and established a new way of working.
In 1969, with the support of Michel Doliner, formerly of Publicis, Gilbert Gross created the Société Générale de Gestion de Marketing et de Distribution (SGGMD), whose name, as one might expect, has no connection with the initials of the two men.
The idea was simple: rather than negotiating the price of campaigns on a case-by-case basis or advertiser by advertiser, Gilbert Gross offered the media, concerned about the arrival of television advertising, the opportunity to buy space in bulk and in large quantities, paying for it in advance. In return for this guaranteed income, the media outlets granted him much higher than average negotiation rates.
Thanks to these low prices, Gilbert Gross was able to attract very large advertisers, whose entire space purchases had previously been managed on a case-by-case basis by advertising agencies.
Within a few years, the biggest advertisers (Carrefour, Darty, Danone, Colgate, etc.) had joined SGGMD. The agencies, which had initially criticized this approach, found themselves obliged to create their own purchasing centers, now known as media agencies.
I had the good fortune to know Gilbert Gross and work alongside him during the 15 years I spent at CARAT. He was a discreet, kind, approachable man who commanded admiration.
He belonged to a generation for whom a promise was worth more than all the contracts in the world. Everything was recorded in his famous black notebooks, which were known throughout the profession.
He was a visionary who knew how to attract the support of leading professionals such as Eryck Rebbouh and Bruno Kemoun, founders of the Centre d'Achat Radio, Affichage et TV (C.A.R.A.T), who worked with him for many years and, together with Francis Gross, Gilbert's brother, contributed to the international development of the CARAT Group (which became AEGIS and was then acquired by DENTSU in 2012).
Gilbert Gross was a man of great humanity and humility despite his incredible success. He disrupted an entire sector of activity, which he reinvented for the long term. He was very connected to the Carat network, remaining an active and committed ambassador and a loyal friend throughout his life.
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