With experience garnered over nearly 30 years, partnering with over 300 retirement villages across Australia, GBD is well placed to deliver sound creative solutions for our clients.
We develop strategy based on individual personality and core market appeal, whether that be for a retirement village, lifestyle community, homecare service or aged care facility. We then assemble a suite of the most appropriate media to convey a clear, effective and engaging message.
Through integrating strategic marketing into our creative, our innovation builds dynamic brands that get noticed by the target market.
Jeff McGarn
Managing Director
Marketer, strategic thinker, keynote speaker and author, Jeff McGarn has worn many hats in the creative field in the last 45 years. Jeff is a seasoned creative director, copywriter, photographer, graphic designer, singer, musician and songwriter.
He was a pioneer in Australia specialising in retirement marketing, and for nearly 30 years has forged significant milestones in the industry in his role as principal of GBD – seniors lifestyle marketers.
Jeff has built an impressive client base covering more than 300 retirement villages, and over the years has won awards in design, print and advertising, including a Federal Government award for creating positive images of older Australians. Jeff has spoken at numerous retirement industry forums both in Australia and New Zealand.
Lisa Stockwell
Communications
Lisa has worked in corporate marketing, training and IT as well as consulting across the private and government sectors with MLC, AMP and WorkCover NSW. Lisa’s strength is taking market intelligence and producing highly impactful campaigns, delivered through the most effective media channels. Added to this is her considerable experience in communications, copywriting and project management, providing clients with confidence that implementation of marketing plans will be to time-bound and budgetary objectives.
Sarah Bishop
Marketing manager
Experienced marketer with senior experience in multinational organisations. Consulting as a marketing and brand strategist and
communications consultant. Broad IT industry experience with a background in telecommunications, IT infrastructure and hardware.
Skilled in strategic marketing, brand development, integrated marketing campaigns, business leadership.
B. Management, Marketing Major from University of Newcastle.
Helen Lear
Sales Strategist
Helen brings impressive sales, operations and marketing experience spanning 20 years in the pharmaceutical and retirement industries. Helen is very familiar with bringing new products to market, ensuring mix of product, staging of construction, pricing, fees, naming of facilities, and generating marketing campaigns that meet market demand and achieve business objectives.
Here at GBD we have worked with many well-known operators and retirement villages across Australia in our nearly 30 years in the retirement industry. Our clients engage us in a number of ways to help them bring their marketing to life with creative and innovative solutions to achieve great results. Here are some of our clients we have had the pleasure of working with over the years.
With our expert knowledge, innovative designs and professional ongoing support, you will get results – But don’t take our word for it.
See what our clients say.
GBD impressed us with the portfolio of work they had built up under Jeff McGarn’s leadership, especially in the retirement living space. A mixture of internet (www.theterraces.org.au), visual, print and radio advertising methods have been deployed. Already we have a healthy waiting list for the retirement units, with the first stage of the project still over a year from completion.
Paul Sadler - CEO, Presbyterian Aged Care (PAC)
PAC’s Executive Development Manager Johh Ishak accredited the Stage 1 sales success to a number of reasons. “GBD helped us to better understand our target market and align the sales campaign accordingly. We found their experience and knowledge of the industry to be excellent. In terms of creative solutions, the video, stills imagery and renders prepared by GBD, were excellent productions of a facility that was still at a plan level. The animated walkthroughs were something we had never done before on any of our developments.
“Collaboration and engagement with the team was great. GBD took great care to listen and understand our needs and vision for the project, which translated into a successful Stage 1 selling campaign.
“Our project objectives were exceeded. This translated into reducing the number of campaigns needed to sell out Stage 1. The successful advertising gained enough momentum and interest to push into Stage 2 sales.”
Johh Ishak - Executive Development Manager, PAC
We had approximately 300 visitors to our open day. It was truly a great day and certainly the best open day I have experienced in my Australian career in the sector! I acknowledge that the success of the open day was largely due to the advice provided by GBD and the quality of the marketing campaign leading up to the event. This is also evidenced by the fact that we took 8 applications in the week leading up to the open day and 3 applications yesterday (the day of the event).
Erik Boddeus - National Retirement Manager, Hindmarsh
GBD has been closely involved with these campaigns since 1995 producing collateral material of a very high standard. Since Gold Logie winner John Wood became our ambassador, GBD's creative team has produced some humorous TV and print commercials that have had excellent results. Creativity is only half the story – of equal importance is attention to detail, adherence to deadlines and quick response to our many and varied requests.
Linda Hooper - Marketing Manager, Living Choice
As a publisher serving the retirement and aged care sector for the past six years, I’ve had many creative and communications programs pass over my desk and then witness their successes and failures. I can say with considerable authority that Jeff McGarn as an advertising agent and communicator knows more than almost anyone in the sector on what works and what doesn’t. Jeff delivers practical and reasoned marketing solutions that deliver enquiry and sales results. Importantly, I can report that his clients acknowledge the quality of service GBD delivers. This is best demonstrated by the executives that appoint GBD to new programs and continue to engage their services when they move to new employers. We have produced a number of sales and marketing seminars and conferences ourselves, plus attended most in the sector, and I can also verify that Jeff is an excellent speaker. He is both knowledgeable and engaging – a rare mix – as well as very well prepared.
Christopher Baynes
We have been delighted with the success of the launch of our greenfield site Blueheath at The Bower with stages one and two selling out earlier than anticipated. It is a pleasure working with Jeff McGarn and the team at GBD - we value their professionalism, proactive approach and their enthusiasm to work as an extension of the Principle Living team. GBD helped shape the Blueheath brand and experience before we took it to market. Their strategic approach to marketing and campaign activity created impact in the market and generated strong leads which converted to sales. GBD’s experience in retirement marketing and the combination of creative agency and marketing services all under one roof brings a level of insight and understanding that maximises marketing spend and ROI. I appreciate their flexibility, willingness to trial new things and change strategies quickly to adapt to the ever-changing business conditions and challenges we have all faced in recent times.
David Kelly - Sales Manager, Principle Living
Baldwin Care Group, a successful Retirement Village operator in the Sydney region, needed to reposition its marketing strategy to meet the ever changing dynamics of the Industry. GBD had been recommended to Baldwin as a company with a sound knowledge of the Retirement Village industry. They had a strong track record having previously provided marketing and advertising direction for a number of other villages in NSW. We engaged GBD to assist us to formulate a strategic marketing plan for our four Sydney villages, and refresh our outdated brochures and documentation. We worked closely with their creative staff to achieve that objective. The results were most successful as was evidenced by the improved sales rates, brought about in no small way by GBD's enthusiasm and industry knowledge.
Mike Tamblyn - Baldwin Care Group, Special Projects Manager
GBD has been instrumental in helping Anglicare Sydney’s Chesalon division with the establishment of our first retirement village which will be located within the new Oran Park Town. They have been able to grasp the uniqueness of establishing a commanding presence in what is more than just a ‘greenfield’ development – it is part of a planned, fully integrated township. They have been particularly helpful in developing our brand in a creative and professional manner, working with internal stakeholders and external resources to create a unique brand footprint for Chesalon. They have demonstrated an ability to work in a team environment, carefully considering the various inputs throughout the project development. Jeff McGarn and his team have demonstrated keen creativity, an ability to work with and understand our specific culture and to work very professionally to deliver excellent results.
Rob Evers - Director, Chesalon
