media SS: Kevin Roberts, welcome to HARDtalk.
Do you think it is a disadvantage working for a company that is part of the advertising world’s old establishment?
KR: I’ve been at Saatchi since 1987 and the thing I like most about it is that I work for Saatchi & Saatchi. The name recognition is the highest of any brand name in advertising. It’s like playing soccer for Brazil, it’s a timeless advantage.
SS: But when Saatchi was in its heyday it was controlled by the people who actually worked in it, now you’re part of Publicis. Do you think you’re nimble enough?
KR: I think Saatchi is fast, agile, nimble and proactive. This is a people business, so we’re as good as the people who work for us. Saatchi is fortunate that we are able to attract talent because of its reputation, clients and legacy.
SS: I look at your client list and see the big old giants there. Is there a danger you’re perceived to be old guard?
Kevin ROBERTS
HARDtalk is the flagship programme on BBC World News that asks the difficult questions. In this specially commissioned series of interviews for Media & Marketing, Stephen Sackur, one of the BBC’s most respected journalists, adopts the same uncompromising style with moguls and figureheads from the worlds of advertising, sales and media. This month, Stephen goes head-to-head with Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi.
KR: These companies are the ones that are going to survive when many of the upstarts are long gone and have disappeared. If you’re in the car business I can’t think of anybody you’d rather be with than Toyota. These guys are very fast and very innovative. The Toyota iQ is probably one of the funkiest cars around and if you look at the Prius, they’re way ahead. In my view they’re leading the world in technology and sustainability and we’re part of that.
SS: You’ve used the word catastrophe to describe the present economic environment.
KR: Absolutely right, I think it is a catastrophe. We’re facing, obviously, a financial crisis that’s leading to a confidence crisis in every nation in the world both politically and economically. And there’s a social disaster just round the corner because 50 million people are unemployed in the world. In that kind of environment it’s about winning ugly, winning like Federer against Roddick. It is about focussing on what’s core, making tough calls, being nimble, as you said, and executing like hell.
SS: You’ve also said that it is an environment in which consumers are going to increasingly make their choices based on emotion.
KR: Yes. BBC WORLD NEWS is a trademark of the British Broadcasting Corporation, © BBC 1996
SS: Surely when times are tough and people are struggling they have to cut out the emotion and go with what they really need?
KR: All the work that we’ve seen and all the research that we’ve done says decision making is 80% emotional and 20% rational. Most people may talk rationally, but once the basic table stakes are covered - quality, price, distribution - everyone is looking now for something more, something extra.
“Great brands now have to go into not only price, but priceless value.”
All dandruff shampoos get rid of dandruff, all moisturisers work nowadays, so performance and actuary are not the discriminators. The discriminator is on top of reliability, on top of quality - I feel this brand is going to bring some joy to me; it’s going to bring me something more than functional benefit. That’s what great brands have to do now; they have to go into not only price, but priceless value.
SS: Some might say that sounds like typical adland psychobabble. It led you to this concept of the lovemark - you say ‘it’s the end of the brand and the beginning of the era of the lovemark’. I’m struggling to understand what that means.
KR: That’s because you’re a hard bitten cynic. But in your real life you are a Leeds United supporter. You support them because you are loyal beyond reason and have an emotional connection to them driven by watching them in your youth. It’s what great brands have to deliver today. It’s not psychobabble; I think it’s a basic human truth that when we have less we want more.
SS: You’re saying that it’s not the product that matters anymore; it comes down to the skill of the ad campaigner and that’s self-serving.
KR: All great lovemarks are built first on trust, so you must have a product that absolutely delivers
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