Kevin ROBERTS
don’t you spend some of your obvious energy and talent convincing people they don’t need to consume things?
KR: Saatchi is peppered with ideas for the World Wildlife Fund, the NSPCC and we’re the global agency for the Red Cross. We are probably one of the most active agencies in the world working on specific campaigns that we think can make the world a better place.
SS: Would you agree that we should be spending more time convincing people they don’t need to consume some of the things that they currently do?
what it says it’s going to deliver. Without that you’re not in the game. Once you’re in the game it comes down to, how do you win it? What you have to deliver is emotional value which is really at a premium today.
SS: It seems to me that your approach is junking many assumptions about the importance of market research and data analysis to what advertising is?
KR: You would be spot on! I think most of the research we do now is measuring the wrong thing. It’s how people feel about a government that will get them elected. It’s how they feel about Obama. Did they really rely on information? No. They were driven by the emotional connectivity of hope, dreams and change.
SS: Do you see consumers as profoundly irrational?
KR: I see consumers as being in charge of today’s world. I find manufacturers tend to be black and white and logical, whereas great consumers tend to be able to manage paradox, they can handle ‘and’, not just ‘either/or’.
SS: You have said that you believe that ‘it is businesses role to make the world a better place’. I’ve heard a lot of business people say that but haven’t seen so many business people walking that particular walk. Do you?
KR: I have the same impression. Jack Welch, probably the world’s preeminent seer on business, said the role of business is to create shareholder value. Peter Drucker, the guru of gurus, said its role is to create a customer. I
disagree with both of those. In the last two years we have seen people who ignore that whole-heartedly and practise a capitalism of exclusion and greed.
SS: What do you personally do in your business life to make the world a better place?
KR: We bought a company called Act Now and have created a programme called ‘Dot’ - Do One Thing. We have that programme running throughout Wal-Mart in the United States and Canada with every employee.
“In the last two years, we’ve seen people practise capitalism of exclusion and greed.”
I know that you as a consumer feel: ‘what on earth can I do about this?’ Well, here’s a list of things you can do – you can go to work on a bike, you can eat healthy salads, you can lose weight, you can stop smoking, you can turn off all the vampire electronics etc. We’ve put the same programme through Saatchi & Saatchi.
SS: You are an ad man, you spend time figuring out how best to convince people that they need to consume things. Why
Advertising feature sponsored by BBC World News
KR: I think the consumption argument is around the idea that you think consumers are obviously stupid, and that we can inform someone who is really intelligent to do something they don’t want to do.
SS: It’s not about stupidity, it’s about the collective. You’re committed to sustainability, part of that surely has to be changing consumption patterns and, in some cases in the Western world, reducing consumption.
KR: We have to reduce consumption everywhere. We’ve got to increase people’s awareness and give them tools so that they can create livings and better lives for themselves. The idea is to be sustainable in environmental terms but also to have social and cultural sustainability. This whole localisation of enterprise is absolutely vital. What we absolutely want to spend our time doing is helping people build enterprises and live better lives that are sustainable. We don’t want to become preachy politicians and do-gooders.
SS: Kevin Roberts, thanks very much for being on HARDtalk.
If you look after a brand that should be reaching the same challenging audience that watches HARDtalk, contact Carolyn Gibson Telephone +44 (0) 20 8433 2749
carolyn.gibson@
bbc.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67