Archive for April, 2010

The elements of a winning culture

Friday, April 30th, 2010

We live in a fast-paced world where nothing stays the same for long. As an agency we have classic, iconic brands that are in every American kitchen cupboard and closet, but the clients we work for are also incredibly fast moving. To keep up with it all we have to have a dynamic culture made up of quick thinking people with the flexibility and agility to stay ahead of the curve.

So how do you create an atmosphere that attracts, nurtures and excites people like that? What gives Saatchi & Saatchi a winning culture?

To start with we have a foundational set of beliefs that doesn’t change: Lovemarks. A belief that every brand we work with can inspire loyalty beyond reason through a passionate, enduring emotional connection. That kind of relentless aspiration for every client and piece of work you produce gives a creative culture oxygen.

While that belief won’t change, how we find the pulse of an emotional connection changes constantly. The number of ways we can use to find out about what people really care about has exploded. In a digital age we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to gaining insights into what the consumer thinks. So another key part of our culture is about keeping our tools up to date, and adding our innovations to those of partners and boutique agencies, so that we create newness and keep things fresh. So you add innovation to the foundation.

And of course we have to make sure we recognize and respond to the unique needs of our people. We’re in a talent business, and people with talent are higher maintenance than others. That’s a good thing. They need to be challenged and stimulated, and feel like they’re learning and growing all the time. You achieve that by investing in them, constantly adding to their skill set and knowledge base. So to top it off you add relentless education.

A great foundation, a passion for innovation, and relentless education. That’s a winning culture.

Claudine Cheever is Chief Strategy Officer of Saatchi & Saatchi New York

Category: Our People

7X7 Presenters Announced for 05 May

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Saatchi & Saatchi presents New York’s first 7X7, Wednesday 05 May 6.30pm at Hudson/Houston (ground floor). Mary Baglivo will emcee. Tickets can be purchased for $7 on www.showclix.com (keyword: 7X7). Saatchi & Saatchi employees attend free, just RSVP ASAP to Erin Lyons.

For more on 7X7, visit: www.saatchiny.com/7×7

Here’s the lineup:

St Josephs Elementary School Band

This inspirational band program unites the 5th through 8th graders of St. Joseph School, an elementary school in the South Bronx community of East Tremont founded in 1877, into a cohesive and enthusiastic public performance group. The school’s surrounding area bears witness to the stark realities of urban poverty. The program teaches students to play musical instruments and work together in a disciplined and proud team effort.

Chris Anderson, Curator, TED

Chris Anderson is curator of TED, the famous conference owned since 2001 by his nonprofit Sapling Foundation. The summits in Long Beach CA and Oxford UK, and in India and Africa, bring together the world’s smartest thinkers, leaders and innovators. The mission of TED is “ideas worth spreading” and its content and impact has expanded through initiatives that include the TED Prize (incumbent: chef Jamie Oliver) and TEDTalks (400 million views and counting).

Howard Chua-Eoan, News Director, TIME Magazine

Howard Chua-Eoan joined TIME in 1983. His cover stories have included the Tiananmen Square massacre, Saddam Hussein’s attack on the Kurds, the death of Princess Diana (the record for the most copies of TIME sold on the newsstand), the conviction of Timothy McVeigh, and the 50th anniversary of the Roswell Alien “landings.” He has edited TIME’s annual survey of America’s 25 Most Influential People for the last two years.

Jeff Reichert, Writer/Director, Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering is a new documentary film premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival about the age-old practice of changing electoral boundaries to influence elections, featuring interviews with politicians, scholars, journalists and reform advocates. Jeff Reichert served as SVP of Magnolia Pictures where he developed release campaigns for documentaries such as Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room, and the Academy Award-winning Man on Wire.

Marc Schiller, CEO Electric Artists, co-founder Wooster Collective

The Wooster Collective showcases the phenomenon of street art in cities around the world via its website, events and presentations. Co-founder Marc Schiller is a producer, marketer, writer, photographer and culture jammer with a keen interest in the cultural threads running through contemporary communication. His work rethinks what public art is and how artists can create destinations from what used to be an illegal activity: the city as playground.

Liz Arana, Head Chef, Alexandra

Liz Arana is co-owner of Alexandra restaurant in the West Village (Hudson/Morton). She opened Alexandra in 2004 with a new American bistro menu after working under some of the best chefs in New York including Eric Ripert, David Burke, and Tom Colicchio. A graduate with honors from the Culinary Institute of America, Liz is a Board Director of City Harvest and is a member of the James Beard Foundation.

Maurice Ashley, International Grandmaster of Chess

Maurice Ashley is one of only 800 chess Grandmasters worldwide, and the first and only African-American Grandmaster. He is an ardent spokesman and advocate for the intellectual and character-building effects in young people. A chess commentator for ESPN, he also served as a commentator for Gary Kasparov’s legendary “Man vs. Machine” match against the computer Deep Blue. In 1999 he opened the Harlem Chess Center.

Category: Events, New York, Our People, Saatchi & Social, Thought Leadership

Come on in, to Hudson/Houston

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

Welcome to Hudson/Houston, our new media channel for communicating our creative and business acceleration. We’d like to be closer to the world by sharing our work, news, and original perspectives. Hudson/Houston is a forum for what informs and inspires us.

Saatchi & Saatchi came to Hudson Street over 20 years ago. Historically, this was New York City’s printing district. Two blocks away, at what are now Charlton and Varick Streets, George Washington led the 1776 defense of the city against the British..

Today our neighborhood is a creative leader in New York City, home to over 30,000 people working in advertising, publishing, design, new media, news, communications, production, and the arts. Digital has truly overtaken printing – and Hudson Street leads Madison Avenue as creative ideas metaphor.

Hudson/Houston comes from Saatchi & Saatchi designers Camilla Kristiansen and Heidi Ng, CMO Benjamin Bittman, and James Cooper, Interactive Creative Director.

Come into Hudson/Houston each weekday morning. We’ll be fresh and surprising, all the more so with your ideas and contributions.

MARY

Category: New York, Our People

Digital Xploring Drives Realtime Insights

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

Great ideas begin with great insights – an open understanding of how someone experiences the world. It’s this kind of basic understanding about a person, product, brand or category that produces a great strategy and a creative spark, the genesis of an idea that will help to generate real business results for our clients.

For some time now we’ve been gathering those insights by Xploring. Xploring in the real world means going to the jungle – putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, seeing the world through their eyes. It’s about asking relevant questions, having authentic conversations, listening deeply, participating, and sharing experiences.

Now more than ever the conversations we want to be a part of, and the experiences we want to share to really understand people, are online.

To get in on the digital conversations we’ve been Xploring the Internet – analysing and synthesizing the content people are leaving on websites, blogs, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, forums and so on. What’s exciting about this is that it’s so deeply visceral – we can ‘listen’ to the consumer in a way that’s never been possible before. You know social networking. This is social listening.

We’re always in the process of investigating new tools to measure, monitor and mine content – right now our thinking is that both analyst services and specialist software have their place. There are also plenty of free tools that can be used – we particularly like spezify.com, all theTwitter aggregates, the Google tools, and, of course, the greatest search engine yet: youtube.

Other sites, like Polyvore – a site that lets users compile collages of their favourite fashions and style landscapes – take you deep into the mind of individual consumers. For example, when we plugged Bono’s eco-concious brand EDUN into Polyvore and looked at the results we found that EDUN clothes were almost always the first item picked for a collage. They’re a base layer for fashion and the groundwork for inspiration. The young women who wear EDUN tend to like muted colours, organic shapes, and moodscapes that were always inspired by the key EDUN item. Sometimes they’ll make a socially responsible comment, but fashion definitely comes first. What an exciting discovery for a brand that wants to transition from social cause to fashion—they’re already there in the minds and hearts of their most passionate consumers.

This is just scratching the surface. And while we know that we are not unique in our growing adeptness at using these tools and techniques, we do think our foundational strength in identifying revelatory insights sets us apart.

Category: Digital & Interactive, Xploring

Green Heart Sees Light

Monday, April 26th, 2010

The symbiosis of New York State’s “clean green” assets and our client – New York State – have been clear from the start. On Earth Day New York State launched a major initiative that brings together the outstanding natural environment of the State with the tastes of contemporary tourists. New York City offers the best urban experience in the world. New York State offers – we propose – one of the best natural experiences in the world. Here is our client’s press release, abridged, from Earth Day.

April 22, 2010 3:28 pm Empire State Development unveiled a new “green heart” in its famous I LOVE NEW YORK logo as part of an initiative that includes promoting green-certified restaurants and hotels, as well as the State’s parks, beaches, waterways and mountains. I LOVE NEW YORK has chosen ten must-see iconic green travel destinations for 2010 that span the State’s 11 tourism regions. The destinations include national icons such as Niagara Falls State Park, the Catskills and the Adirondack’s high peaks, among others. Special itineraries around these destinations will be promoted on the newly re-launched I LOVE NEW YORK website at www.iloveny.com/greenheart and will be promoted as well in the State’s tourism collateral.

When a traveler chooses one of the ten iconic green destinations they will find itineraries that may include an eco-certified hotel to stay in, several green restaurants to choose from, activities and events that are green in nature, from hiking to snowshoeing to visiting a farm, winery or eco-certified spa. They will also be able to travel all summer at a “green” 20 percent discount on Amtrak or rent a hybrid car from Enterprise.

According to Carol Ash, Commissioner of New York State’s Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, the Green Heart initiative is the first step in an ongoing effort to reward and promote environmental stewardship and New York State’s abundant natural assets.

“It is important for the State to celebrate those iconic locations that embody green travel,” said Ash. “From Niagara Falls to the Finger Lakes, Thousand Islands, Letchworth and Saratoga, New York’s greenest and greatest treasures draw tens of millions of visitors every year – not only because they’re affordable vacation destinations right in our own backyard, but because there’s nothing else like them in the world.”

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis stated that the job of protecting the environment is year-round and requires everyone’s participation.

”On Earth Day, we are gratified to see so many enthusiastic people working to protect New York’s environment,” said Grannis. “This Green Heart NY initiative helps raise awareness about the critical need to continue to work to protect New York’s water, air and natural resources for future generations to come.”

I LOVE NEW YORK, New York State’s tourism promotion agency, has named New York City resident Kaity Tsui (25) the winner of the first-ever “Greenest New Yorker” award. New York State along with EscapeMaker.com, introduced the contest to celebrate individuals who were doing their part in keeping the Empire State green and making earnest efforts to preserve the environment in recognition of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

Tsui’s winning accomplishments include serving as Tree Care Coordinator for MillionTreesNYC; co-chair of the New York University (NYU) Green Alumni Network Steering Committee; serving as Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Green City Challenge; and serving as a contributing writer for One Earth Network, Inc. Additionally, Tsui volunteers for organizations such as Green Drinks NYC, Just Food, New York Cares, the New York City Office of Recycling Outreach and Education, Trees New York and Teens Turning Green — all while completing her Master Composter and Citizen Pruner certificates.

Judges were chef Mario Batali, Josh Dorfman, author of “The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget”; actor Peter Facinelli, star of The Twilight Saga movies and Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie” show; nationally renowned, eco-friendly and healthy home interior designer Robin Wilson; and architect Morris Adjmi, whose work includes the LEED gold High Line Building and a LEED platinum building for New York University.

“The winner of the Greenest New Yorker contest serves as an inspiration to all New Yorkers to do their part to protect New York State’s environmental resources,” said Governor David A. Paterson.

About New York State
New York State features 11 beautiful vacation regions. New York’s attractions span from landmarks such as Niagara Falls, to the wine trails of Hudson Valley and treasures like the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Whether it’s wide-ranging outdoor activities for the whole family like fishing, hiking and boating, culinary wonders and farm-to-table fresh foods, or the rich history and culture of one of the 13 original colonies, New York State offers diverse activities for all travelers. For more information visit http://www.iloveny.com/. Media can find press releases and more at thebeat.iloveny.com.

Category: Brand Identity, New York, Sustainability

Radically optimistic neighbors

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

Newsweek magazine is on the opposite corner to Saatchi & Saatchi on Hudson/Houston, and we’re pleased to share their prospects for the US economy. The April 19 cover story by Daniel Gross The Comeback Country is positively bullish not only about the indicators but the underlying attitude and capability of the economy.

Here is Gross on the stats:

The long-term decline of the U.S. economy has been greatly exaggerated. America is coming back stronger, better, and faster than nearly anyone expected—and faster than most of its international rivals. The Dow Jones industrial average, hovering near 11,000, is up 70 percent in the past 13 months, and auto sales in the first quarter were up 16 percent from 2009. The economy added 162,000 jobs in March, including 17,000 in manufacturing…If the U.S. economy grows at a 3.6 percent rate this year, as Macroeconomic Advisers projects, it’ll create $513 billion in new economic activity—equal to the GDP of Indonesia.

And on the turnaround:

Most experts are overlooking America’s true competitive advantages. The tale of the economy’s remarkable turnaround is largely the story of swift reaction, a willingness to write off bad debts and restructure, and an embrace of efficiency—disciplines largely invented in the U.S. and at which it still excels. America still leads the world at processing failure, at latching on to new innovations and building them to scale quickly and profitably.

And on the prospects:

Google and Apple are the nation’s third- and ninth-largest companies by market capitalization, respectively, with a combined value of $398 billion. Now consider that in early 2002…their combined value was a few billion…Now both are iconic global brands, major exporters, and spurs to innovation and growth—they represent America the way Chevrolet and McDonald’s once did.

The last two expansions [of the economy] have been 120 months and 92 months, respectively. If the U.S. continues to adapt as it has, and if it produces a few more game changers like Google and Apple, there’s no reason that the expansion that started in July 2009, against all the odds and predictions, can’t last just as long.

Category: Media Scan

Welcome Con Williamson

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

Dear All,

As you know, Gerry Graf is moving on to start a new creative venture. I want to join with you in thanking Gerry for his memorable work, and to wish him the very best for the future. When it’s farewell time we will be sure to have a toast with him to great times ahead.

We have moved quickly to appoint a successor, and I am excited to announce that Conway (Con) Williamson will be the new Chief Creative Officer of Saatchi & Saatchi New York. I asked Con to take the position because I believe he will be an inspirational creative and sisomo leader, a team builder and partner, and a new business winner. He has accepted because he says Saatchi & Saatchi has a belief system that runs deep, people who have compelling talent, and a brand that is iconic.

Over the last decade in New York Con has been with Fallon, JWT, his own agency Lodge212, and Euro/RSCG where he was most recently Chief Creative Officer, responsible for Dos Equis, Heineken, Jaguar (Global ECD), Kraft, Reckitt, and The Atlantic. In 2009 the Dos Equis “Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign won Cannes Titanium and Effie Gold. He led new business efforts which included wins on Heineken and the New York Stock Exchange, and podium finishes on UPS and Ikea. Con has also had creative responsibilities during his career on Jet Blue, Royal Caribbean, Cadbury, Macy’s, LL Bean and ESPN.

Prior to agency life, Con served in the US Army as a paratrooper and communications specialist stationed in Germany. He studied advertising at the University of South Carolina and the Creative Circus in Atlanta.

Of his working style, Con says “I love it vibrant and loud. I love making stuff and love to do it with smart people. I’m a big believer in the collective, which is where ideas come from. My approach to problem-solving is the big Italian family dinner where you get everyone around the table, it’s rowdy and chaotic, and you get all the ideas out on the table. Ideas come first, and great ideas can come from anyone. You can’t have a pre-conceived notion of what an idea looks like. You do have to be open for it and up for it.”

On moving to Saatchi & Saatchi, Con says “My family motto is “Luceo non Uro” – “I Shine not Burn” – and Saatchi & Saatchi has offered a big platform from which to lead people creatively and give them an inspired space in which to shine.”

There is a lot more of Con’s story to tell, but you will all have the opportunity soon enough to meet him. This transition calls for a resurgence of our collective energy, growth, and success. Prepare yourselves for an exuberant new era together at Saatchi & Saatchi New York!

MARY

Category: New York, Our People

7×7 At Saatchi & Saatchi

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Saatchi & Saatchi presents New York’s first 7X7 creative ideas show on Wednesday May 5, 6.30pm at 375 Hudson Street (at Houston).

7X7 features seven expert people from diverse disciplines each presenting for seven minutes. It’s a compelling way to show creative ideas and people. The show brings together a broad audience and cross-section of presenters. It’s light, it’s fast and it’s fun.

Seven minutes is a fine time to put across a great idea, point of view, or performance. The 7X7 presenters may be showing something entirely new or unexpected, they may be delivering a demonstration, a provocation, a briefing, a ‘best of seven’. We know there will be surprises.

7X7 costs $7 (plus transaction fees) to attend and tickets may be purchased at http://www.showclix.com. Tickets are limited. The event runs for up to 75 minutes. Speakers are announced one week before the event. Refreshments will be served.

Category: Events, Thought Leadership