Author Archive

Con’s First Day

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

I’m thrilled to welcome our new Chief Creative Officer, Con Williamson, to the SaatchiNY team. Today is Con’s first day in the office, and I am very happy to have his energy around me and the whole team. It being Bastille Day, all I can say is “let the revolution begin!” Let’s all make exciting, world-changing work together.

If you’re not familiar with Con and his work, see my Hudson/Houston post announcing his appointment in April. His favorite approach to problem solving is “the big Italian family dinner where you get everyone around the table and it’s rowdy and chaotic, and you get all the ideas on the table.”

To speed up face-to-face introductions and get the creativity flowing, we’re taking him at his word, organizing a Big Italian Family Dinner in the S-Space for July 22nd. The room is being done over as a traditional Italian Kitchen, complete with the best beer (Miller!) and wine, food and entertainment. Save the date, and get ready for an open and noisy evening.

When you see Con around the office between now and then, be sure to welcome him and introduce yourself. And if you’ve got a great idea that woke you up at 3am, be sure to share that idea with him too. As he says, “Ideas come first, and great ideas can come from anyone.”

MARY

Category: Events, Management, Our People

Creativity Rules

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

I want to share my delight at Saatchi & Saatchi New York’s four Cannes Lions, and congratulate each of the teams and all of the individuals and partners involved and our clients – General Mills, Procter & Gamble, JCPenney. For General Mills to come away with a Gold Lion is irresistible.

The creative and production work on each of the films/tvcs is superb – and I would like to especially recognize our planners as each piece works off acute insights. Fruit by the Foot totally got into the mindset of young teenage boys – what a miracle! Apart from being out-and-out hilarious, Luvs gets right into the feelings of a three year old. And Return to the Doghouse so speaks to the problem of many relationships – men who don’t think about a woman’s needs!

Each of these stories shows our abilities to get into the heart of the character, the customer, the consumer. Lovemarks inspires empathy; this is what I feel when I see this work.

The Cannes performance comes after four Gold Effies a week ago. Congratulations again. In addition to being New York CEO I am also Chair of The Americas for Saatchi & Saatchi, so I’m doubly delighted at the success of Del Campo/NAZCA Saatchi in Argentina with their five Lions and Grand Prix, and Conill (a Gold Lion in Film).

I reiterate the IPA data that James Cooper quoted in his Hudson/Houston post on Tuesday: ads that win creative awards are 11 times more efficient at delivering business success than those that don’t.

We are a creative company, this is our purpose. Please keep delivering the great work.

Category: Awards, Creative

True Blue Update

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

Sustainability is part of our language and an increasing part of our everyday practice. Adam Werbach is leading the effort across out network – in new business, in thought leadership (with his book Strategy for Sustainability published by the Harvard Business Press) and in our personal sustainability practices (DOT – Do One Thing). We’re coming close here in New York to our rooftop garden – Erin Lyons will be keeping you posted on progress. Here’s a short video from Adam updating us on the sustainability program.

Category: New Business, Our People, Sustainability, Thought Leadership

Building Brands to Serve a Higher Purpose

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

This is direct from The Internationalist reporting from The Kremlin Palace Congress Center, Moscow, Russia, May 12, 2010

P&G’s Marc Pritchard Talks about Building Brands to Serve a Higher Purpose

Marc Pritchard, Global Marketing and Brand Building Officer at Procter & Gamble, told 1200 marketers, agencies and media owners at the IAA World Congress: “This is the time to reset and recalibrate in order to make a difference in how we build our brands.” He stressed that building brands and serving a higher purpose can produce more sustainable business results.

“The biggest challenge our industry faces now is how we rethink concepts of branding. We must change from marketing to consumers to serving our consumers.” Pritchard underscored how today’s consumers are asking more from brands. “They want to help the world, not just themselves, and as a result will choose those brands that share their values and beliefs.” As consumers have unlimited access to information, transparency is becoming a way a life.

“They can see what we are doing,” he asserted. Plus, passionate employees are now choosing companies that follow a higher-order purpose. After citing P&G’s 20 years of investment in Russia, Pritchard outlined how the company’s mission is to touch and improve more consumers’ lives in more parts of the world more completely.

He suggested that marketers today should ask three questions when building a brand:

1. Why does the brand exist? Why is it unique?

2. What does it stand for? What are the core benefits? Are its actions consistent with its execution?

3. How does it come to life via communications? How are the ideas about a product or service expressed?

 

Front page quote of Eleanor Roosevelt from http://www.pooler-georgia-homepage.com/site-purpose.html

 

Category: Brand Building, Clients, Creative, Retail & Shopping, 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

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

Mary Baglivo: 2010 About “Spectacular results”

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

Our agency meeting yesterday was a Hudson/Charlotte St “All Stars” team featuring CEO Worldwide Kevin Roberts, Robert Senior, the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi London and Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon Group, and Gerry Graf, our New York Chief Creative Officer. Kevin outlined the priorities for all Saatchi & Saatchi people in 2010, and Robert and Gerry took us through our new creative agenda for this everything-goes Participation Economy, “Expressway to Love.”

My framing remarks were a pragmatic focus on what matters most to clients: more sales, better share, greater margin (in other words, “spectacular results”). These outcomes create sustainable value and sustainable jobs.

Category: Our People, Thought Leadership

It Must Be Love

Monday, January 11th, 2010

AdAge checks Lovemarks as one of its Top Ten Ideas of the Decade along with the Long Tail (Chris Anderson); Crowdsourcing (Jeff Howe); and the Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell).

And New York Times writer Andrew Adam Newman writes on how love is “a sentiment enthralling Madison Avenue in spite of – or perhaps as an antidote to – a downturn and two wars.”

See the new Blackberry campaign from Leo Burnett with the Beatles “All You Need is Love”; also Lenscrafter; Subaru; McDonalds; Olay; Payless, US Tennis Open – “It Must Be Love.”

Love is a literal thing. Show it.

Our focus is to fill the world with Lovemarks. www.lovemarks.com

Category: Awards, Lovemarks