Saatchi CEO does enjoy his Thai massages

These are tough times. Every day seems to bring more grim news to agency land. Thankfully, those at the top are showing their solidarity with the troops. Well, sorta. On his BNET blog, my former colleague Jim Edwards points out that Saatchi & Saatchi worldwide CEO and sisomo advocate Kevin Roberts blogged about his recent extravagant vacation at a Thai resort. K.R. isn't averse to Internet oversharing, raving about his "classic cleansing" and daily massages, including his first facial. Jim points out that the resort charges a sweet $615 per night. But let's be real here. Times are tough, but agency CEOs, particularly at top-of-the-line shops like Saatchi, are paid handsomely. How handsomely? The Publicis Groupe 2007 annual report says K.R. got $3 million in lovemarks in 2007. For that kind of coin, $615 a night at a Thai resort seems pretty reasonable.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on December 9, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (9)
Filed under Kevin Roberts, Morrissey, Saatchi & Saatchi

The Age of Sisomo

For the first time since the dot-com boom, this year's Ad:Tech attracted a couple of bigwigs from the world of traditional agencies. Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts, sporting a Madonna-like headset contraption, gave a keynote address on Tuesday that introduced his new Grand Unifying Theory: sisomo. In addition to lovemarks, the world is now ruled by Sight, Sound and Motion. It's a fun word, particularly with Roberts's many mutations: sisomoments, sisomovies, sisomojo, etc. The long and the short of sisomo isn't exactly earth shattering: TV is mutating into video on lots of different devices and advertisers need to find ways to engage consumers. Conveniently for Saatchi, despite this fragmentation, Roberts believes consumers still make decisions based on emotion rather than reason, a world "for everyone who was ever thrilled by a car chase or wept over a motherless deer." Forget Google, targeting and optimization: storytelling still rules. He even gave attendees a photo-heavy, soft-cover book about this emerging world of many screens (eBay price: $9.48). Curiously, in illustrating this new world, Roberts made it look a lot like the old one: He trotted out over a dozen TV commercials, like a funny spot for a soft drink and a precious one for diapers. The only interactive bit introduced was a Lexus campaign that let people beam their photos up on the Reuters sign in Times Square. In fact, Roberts said most creative on the Web (and mobile) is "appalling."

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on November 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Kevin Roberts, Morrissey, Saatchi & Saatchi

Saatchi 17 saga hits ‘New York’ magazine

Thought we’d point out that even though many of you have read detailed accounts about the renegade Saatchi 17 already, the saga has finally found itself into New York magazine, which has a lengthy piece on the ad industry's favorite soap opera this week which carries the unoriginal title “Cheerio!” (The visual accompanying the headline in the opening spread is much better…it’s a box of Cheerios, its contents spilling out, that looks like it’s been run over—repeatedly—by a steamroller). To read the magazine’s take on the whole Mike Burns (pictured here) vs. Kevin Roberts saga, click here.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on June 14, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Kevin Roberts, Saatchi & Saatchi

Love among the Saatchis

Love is in the air at Saatchi & Saatchi this morning, and we’re not entirely sure that’s a good thing. We received this excerpt from an internal e-mail by New York CEO Mary Baglivo and creative chief Tony Granger encouraging employees to send Valentine’s Day cards to each other (caution: if you’re diabetic, you may want to have some insulin on hand):

“As we know, making Saatchi & Saatchi NY a Lovemark takes more than hard work and respect. It calls for emotion, gratitude, loyalty, warmth and love.” (What’s a Lovemark you ask? You might be inclined to think it’s a hickey. But not in Kevin Roberts’ world.)

“Do you remember back in grade school when you wrote Valentines to all your friends and put them in the big red box on your teacher’s desk? To help build some love in the Agency, we will be distributing two blank note cards to everyone. Please write a simple message to two colleagues whom you love working with and then place your ‘Valentines’ in the boxes located outside the cafeteria and in the reception area on the 16th floor. We will sort and distribute the cards on February 14th.

“Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
Your Co-workers are Eager
To Hear From You!”

So, if you work at Saatchi and don’t get any Valentines today, perhaps a visit to CareerBuilder.com is in order.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Credit: Getty Images

Published on February 14, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Kevin Roberts, Saatchi & Saatchi