By Eric Schaal on Sep 03, 2015
It’s hard to top the position of CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi, and nearly two decades of experience on the job would qualify anyone to enlighten an audience on all things advertising. Kevin Roberts, now Saatchi’s executive chairman, will take to the &THEN stage as one of the event’s featured speakers October 5.
Born in Lancaster (UK) in 1949, Roberts’s decades of experience in the industry have not engendered any cynicism or negativity in his approach. The ever-generous leader will share the energy that has brought him and his clients unqualified success over the years.
Inspiring through emotion
Among ad executives, enthusiasm is a calling card, but Roberts is even more positive in his writing and speaking. He calls upon marketers to connect through emotion in a time when brands have lost their luster. With so many opportunities to enjoy great beer or functional cellphone service, what separates the brands that win back consumers from the ones that eventually lose them to competitors?
In Roberts’s view, the brand that can create an emotional connection with the consumer — becoming what he called a Lovemark — is the one that is built to thrive. Roberts’s provocation was that companies needed a way to create “loyalty beyond reason.” He offered the passionate responses of people who first got used to “Googling” in 2004 as the perfect example.
While not every company can have the product and focus of Google, Roberts speaks about ways brands can try to inspire their customers in a time when traditional marketing is considered dead. Creating a Lovemark is the best use a company can make with its efforts to engage. When it works, the customers serve as both promoters and repeat customers.
Communicating the vision
Roberts holds honorary professor positions at universities around the world and is as comfortable delivering TED talks as he is holding the position of Head Coach at Publicis, the world’s third-largest communications company. His relentlessly optimistic approach to business continues to lead him to new ideas, and shifts in the advertising landscape do not faze him.
In a recent venture, Roberts is chairman of My Food Bag, a company that delivers recipes along with healthy food for one to a subscriber’s door. His latest “red paper” is Brand Loyalty Reloaded, guidelines for a CEO in the age when loyalty is king and a look at how the Lovemarks philosophy has shifted after more than 10 years in practice. (AdAge named Lovemarks one of the 10 key ideas of the past decade.)
On Day Two of &THEN, Kevin Roberts will offer marketers his insight earned in nearly half a century of work in the advertising business.
This article is brought to you by &THEN, DMA’s reinvented Annual Event. Click here to join us and thousands of GenD marketers, Oct. 4-6, 2015 in Boston.
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