Up, Up and Away – Rotary Newmarket

Tuesday, 2 April 2013 - Auckland, New Zealand

Rotary New Market

Presentation Summary

Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi, talks to the Newmarket Rotary Club about Winning in the Age of Now, and how to turn a brand into an irresistible Lovemark for the next generation.


“Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” 
– Vince Lombardi

You want to win as businesses, entrepreneurs, executives.
You want to win as Rotarians, humanitarians and leaders.
You want to win as families, parents, individuals.

I’m going to talk about how to win in a VUCA world.

Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous

A winner turns VUCA on its head; and reframes it as superVUCA.

Vibrant, Unreal, Crazy, Astounding

I’m a radical optimist. The only way is UP.

The 5 winning tracks to deliver a SuperVUCA world:

1.To Win Now, ENTER THE NOW

The context for winning in business has shifted from production to people.

Winning starts with Purpose.

Martin Luther King did not say: “I have a Mission Statement.”

And we live in the Age of Now.

ERA OF NEW AGE OF NOW
Strategy Purpose
Attention Participation
Inform Inspire
Interruption Interaction
Return on Investment Return on Involvement
Pumping Markets Creating Movements

“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit.” – Vince Lombardi

In the Now, execution is the killer app.

  • Fail fast, learn fast, fix fast.
  • Drive the important not the urgent
  • Jeff Bezos: Customer Bar-Raiser
  • Blue Ocean: Eliminate – Reduce – Raise – Create

2. To Win Now, UP THE CREATIVITY

Velocity demands the unreasonable power of creativity.

1. Pour in Emotion

Creativity starts with emotion.

Emotion has always trumped reason, and it rules the world of the moment, because it’s fast.

Emotion is how to get action, and you are all in the action business. Donald Calne: Reason leads to conclusions, emotion leads to action.

2. Generate lots of small ideas, continuously

Big ideas are scarce, strung out over time, investment hungry.

3. Be a Disruptor

Evolution takes centuries. Revolution takes 30 years.

The Now demands constant disruption. It’s about reframing constantly:

  • Steve Jobs: Presence into absence.
  • Surprise with the obvious: ‘Space Pen’ – To develop a pen that could write in space, NASA spent millions on advanced technology. The Russians used a pencil.

4. Ask 3 questions of any idea:

  •  Will people want to see it again?
  • Will people want to share it?
  • Will people want to improve it?

3. To Win Now, INSPIRE OTHERS TO DELIVER

Continuously challenge yourself and coach others to achieve the Dream.

To inspire people today you must provide:

  1. Responsibility
  2. Learning
  3. Recognition
  4. Joy

4.To Win Now, CREATE A LOVEMARK

Revolution starts with language. To win, go beyond brands:

  • Brands are owned by companies, marketers, and stockholders. Lovemarks are owned by the people who love them.
  • Brands are built on Respect. Lovemarks are created out of Respect and Love.
  • Brands build Loyalty for a Reason. Lovemarks inspire Loyalty Beyond Reason.
  • Brands deliver performance, respect and trust. Lovemarks infuse Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy, the stuff that matters.

Mystery: It’s what we don’t know that has most value. Storytelling is the richest vocation.

Sensuality enthralls the emotions, Vision, Sound, Scent, Touch, Taste.

Intimacy is empathy, commitment, passion.

Most organizations do Intimacy badly, or wrong, or badly wrong.

The secret is to put yourself in the heart of the audience. Not bringing them to you, but asking to be invited into their individual hearts.

  • Brands aim to be Irreplaceable. Lovemarks are Irresistible.

5. To Win Now, START WITH 3Es

  1. Enthusiasm: Be an ‘irresistible force of nature. Otherwise, in the words of Vince Lombardi: “If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.”
  2. Edge: Change happens at the margins, the fringes, the crazy edges. The further you are from conformity at the center, the more you can make things happen. This is where Kiwis rock, at the world’s edge.
  3. Everyone: Inspiration and love driven through business is the way to go.

The Power of Love

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An address to the Adtech Europe 2000 Conference. A provocation aimed at the dot com deadpool: several arguments in favour of television, mass marketing, building billion dollar brands, becoming a Lovemark, the Evernet, moods, brains, Xena and Maximus, research vampires, respect, trust and love.

At the Edge

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An address to the Resource Management Law Association Conference. Ideas about: creating the conditions for peak performance; re-framing “the New Zealand story” to create a compelling national identity;· creating the right focus among all New Zealanders to elevate New Zealand to Lovemark status; taking the world on from the edge and winning!

Emotional Rescue at Adtech

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An address to the Adtech Conference. If the internet is posed as a challenge to advertising, then emotion is the challenge for the Internet. Emotion is no longer ‘nice-to-have’ icing but the critical underpinning, the beating heart of any business whether it is operating online or offline.

Nine Muses

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Tongamazing!

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An address to the Tongan Tourism Industry. Tonga has retained it’s uniqueness and vibrancy in an era when many small nations are swamped by the influences of global culture. However, it must be careful to develop tourism in a way that celebrates all that is wonderful and unique, and does not encourage a Tongan experience to become just another holiday.

What’s Love Got to do With It?

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A keynote address to the World Magazine Congress. Naysayers who prophesize the demise of the print media miss the point. In the Attention Economy, when all communication must strive to make an emotional connection with consumers, the narrowcast and intimate nature of the magazine will become more valuable than ever.

The New Consumer

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An address to the VISA EU Member Conference. The banking environment of the last thirty years has been obliterated. Consumers now hold the power to drive change through the choices they make. Banks must respond with a new attitude if they are not to succeed.

New Rules

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A keynote address to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland Annual Conference. The key to wealth creation today lies with the intangible – ideas and relationships rule supreme. Accountants have negotiated the transition to the Age of Ideas better than many other industries, but the challenges of change continue.

Making Magic

Speech

A speech to the European Advertising Agencies Association Conference in Budapest. Kevin Roberts’ response to an address by Mr Niall Fitzgerald, CEO of Unilever, to the 1997 EAAA conference, in which Mr Fitzgerald questioned the ability of advertising agencies to lead interactive marketing strategies. Building brand equity, says Kevin Roberts, is still the main event, and the foundation of long term business success.

Brand China, Shanghai

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An address to the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. Brand China is Saatchi & Saatchi’s vision for making the “Made in China” label into a premium global brand. The latest consumer insights reveal that the Brand China values outlined in this speech match certain pervasive trends in Western consumer values.