Being an outstanding “suit” is no easy task. Being an outstanding “Saatchis” suit is even more difficult.
Saatchi & Saatchi has high standards and high expectations of each and every member of the team. But we are only human. Sometimes we make mistakes. Other times we don’t know what is expected, and other times we won’t know the best way of achieving our objectives.
This poster is a collection of pointers, ‘tips’ if you like, to help you achieve success in your endeavours. They reflect both the ‘Saatchi’ attitude and practical ways of doing your job better.
If you use the poster correctly, it should help you make the right decision in those circumstances where a little help really would be helpful.
Go for it, and good luck!
Saatchi & Saatchi has high standards and high expectations of each and every member of the team. But we are only human. Sometimes we make mistakes. Other times we don’t know what is expected, and other times we won’t know the best way of achieving our objectives.
This poster is a collection of pointers, ‘tips’ if you like, to help you achieve success in your endeavours. They reflect both the ‘Saatchi’ attitude and practical ways of doing your job better.
If you use the poster correctly, it should help you make the right decision in those circumstances where a little help really would be helpful.
Go for it, and good luck!
- Nothing is impossible.
- Advertising is a collective process. Use ‘we’ and avoid ‘I’. ‘We’ is both truthful and reassuring.
- Saatchi & Saatchi is the best agency in Singapore. Always behave in a way that adds to its reputation.
- Remember good manners. Treat everyone with respect.
- Think Big – big ideas lead to big results.
- Admit your mistakes, learn from them, move on.
- A big task is rarely accomplished with a little ad.
- You’re in the driver’s seat – drive your business into the future.
- Never be afraid to ask… an inquiring mind is an asset.
- Search for solutions, not problems.
- Treat the Agency as if it were your own.
- Treat every advertisement as your own. Mentally substitute your name where the logo is. Still proud of it.
- Remember, technology lets you do many things – use satellites, hire phones, whatever it takes to get the job done.
- Don’t put off the hard calls. Deal with bad news immediately.
- Details make the difference between an excellent result and an acceptable one.
- Know the creative department.
- Celebrate success. Make it fun to be part of the winning team.
- No pain no gain.
- Smile and don’t moan.
- Do it now.
- Keep in touch. Read widely.
- Look at other advertisements.
- Do the homework, be better prepared.
- Even great ads can have a ‘weak spot’ – find out what it is and prepare your response in advance.
- Put yourself in the other person’s shoes.
- Don’t forget the client has a job to do as well.
- Work hard. Harder than you expect others to work.
- Progress, not process.
- Be prepared. Style is never a substitute.
- Write presentations as though every chart is an ad. Lead with a headline. Finish with an invitation to buy.
- Great ideas can come from anywhere and anyone.
- Don’t compromise.
- Have a curious mind. Use ‘what if’. Interrogate statements with ‘so?’
- Know more about your clients’ products or services than they do.
- Become the recognised ‘keeper of the brand’.
- Do your ‘fieldwork’. Work in the factory, behind the counter.
- Make your client feel good.
- Look after your colleagues. Help them out.
- Never try to ‘score points’ at a colleague’s expense. You’ll lose more than you score.
- Be a realistic optimist.
- Remember to sell.
- Introduce the members of your team.
- Get briefs into the system as soon as possible – time wasted at the beginning of the process is never caught up at the end.
- Avoid assumptions when facts are available.
- Trust your instinct.
- Quantify your successes.
- Take the long term view.
- Take ownership. Don’t rely on others to do the selling.
- Invest heavily in the briefing process. It is your ticket to success.
- Never present an advertisement without understanding it.
- Sell the brief, sell the ad from the brief.
- Treasure your creative partners. Talk to them.
- Practice the art of inclusion. Spread ownership of success.
- No politics.
- Champion great advertising.
- Recognise others’ achievements. Be generous in your praise.
- Admit mistakes and rectify them quickly.
- Play your part in setting Saatchi & Saatchi’s ‘tone’.
- Create a ‘buying’ environment. If you’ve done your part, the ‘sell’ is easy.
- Build your client’s trust. Be very careful with how to use it.
- Take a ‘helicopter’ view. See the big picture.
- Don’t become preoccupied with your next career move. Do what you’re meant to be doing better than anyone else and your career will take care of itself.
- Prima Donnas are ballet dancers.
- Keep the end goal in sight.
- There are those who listen and those who wait to speak – the latter work for the other agencies.
- Make the client a member of the team – and a team player.
- Ask for the order.
- Watch for body language – including your own.
- Create energy, don’t drain it.
- Follow up, follow through.
- The best suits get the best out of Saatchi & Saatchi and match it to the best out of the client.
- Pull rabbits out of the hat.
- Use your clients’ products.
- Over deliver.
- Say thank you – even better, send a note.
- Sit in on research groups, better still, run your own.
- Take copious notes – it’s flattering and useful.
- Be discreet.
- Pay attention to detail.
- Remain resolutely positive.
- Be careful about presenting more than one idea – it usually indicates untidy thinking.
- Clever questions are usually better than smart answers.
- Take your time to answer – give the question the consideration it deserves.
- Don’t be afraid to say I don’t know.
- But come back with an answer – quickly.
- Think in campaign terms, look for long-term solutions.
- Annual plans are a fundamental discipline and every client deserves one.
- The best new business is business you already have.
- Every client is an individual, treat them as such.
- Be wise in your use of research. Don’t use it as a substitute for decision making.
- The best ideas are original. They’re usually the hardest to research.
- Search for the nuggets.
- Champion Saatchi & Saatchi.
- Deal to the urgent, look after the important.
- Don’t over complicate the issue, get to the point.
- Create a sense of action, excitement.
- Never be asked twice.
- A full page ad or a 60 second TVC is an expression of confidence that consumers readily recognise.
- Don’t be scared to serve the coffee yourself.
- Before you end a meeting, make sure nothing is left unresolved.
- Keep meetings short and to the point.
- Beware the work-in-progress list that lacks significant work in progress – it usually spells trouble.
- Treat your client’s money as your own.
- Get organised.
- Be confident – and have a reason to be.
- Good account handlers plan their accounts, not react to them.
- Surprise Saatchi & Saatchi. Surprise your client. Surprise yourself.
- Treat every brief as an opportunity.
- Understand the difference between objectives and strategies.
- Never underestimate the power of media.
- Translate numbers into concepts.
- Get to the point.
- Ensure that people want to work on your accounts. Make it fun, challenging, rewarding.
- Be a perfectionist. Don’t settle for second-best.
- Act at all times like a professional.
- Learn Saatchi & Saatchi’s nuances, its traditions. Value and protect them because they give Saatchi & Saatchi its sense of uniqueness.
- There is a direct correlation between ads that win awards and are successful in the marketplace.
- Saatchi & Saatchi is only as good as its weakest part. Help to improve it.
- There is no ‘engine room’ in Saatchi & Saatchi, nor is there a ‘they’. We are each and every one of us responsible for its success.
- Share your knowledge.
- Demonstrate you’ve listened and taken notes. Feed quotes back during your presentation.
- When was the last time you met a successful cynic?
- Always look for a big idea.
- When you are caught in a drawn-out-process, focus on the end result. That way you retain the integrity of the idea.
- The best way to win a big victory is to win small ones along the way.
- Mediocrity is when your ad is no better than the competitors.
- Because something can’t be proven to work, doesn’t mean it won’t.
- Concede graciously when you’re wrong.
- There are no proven formulas in the creation of great advertising – the best work is always outside them.
- Interrogate the product: the answers are often staring you in the face.
- In a presentation, marshal your facts and present them in a sequence which invites a series of positive responses.
- “Convince a man against his will and unconvinced he will remain still”. Listen and look for doubts and negatives – address them, then move on.
- Don’t leave an ad on display once you’ve sold it. Put it away and move on to the next subject.
- Structure presentations so that the most important sections are left till last.
- Take pride in your honesty.
- Make decisions based on what’s the best long term interest and work back from there.
- When you write a document, the headings from ‘The Brief’ are an ideal starting point.
- Fortune favours the bold.
- Take pride in Saatchi & Saatchi’s success whoever and whatever it is.
- Rehearse the sell by interrogating creatives on how they would sell it.
- Prior to presentation, rehearse, plan the sell. Anticipate likely objections.
- What’s in the agency’s best interest is always more important than any one individual’s interest.
- Treat your creative partners as partners. Your relationship will dictate the type of work you get.
- Remember your clients’ birthdays and anniversaries with Saatchis. Use the occasion to thank them and to discuss the future.
- Welcome old clients to their new job on their first day.
- Account management has the power to control the agency – or let it go out of control.
- Be punctual.
- Always fight for great creative.
- Thank the client for buying the big idea.
- Keep your own reel and guard book.
- Be in the business for great ads, the money will take care of itself.
- If you’re not making great ads, you’re losing influence.
- Treat briefs like gold, the creatives will give you gold in return.
- Treat other people the way you want to be treated yourself.
- Always answer the phone with your name and a positive response – it’s infectious.
- It is not a sin to say “I’m busy, can I ring you back!” But make sure you do!
- Hound that new business prospect and compete like hell to win it.
- Make your job your hobby and let it show.
- Aim to win at least one international award (creative or marketing) a year for one of your clients.
- Know when to ask for help. Assistance is far more positive than salvage.
- Perception is reality.
- Have an opinion.
- Never betray a confidence.
- Use all the resources you can to solve a client’s problems, including our international network.
- Arnold Palmer said, ‘The more I practice, the luckier I get’.
- The best way to beat the leader is to make them look old fashioned and slow to respond.
- Failure to communicate creates a vacuum that is filled by poison, misinformation and drivel.
- Consensus is important, conviction more so.
- Never let research replace judgement.
- Pre-testing advertising often impedes creativity because it focuses on ‘what is’ not ‘what it can be’. It criticises rather than creates.
- Don’t worry about problems; solve them.
- If it can be done today – do it.
- Talk, don’t send notes.
- Believe in decency.
- Answer the question.
- The only way to break new ground is to break away from what was… and to seek what’s new.
- Take a chance and learn from it.
- Don’t try to be impressive – just be impressive.
- Be pro-active till it hurts.
- Tune in to each client at all levels.
- Be addicted to innovation – not just creativity.
- Get it wrong the first time.
- What’s simple isn’t always easy.
- Try to imagine what you would do if every cent you owned was tied up in the client’s company.
- Common-sense isn’t very common at all.
- Brand champions are courageous.
- When you write the brief remember it is the start of the creative process.
- It’s not the hours you put in that count, but what you put into the hours.
- Use Saatchi & Saatchi members for informal but effective consumer input.
- Have a ‘can do’ attitude.
- It’s easier to criticise than it is to create.
- Always get into the agency half an hour before your boss.
- If you must use research to refine your brief, use propositions rather than creative work.
- Try to keep attendees in a meeting to a minimum. It leads to better decision making.
- When you’re on, YOU’RE ON – you’re only new once.
- Don’t lose your ‘street smarts’ – stay in touch.
- Learn from everyone.
- Listen to your client. “We believe in advertising. We believe it is our most effective marketing tool – the very life blood of our brands”.
- The key to success is choosing the high ground then owning it.
- Avoid waffle.
- Be passionate about advertising.
- Don’t swamp clients in a meeting.
- Don’t feel reassured if you’ve seen something like this ad before – start feeling uncomfortable.
- Don’t over-sell. Once an ad has been agreed, move on. “Over selling” often results in the reverse.
- Make it easy for the client to buy.
- Beware the Abominable ‘No’ man.
- Don’t waste creative people’s time in drawn-out meetings.
- Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
- Nothing is impossible.
Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising