- 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