Ex Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts Tells Me Traditional Agencies May Be Doomed

I was fortunate enough to catch up with Kevin Roberts when he was in Colombia for the WOBI World Leadership Forum last month. Kevin is the former Chairman of global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi where he invented the Lovemarks marketing concept, intended to change the very concept of brands. Kevin now runs Red Rose Consulting where he offers counsel and coaching on leadership, marketing & creative thinking.

Kevin & I discuss the death of traditional media and the rise of new media; and how that goes hand-in-hand with the death of traditional advertising agencies and the rise of the new creative.

Loren: So, we are publishers. I publish three different publications, only one is focused on Colombia, the other ones focus on financial back office processing (FinanceAmericas) and there’s one that’s one about technology (Cognitive Business News), but I publish Finance Colombia, which is the only English language publication focused on Colombia’s financial sector.

Kevin: And on what media? Online or physical?

“I think the world of agencies, the way agencies function would disappear” – Kevin Roberts

Loren: It’s all digital because if I mail a printed magazine to London, it’s no longer news when it arrives, it’s history. It’s interesting because it seems like people that are older than me still take print publications, but people that are 20 or 30 or 40 years old, they consume media digitally.

Kevin: I take all my newspapers online, right? So I take the New York Times, The Times, the Daily Mail, The New Zealand Herald, but I take my magazines physically, because I’m not interested in the news, it’s not news then, I’m still interested in editorial content and I’m still interested in quality reporting so for instance, and I like the touch of the paper, I like the photography, so I’d still get Condé Nast Traveler, I would still get Vanity Fair, I would still get the New Yorker physically, rather than online, because I can wait up to three weeks, because the news is not important to me in that media.

Loren: I can relate to that because my first job in the media was in 1989, when I worked as an editor at a at a local weekly back in Ohio, and I was also the director of photography, running the dark room—and we had chemicals back then, there was no Photoshop. We had silver halide, you know, we used Kodak 400 ASA film and it is fascinating how things have changed but it’s interesting because for my long form journalism, I take audiobooks and podcasts. I woke up this morning listening to podcasts and that’s how I consume my long form publishing.

Kevin: You’re right because my sons are all in their 30’s and 40’s, one works for Facebook, running all of P&G’s businesses in Cincinnati, Ohio...

To read our full discussion, please click here!