Trust in the Future

Name: Kevin Roberts
Occupation: CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi
Aspiration: "A trademark plays defense. It's the way that you protect what you've already built up. It's your copyright, your patents, your table stakes. But a trustmark plays offense. It's the emotional connection that lets you go out and conquer the world!"

Kevin Roberts doesn't dress like an ordinary ad-agency CEO. he favorsblack T-shirts and black jeans as his regular outfit.

He doesn't talk like an ordinary ad-agency executive either. He speaks with a vigorous New Zealand accent, says exactly what he thinks, and peppers his speech with a zesty dose of enthusiastic profanities and energetic exclamations.

Most important, he doesn't think like an ordinary ad man. A few short years ago, according to advertising orthodoxy, brands were everything. The combination of rising global competition, proliferating product offerings, and multiplying Web sites put a premium on a company's ability to establish its brand as a recognized mark. Today, says Roberts, 50, chief executive officer worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi PLC, brands are history. Looking forward, companies need to establish their products and services first as "trustmarks" and then, upping the ante even higher, as "lovemarks."

As a small test of the concept, Roberts produces a printed list of the top 100 global brands: from McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Disney, Kodak, Sony, Gillette, and Mercedes-Benz, all the way to Benetton, Sainsbury, and Dr. Martens. On Roberts's list, only a few of the names are in boldface type. Those are the brands that have figured out how to make the leap from being a brand to being a trustmark.

The transformation, Roberts says, requires a new set of ideas -- not only about brands, advertising, and marketing, but also about leadership, authenticity, and the human spirit. Listening to Roberts talk openly, energetically, and convincingly about his career and about his work at Saatchi makes this mind flip sound self-evident. "The greatest connections are built on love," he says. "I still love every brand I've worked with." That list includes some of the most impressive brands and the most well-known companies in the world: Gillette, Pepsi-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and now Saatchi & Saatchi, one of the world's leading advertising agencies, which Roberts joined as CEO in 1997. He has continued in a leadership role with Saatchi since the 6,500-person company was purchased by French agency giant Publicis SA for nearly $2 billion last June.

The Saatchi & Saatchi Web site makes immediately clear Roberts's influence on the firm: "Ideas are the currency of the future," it says. "They solve problems. They create opportunities. They entertain. They break down barriers. They enrich lives." Roberts's own best idea: "To make the New Zealand flag black with a silver fern" -- his design for his beloved nation. In order to find out more about his ideas on the future of marketing, advertising, and brands, Fast Company visited Roberts at his office in New York.

Plot your product on a love-respect axis. I used to work at Procter & Gamble, and I've always loved that company. Historically, it's been the mother, father, aunt, and uncle of brand management. But unfortunately, succeeding in today's market isn't about either of those two words: It isn't about brands, and it isn't about management.

We've already moved from management to leadership -- and we're about to go beyond leadership to inspiration. In the 21st century, organizations have to achieve peak performance through inspiration by unleashing the power of their people -- not by leading them, not by managing them, but by inspiring them.

And it's not about brands anymore. We live in an attention economy where people are bombarded with messages day in, day out, and brands don't cut it. Go back in time. First we had products -- which were the equivalent of management. Next we added trademarks and developed brands -- which were the equivalent of leadership. Now we've got to move beyond brands to trustmarks. But why?

Because people today are cynical, savvy, and selective. You have a famous brand? I couldn't care less! You've got three seconds to impress me, to connect with me, to make me fall in love with your product. Pretty much everything today can be seen in relation to a love-respect axis. You can plot any relationship -- with a person, with a brand -- by whether it's based on love or based on respect. It used to be that a high respect rating would win. But these days, a high love rating wins. If I don't love what you're offering me, I'm not even interested.