Indoor Fireworks

Wednesday, 4 August 2004 - Los Angeles, USA

Fireworks Heart

Presentation Summary

A Lovemarks address to Borders Westwood Bookstore. California sun and Hollywood heat have generated a hothouse of Inspirational Consumers. Booklovers and loyal Lovemarkers turned up at Borders Westwood bookstore for the speech and a chance to win a brand-new Toyota Prius.


I have always believed in the power of ideas. Ideas are like fireworks. They spark the present and light up the future.

At Saatchi & Saatchi we believe Nothing is Impossible.

We are at the end of a great journey. From Products to Trademarks, from Trademarks to Brands. Brands have stalled. Lost in the clutter of the Attention Economy. Mauled by ferocious competition. Eroded by commodification – the process that erodes distinctions, that rapidly cycles through innovations and pushes for ever higher standards of performance and quality.

Consumers live in a world where the snacks are crisp, cars start first time and all beer tastes good.

Brands are table-stakes. What comes next?

Saatchi & Saatchi found the answer in some outstanding brands. Brands that have transformed how they connect with consumers. Brands that consumers Love.

They invent a future beyond brands.

Lovemarks are super-evolved brands that make deep emotional connections with consumers. Passionate connections that go inside people’s lives and make a difference. 

We call the people who love and sustain these brands Inspirational Consumers. California is a hotbed of Inspirational Consumers. You lead the edge of a breaking wave in consumer power. A brand new world shaped not by companies, governments, marketers or media. But by consumers.

  • Lovemarks are owned by the people who love and use them.
  • Lovemarks inspire Loyalty Beyond Reason.
  • Lovemarks can be anything that people care deeply about. And as Lovemarks.com, our virtual testing ground shows, it’s amazing what people do care about!

We’ve had an avalanche of Lovemarks nominations on Lovemarks.com – everything from Lego and Leatherman to Google, Gandhi and the grand prize in our Lovemarks.com story competition – the Toyota Prius.

For ten months the world’s consumers have been sending us Lovemarks stories of passion, of inspiration, of dream, of poetry. Many moved us. One especially touched us. Shortly I will reward that touch with the car that owns Hollywood. Stand by for the Prius winner presentation.

Take a brand away and people replace it. Take a Lovemark away and people protest. We all have our own Lovemarks: the restaurant we keep secret. The only tennis racquet we’ll ever buy. The book store we break appointments for. The sports teams we back forever…

Lovemarks are the charismatic brands that people get emotional about. You know them instantly whether you are in LA, London, Shanghai or Rio.

  • Harley Davidson, definitely. Suzuki? I don’t think so.
  • The iPod is a Lovemark; Sony is playing catch up.
  • Russell Crowe as “Gladiator” was the real deal. Brad Pitt as Achilles was a “Troy-Boy”.
  • Bush or Kerry, You tell me!!!

Five insights into Lovemarks:

1. Lovemarks capture emotion

Once it was safer not only to dumb down, but to numb down as well. No longer.

Emotion is back in style.

Science has proved that humans are powered by emotion, not by reason.

Brain scientist Donald Calne sums up: “The essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action, while reason leads to conclusions.” More emotion, more action.

Emotion is the new frontier of marketing. Give people more reasons to do stuff and their eyes glaze over. Only emotion excites them to action.

People without passion or emotion cannot do great work. People with passion and emotion can do anything.

They work the Is and the Es:

  • I for Ideas, Imagination, Intuition, Insight and Inspiration.
  • E for Emotion, Empathy, Energy, Exploration, Enchantment. Edge.

2. Lovemarks are Irreplaceable and Irresistible

Big brands have made huge investments in Respect for decades.

But Respect is no longer enough. Respect can make brands Irreplaceable to millions of consumers everyday. Only Love makes them Irresistible. Nothing else will do.

3. Lovemarks earn both Love and Respect

We mapped Love and Respect on this Axis.

img-lovemarks-1

Low Respect, Low Love. Commodity hell. Steel, gravel and logs. No names with no claims.

Low Respect, High Love. The Fad zone. Hero today. Zero tomorrow. From Ugg boots to Martha.

High Respect, Low Love. Most brands are stuck here focused on the “e-r” words: newer, brighter, stronger, bolder, and … cheaper.

High Respect, High Love. Lovemarks. New value lies in this uncharted territory.

For decades our client Toyota’s passion has been Respect. Now they are connecting with the power of emotion.

Senior vice president at Toyota USA Don Esmond on the new challenge: “It’s time to move from the most respected car company in America to the most loved.” That would put Toyota in the top-right corner: High Love and High Respect. A Lovemark.

4. Lovemarks touch Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy

This is why my book looks the way it does. Big impact visuals alongside intimate details. Anything to open people up to the spirit of Lovemarks.

Mystery to draw together stories, metaphors, dreams and symbols. Most brands squeeze out Mystery with too much information. When everything is known, there is nothing left to thrill.

Sensuality shapes the emotions. Sight, sound, smell, touch, taste. Through the five senses we experience the world. On Screen. In Store, On the go.

And the warm breath of Intimacy. The fine art of being close to consumers, without getting in their faces. Empathy, commitment and passion. The intimate connections that today no one takes for granted.

5. We can measure Lovemarks

Lovemarks are now backed up by another E word: Evidence.

Lovemarks reinvent brands. To prove it we reinvented research. Saatchi & Saatchi has been working with QiQ International from London for more than a year. We have developed a unique methodology to measure Lovemarks and emotion.

We can now measure the unmeasurable. We have remarkable evidence of the huge commercial advantages of Lovemarks. In terms of preference, in terms of usage, in terms of future purchase.

Lovemarks action

I am a working CEO, not a consultant or academic. What matters to me is action.

The REAL world of business is anchored by Respect at one end and inspired by Love at the other. Propelling them both forward is Emotion and Action.

R-E-A-L. Respect, Emotion, Action and Love. The essence of Lovemarks.

Lovemarks put the consumer at the center. They understand the source of their power.

As Executive Vice President of Toyota, Yoshio Ishizaka says: “Lovemarks are determined by the customers, not us. We really cannot determine anything. The customer does that. That is the essence.

P&G is the world’s largest advertiser. Their mantra? The Consumer is Boss. CEO A G Lafley wrote the Foreword. “By building brands that people love we are helping P&G reinvent how to create and nurture big brands.

Wind up

Lovemarks are now out in the world.

People don’t park their emotions outside the marketplace. They put them in the driver’s seat. Emotion rules our life choices. Love inspires them.

Lovemarks needs ideas people. Radical optimists. Inspirational Consumers. People who are emotional, challenging, inclusive, truthful. Who are determined to make a difference.

Who wants to do anything less?


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