SU’s Newhouse School to host Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts Oct. 16

SU’s Newhouse School to host Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts Oct. 16October 01, 2008Wendy S. Loughlinwsloughl@syr.edu

Kevin Roberts, top executive at pre-eminent international advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, will visit Syracuse University on Thursday, Oct. 16, as a guest of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Roberts, who is the agency’s CEO worldwide, will speak from 11 a.m.-12:20 p.m. in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in Newhouse 3. His talk is titled “Walk through the Fire: From transactions to relationships, from communications to connections, from advertising to ideas, from brands to Lovemarks, from green to blue.” The event is free and open to the public. Parking is available in SU pay lots.

Roberts is one of the foremost figures in advertising today. He began his career with the London fashion house Mary Quant and later worked as a marketing executive for Gillette and Procter & Gamble. He became CEO of Pepsi-Cola Middle East when he was 32. He later worked for Lion Nathan before joining Saatchi & Saatchi in 1997.

Roberts is co-author of “Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands” (powerhouse Books, 2005), and the originator of “Lovemark thinking,” which focuses on brands that inspire loyalty beyond reason. His leadership has been a driving force behind Saatchi & Saatchi’s success.

Roberts is also author of “Sisomo: The Future on the Screen” (Powerhouse Books, 2005) and “The Lovemarks Effect: Winning in the Consumer Revolution” (Powerhouse Books, 2006), and co-author of “Peak Performance: Business Lessons from the World’s Top Sporting Organizations” (Texere, 2002). In addition, he is the inaugural CEO in residence at Cambridge University in London and a professor of sustainable enterprise at the University of Waikato in New Zealand.

One of the world’s most award-winning advertising agencies, Saatchi & Saatchi numbers among its clients Procter & Gamble, JC Penney, Toyota and General Mills. The agency has won more than 4,000 awards in the last five years alone, including 42 Lions at the 2008 Cannes International Advertising Festival and 42 Clios at the 2008 International Clio Awards. (The Tide-to-Go commercial The Interview, for example, won a gold Clio.) The agency is part of Publicis Groupe, one of the world’s largest advertising and media services conglomerates.

For more information about his talk, contact Brian Sheehan at (315) 443-9247 or bjsheeha@syr.edu.