Campaign Brief Q&A with Toby Aldred, General Manager, Saatchi & Saatchi Australia: “We’ve achieved plenty, but we’re hungry for more”

Campaign Brief recently sat down with Toby Aldred, General Manager, Saatchi & Saatchi Australia and Chief Client Officer, The Neighbourhood to learn about his leadership style, the work the agency’s most proud of, how to balance creative freedom with client expectations and much more.

 

Campaign Brief: Can you describe your leadership style and how it has contributed to the success of your team and the agency as a whole?

Toby Aldred: I’ve been very lucky to work with some extraordinary agency and client leaders. All my good stuff is pinched from them, and I do my best to work on everything else.  Treating the team as individuals whilst generating a sense of community and being clear on objectives is a decent starting list.

Hopefully I provide some relativity and optimism to this magnificent and, at times, crazy industry, too.

CB: Saatchi & Saatchi is a household name known for some great campaigns; what work are you most proud of, and what do you think made this work a success?

TA: Growing up, I was drawn to advertising because of the Saatchi brothers’ extraordinary impact in the UK. Who doesn’t want to be part of the story? We talk about leaving your mark on the Saatchi legacy, and when you get an excuse to list some of the work we’ve created for our clients in Australia over the last 10 years, it reminds you why.

OPSM’s Penny the Pirate campaign was WARC’s most effective global campaign of the year in 2016, multiple Toyota Hilux ‘Unbreakable’ campaigns have taken the workman’s ute to Australia’s no.1 selling car, the Donation Dollar for the Royal Australian Mint has generated millions of dollars in charitable donations, and St.George’s Start Something platform was the first bank to truly embrace brand codes to rocket-fuel an 80-year-old brand to no.1 in bank consideration. Dettol’s Bat Bowl Dettol campaign has driven behaviour change with new audience penetration, Nescafe’s bold and smooth platform for Blend 43 has persuaded the fussiest coffee-drinking nation on earth that instant coffee has a place in their castle, and most recently, our special partnership with Arnott’s and the rest of the Publicis Groupe has resulted in being awarded the Grand Effie.

At its heart, there is a consistent agency knack for putting our client’s interests first and connecting their brand with Australians. So, we’ve achieved plenty, but we’re hungry for more.

CB: You worked in London before moving to Sydney. What are some of the learnings you’ve brought with you and the differences in ways of working?

TA: The London work ethic is immense, and the Australian love for life outside of a hard day’s yakka is awesome. I hope I’ve become a better human from the latter and hopefully brought with me a helpful bit of the former.

CB: What is one thing you can’t succeed without?

TA: A nice notebook helps place value on what people are saying to you and means nothing is missed.

CB: How do you approach the challenge of balancing creative freedom with client expectations and business objectives in the advertising industry?

TA: I don’t see it as a balance; it’s about doing the right thing for the task at hand. We’re a creative and commercial industry that uses extraordinary creative thinking to help organisations be they commercial, governmental, or NPOs, to fulfil their ambitions and objectives. That’s what agencies bring and how they thrive. We should celebrate this extraordinary business super-power.

CB: You also wear the hat of Chief Client Officer for The Neighbourhood (the connected platform of Publicis Groupe agencies that work with The Arnott’s Group); how do you balance innovation and growth with respecting an iconic Aussie brand and the notion of ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’?

TA: Arnott’s has spent 157 years creating delicious moments, so in The Neighbourhood, we talk about the privilege of leaving fingerprints on this much-loved brand. Growth is at the very heart of our relationship. It was great to have this acknowledged at the Effies this year, where our partnership topped the ROI and the Food & Bev categories and won the Grand Effie. Because, as a group, we are rigorous in nailing the basics that drive fundamental growth, it creates space to explore incremental growth through innovation – whether that’s in product or marketing.

CB: What kind of clients are drawn to Saatchi & Saatchi?

TA: The elevator pitch is that we help brands achieve their impossible by connecting them to Australians.

We specialise in powerful creative platforms that are designed to run not just through a marketing campaign but through the very business itself. Campaigns that connect with real-world Aussies, front-line employees and back-office executives and a strong enough idea that it can be executed at scale, from screen to influencer to wobbler. This level of ambition comes directly out of our Nothing is impossible belief. That’s our legacy, and we’re really proud of it.

CB: Saatchi & Saatchi have the mantra ‘Nothing is Impossible’; how do you embed this into the culture and day-to-day of the agency?

TA: Shining a light on the impossible achievements we’ve created for our partners helps to provide confidence and direction to the agency. Winning the Grand Effie for the first time was a great example – even after 44 years, there are always new ‘impossibles’ for us to conquer.

Day to day, ‘impossibles’ come in all shapes and sizes, and our culture creates a commitment to solving them. An account executive’s impossible they need help with is very different to a CMO or CEO asking you to help them with an ambitious business objective, but the way that you solve it is the same. Listen, consider, ask brilliant people for help if you need it and give your best possible advice to help that other person.

CB: Outside of work, what are you into?

TA: Hanging out with my great wife, super friends and our cavoodle – Kitten. And (still) trying to hang out with our sons.

CB: Anything on the horizon we should know about?

TA: With Mandie and Avish joining us, I’m anticipating a whole bundle of Saatchi excitement in 2024.

Working with Arnott’s across our Publicis Groupe connected platform model, The Neighbourhood, has been eye-opening. I think media creativity is a fertile space ripe for the taking.

CB: Best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

TA: Maurice Saatchi used to talk about the brutal simplicity of thought, and it has always stuck with me. Bloody hard but bloody good advice.

In asking, “Even better than ice cream?” my son taught me a great lesson in relativity.

CB: In an industry that is constantly changing and evolving, how do you stay creative and innovative?

TA: I meet fantastic, kind, generous and wise people at all levels every day. It’s a constant reminder there’s always more to learn and you’ve never cracked it!