Interviewing Kevin Roberts is like driving a sports car for the first time. You may imagine you are in control as you hit the ignition button, but the moment you shift into first you unleash an unpredictable torrent of super-charged power which leaves you struggling to stay on the road.
Roberts’ power is in his vision and the words he uses to share it with the world.
He is the ultimate enthusiast, a glass-half-full merchant who speaks not in tongues but in torrents. While the rest of us construct sentences around verbs and nouns and subsidiary clauses, Roberts’ are built around ideas. Every utterance contains a thought, a notion a belief - a verbal signpost to the future of business, life and, of course, sport.
Now in his 60th year his legendary energy appears undiminished. He is a true citizen of the world; a world defined by his relationships with people, places, brands and sport. As Worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, Roberts is a prodigious communicator, in person, in print and online. And what he communicates is sheer passion for the things which he cares about…. and that’s a helluva lot of stuff. From All Blacks rugby to his charity work, from Gillette razor blades to new media, his passion embraces it all. You could write a book about it… except that it would be a waste of time - he’s already done that.
This is the man who gave us Lovemarks, a chunk of landmark thinking based on the notion that even the most successful brands are running our of steam and have to develop more powerful emotional connections between companies, their people and their brands. They must evolve to become Lovemarks.
“When I first suggested that love was the way to transform business, grown CEOs blushed and slid down their annual accounts,” Roberts said in an earlier interview.
“But I kept at them. I knew it was love that was missing. I knew that love was the only way to ante up the emotional temperature and create the new kinds of relationships which brands need.”
Kevin Roberts gets attention because his record supports his opinions and his vision. “Great ideas can come from anywhere but most of them turn up on the edge,” he says.
“These are the places which are restless and resourceful; the places which don’t understand ‘can’t be done.’
A sports nut, Roberts is in a perfect place from which to view the evolving relationship between brands and sport against a background of media and demographic changes which have left other observers less than sure of their ground.
One of the key questions facing the sports marketing sector has been whether, against shifting media consumption patterns, sport can retain its pre-eminent position as a vehicle for sponsorship. Most surveys suggest that sports accounts for somewhere north of 80 per cent of the spend right now but that that may fall as other genres get their acts together and find new ways of linking brands to their desired audiences.
“I don’t think that sport will maintain its share,” Roberts says…“The opportunity is to grow it to 100 per cent! You have to understand that sport is life. It is always on and I take the same passionate, optimistic view of sponsorship as I do of TV.
“Sport is made for these times. We are currently living in a (economic) catastrophe, a time when there is massive unemployment in the 18-24 age groups. People have become disenfranchised and disassociated from many aspects of life and they are finding solace in sport. It is tribal and gives them somewhere they really belong and can feel part of life. “Sport is available in so many forms and at so many price levels that it is somehow, somewhere always just around the corner. All of which means that sport has never been so important as it is today.”
All of which sounds like good new for brands looking for ways to connect with their audiences/markets in new, more meaningful and ultimately more profitable ways. But, says Roberts, to do so they are going to have to put aside some of the ways things have traditionally been done and focus on the unique nature of the opportunity.
“We have to move away from measuring sponsorship through the old metrics of Return On Investment and focus on Return on Involvement.
“All great sponsorships are about enrichment and about adding a new dimension, deep at the heart of the relationship between the prospect and the brand, a relationship of real substance,” Roberts says.
“Most sports sponsorships are about teams and players and they really need to refocus on the fan. There are a few companies which do this really well and most of the rest are crap.
“In NASCAR, Toyota is a great example of a brand which is all about the fan. Everything they do around the sport is focused on giving them an awesome experience, whether it is online, at the dealerships or at the event. Coca-Cola is another company which has really got the idea that it is all about the fan, as have MacDonald’s. “There are massive opportunities through sport to build Loyalty Beyond Reason and to do so by using new media in a way which is not simply more effective but actually cuts costs.
“We have moved from an attention economy to a participation economy and successful brands will create those opportunities to participate. There is a creative exercise that needs to be done here. Every meeting should start with the Fan, with the big question: How will we get the fan to participate?
“We have to understand that mass marketing is dead. People are not morons and the whole world is moving on. People want to be part of it in different ways.
“The competitive advantage of sport is passion. Brands have to take that passion but change the battle ground.”
