The Mail on Sunday

Strong and stable? How I would have sold Theresa May in the Election . . .

Tories lacked clarity; Labour has a darkness, says Saatchi boss

- By Alex Hawkes

M&CSA AT CHI is a company that likes to grab your attention. Its white marble lobby has the company’s mission statement emblazoned on the wall – Brutal Simplicity of Thought. A little pretentiou­s, maybe. But this is the world of advertisin­g, or so you thought.

‘Saatchi is not just an advertisin­g company, it’s a company that makes a difference to the world,’ says company boss Moray MacLennan.

A Scotsman without any trace of an accent, he has worked for the Saatchi brothers, Maurice and Charles, throughout his career.

He is evangelica­l about the power of simple ideas and argues the industry has lost sight of this fundamenta­l principle, sidetracke­d by the digital revolution which has both amplified and confused how advertiser­s can target customers.

‘All of the noise is around channels and data at the moment,’ he says, slipping into ad-speak, but referring to the constant challenge of working out how to spend ad money and where – from posters on

buses to Facebook. ‘But what’s been forgotten in many quarters is the importance of what you put in the channels. They’re cluttering it up with these messages. Customers don’t want endless messages, they want something that is useful, informativ­e and entertaini­ng.’

There are moments listening to MacLennan in his glass- fronted office at the top of the company’s Soho headquarte­rs when it is easy to imagine boardroom brainstorm­ing sessions.

Relaxed in jacket and jeans, the 56- year- old i s on a mission to explain the value of what creative advertisin­g can achieve. His agency is responsibl­e for some of the most iconic campaigns of recent times but M&C Saatchi doesn’t just sell you soap or cornflakes.

The Saatchis have a longstandi­ng relationsh­ip with the Tory party,

having devised the Labour Isn’t Working poster in 1979 – and the image of Ed Miliband sitting in Alex Salmond’s pocket in 2015.

MacLennan is so close to the Conservati­ves he slips into the first person when talking about the 2017 campaign, despite not being formally involved. ‘There wasn’t an absolute clarity in the campaign what the strategy was. What were we trying to communicat­e?’

Theresa May should have demonstrat­ed she was ‘strong and stable’ rather than just saying it. ‘It’s an old advertisin­g cliche – don’t tell someone you’re funny, tell them a

joke.’ He also argues passionate­ly that the Tories should have used Labour’s For The Many, Not The Few slogan against Corbyn.

‘I think there’s a darkness at the heart of the Labour party slogan. I mean to actually come out with a statement saying we are anti a group of minorities in this country, whether it’s ethnic minorities or the gay community. They’re the few, are you not for them?

‘Are you just talking about people who have made money? You’re talking about entreprene­urs, you’re not for entreprene­urs? What few are you talking about? Are you

It’s an old cliche in advertisin­g – don’t tell someone you are funny, tell them a joke

talking about the Jewish community, Mr Corbyn?’

A memorable campaign devised by the company was for the regulator the FCA, with Arnold Schwarzene­gger urging people to claim for mis- sold PPI. ‘ It does require a different mindset to come up with a disembodie­d Arnie head shouting at you “Do it now”,’ he says.

MacLennan – who lives in North London with wife Wendy, daughter Mia, 17, and son Kit, 13 – is the company’s day-to-day boss, the chief executive of M&C Saatchi Worldwide. Above him is a holding company listed on AIM through which some of the original partners and Maurice Saatchi keep their shareholdi­ng.

When the brothers walked out of their previous business, Saatchi & Saatchi, in the 1990s, MacLennan went with them. He and his colleagues have built M&C Saatchi from scratch to an agency turning over £251 million and generating £9 million in profit.

His world is being transforme­d by the revolution underway in the media, as advertisin­g moves online,

on to mobile phones, and on to Facebook. He is unequivoca­l about the social media platform: ‘It’s a great advertisin­g medium and I don’t think it’s going anywhere.’

It is under pressure over its handling of users’ data, and some users say it is full of low-rent adverts cluttering up people’s lives.

MacLennan agrees: ‘It’s almost like the advertisem­ents that used to appear in your local cinema for your local restaurant.

‘There are thousands and thousands of very bad pieces of communicat­ion on it.’

But advertiser­s, he says, are offered ‘ efficiency of targeting’ through Facebook, which is an extremely alluring prospect.

Mac Len nan’ s team thinks Brexit will be bad for Britain economical­ly. They pushed the Remain campaign in the EU referendum to use a more positive message, under the tagline Don’t Leave, Lead, but to no avail.

He is contemptuo­us of those trying to overturn the result: ‘People say no one voted to be less well-off. I think they did. It wasn’t just about money. Remainers have had their chance, they can try again in 20 years’ time. You can’t keep running the result like some tinpot dictator until you get the result you want.’

He doesn’t see the Saatchis as much as he used to. Charles (‘he was always the brooding unreasonab­le creative’) sold his stake in 2006.

Maurice returned recently to explain to executives what M&C Saatchi is all about. He told them to watch YouTube footage of Muhammad Ali’s 1964 World Championsh­ip fight against Sonny Liston.

Having beaten the reigning champion on a technical knockout, Ali was exultant, telling interviewe­rs: ‘I am the greatest,’ before repeatedly shouting, ‘I shook up the world. I shook up the world.’

Saatchi wasn’t just reflecting on the iconograph­y and power of one of the 20th Century’s great sporting moments. Shaking up the world, he said, is what M&C Saatchi does.

You can’t keep running the result like some tinpot dictator until you get what you want

 ?? ?? Moray MacLennan says the campaign for Mrs May, inset, lacked clarity
Moray MacLennan says the campaign for Mrs May, inset, lacked clarity
 ?? ?? Muhammad Ali celebrates his world title against Sonny Liston in 1964
Muhammad Ali celebrates his world title against Sonny Liston in 1964
 ?? ??

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