Alex Lucas and Jon Farley most recently worked as creative directors at Saatchi &amp; Saatchi and prior to that spent nine years at Adam &amp; Eve/DDB. During their time at Adam &amp; Eve/DDB, Lucas and Farley worked on award-winning campaigns including <a href="https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/harvey-nichols-could-i-clearer-adam-eve-ddb/1324832">“Could I be any clearer”</a> for Harvey Nichols and <a href="https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/marmite-dynamite-adam-eve-ddb/1707173">“Dynamite”</a> for Marmite.Holly Sutton-Williams and Dan Lacey have also joined, forming a new creative team. Sutton-Williams most recently worked as a senior copywriter at Colenso BBDO Auckland, working for brands such as Amnesty International as well as producing work for the New Zealand government’s Covid-19 response. Meanwhile, Lacey has previously held roles at agencies including Adam &amp; Eve/DDB and MullenLowe London before becoming a freelance art director in 2020.Both teams will report to creative partner Guy Bradbury and executive creative director Matt Lee.Bradbury and Lee said: “Both teams bring a wealth of experience and proven track record in creating distinctive, effective and award-winning work for brands including PlayStation, Marmite, John Lewis, Volkswagen and Mars. We can’t wait to unleash them on our existing clients and the new ones we hope to meet this year.”

Creatives from Saatchi & Saatchi, Adam & Eve/ DDB and BBDO join M&C Saatchi London

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In turbulent times like these - as we businesses and governments face inflation, supply chain disruption, recession, war - it’s tempting to turn inwards, to the safety of what you know and who you know.&nbsp; The familiar is both comfortable and comforting.&nbsp;&nbsp;Board rooms all over the world are faced with problems that don’t have a playbook:&nbsp; how to respond to new types of competitors; whether or not to embrace a new business model at the risk of cannibalising their existing one; whether to buy that new start-up disrupting their category or build their own competitor. Each of these questions requires an organisation to innovate, to do something it hasn’t done before, to make a bet and take on some element of risk.And yet, in complex times, when uncertainty is high and innovation is essential, retreating to the familiar is exactly the wrong thing to do.&nbsp;&nbsp;Instead, we need to do the opposite and look outside of our domains of expertise and the places we are most familiar with and actively seek different or unfamiliar perspectives.&nbsp; We need to embrace cognitive diversity.What do we think of when we hear ‘diversity’? At the forefront of our minds are areas of race, gender, religion, accessibility and sexuality. The corporate world has made much progress over the last decade in tackling diversity issues. Whilst there is still a long way to go in these areas, there is also another side to diversity which we rarely stop to consider. That is, diversity of thought - cognitive diversity.Janine Schindler, MCC, wrote in <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2018/11/26/the-benefits-of-cognitive-diversity/?sh=1ccaf8fd5f8b">Forbes</a> that, ‘Cognitive diversity is the inclusion of people who have different ways of thinking, different viewpoints and different skill sets in a team or business group.’ It seems obvious that having non-identical perspectives and skill sets would work to amplify teams in any setting. Yet, the corporate world in many senses doesn’t seem to have caught onto this.&nbsp;As clients have to navigate increasingly complex problems, cognitive diversity becomes essential rather than a nice to have.“If we are intent upon answering our most serious questions, from climate change to poverty, and curing diseases to designing new products, we need to work with people who think differently, not just accurately.” - Matthew Syed, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rebel-Ideas-Matthew-Syed/dp/1529348404">Rebel Ideas</a>: The Power of Diverse ThinkingAnd we know cognitive diversity delivers real results, especially around innovation.&nbsp; Teams with greater cognitive diversity solve problems <a href="https://hbr.org/2017/03/teams-solve-problems-faster-when-theyre-more-cognitively-diverse">3x faster</a>, they spot <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/deloitte-review/issue-22/diversity-and-inclusion-at-work-eight-powerful-truths.html?zd_source=hrt&amp;zd_campaign=5328&amp;zd_term=chiradeepbasumallick#endnote-16">30%</a> more risks and they deliver more innovation than like-minded teams.How best to start? At Thread, part of M&amp;C Saatchi Group, we’ve built a Global Innovation Network of specialists to tap into for each client brief, drawing on different perspectives, disciplines and geographical experiences depending on the client’s existing context. This might mean engaging neuroscientists, architects, science fiction authors, Machine Learning engineers or sociologists to provide new perspectives on your challenges.But a very easy place for anyone to begin is to take a more global view of your category. Many of the most innovative places on the planet are in Frontier Markets: places like China, Korea, East and West Africa and Latin America where a combination of less regulation, fierce competition for rising middle class spending and less legacy technology to disrupt leads to huge levels of experimentation around new technologies and new business models. These economies have often reimagined your sector and are testing new propositions at a scale and speed unimaginable in Europe and the US.&nbsp; &nbsp;Learn FasterWe’re not suggesting blindly copying what is happening in these very different contexts (what management consultants gleefully refer to as ‘lift and shift’), but using them to reframe your expectations of what is possible, and test the elements you think might translate to your own context while discarding what will not. If you want to learn about the future of education then visit India, the world’s EdTech laboratory. If you want to get a peek at the possible future of gaming and e-sports then South Korea and Finland are likely to give you food for thought. The organisations that learn the fastest have a competitive advantage, so why wouldn’t you take advantage of all the insights these markets have to offer?Develop Your Own Flavour&nbsp;Iceland is a great example of a brand that has borrowed what has worked elsewhere and developed their own take for the UK. When they saw how hard the cost-of-living crisis was hitting their customers, with many driven to food banks and loan sharks, they took inspiration from Grameen Bank in Bangladesh who pioneered the idea of microfinance – making small loans to struggling members of the community without any collateral. Working with a range of partners including ​ethical credit provider, Fair for You, with support from Nesta and HM Treasury and​ the Esmee Fairburn Foundation, <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2022-08-16/iceland-unveils-75-buy-now-pay-later-zero-interest-loan-for-struggling-shoppers">they developed The Food Club card</a> to help consumers stock up on shopping, both in-store and online, using a pre-loaded card, with interest-free credit on amounts from £25 to £75 with the support of Fair For You. 92% of users said it has reduced their use of food banks.The interesting stuff, the things that end up changing markets and lives as we know them, happens at the intersection of disciplines, expertise and ideas. It is only when we welcome these diverse perspectives that we are able to innovate our way through the many complex challenges in front of us.&nbsp;&nbsp;In turbulent times of uncertainty, retreating to what you know is often the riskiest thing of all.

Why Cognitive Diversity Is an Untapped Superpower

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 What businesses can gain from leaning into cognitive diversity within the workplace. 

While it’s still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C (and keep our world within the temperature ‘safe zone’), we are dangerously close to that threshold. So global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must be cut quickly and deeply across all sectors. At M&amp;C Saatchi we’ve therefore committed to reducing both our absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 50% by 2030 from a 2019 base year, and absolute scope 3 GHG emissions from purchased goods and services and business travel by 50% within the same time frame.&nbsp;We’ve made good progress against our Scope 1 &amp; 2 emissions, with many of our global locations now running on renewable energy and an ongoing focus on efficiency improvements. But the majority of our emissions are in scope 3 (the things we buy and our business travel), so we are working with our stakeholders and suppliers throughout our value chain to help implement the most effective ways to accelerate carbon reductions as quickly as possible. By encouraging our suppliers to set their own science-based targets, we will help them reduce emissions across all they do.Working alongside Ad Net Zero, Ad Green, Purpose Disruptors and the Conscious Advertising Network we’re introducing measures to reduce emissions in what we ask of our production partners. These range from reducing the need to fly for shoots and reducing waste and emissions from catering and onsite electricity generation, to considering technologies such as VFX and measuring and reducing emissions from digital media.We recognise this needs to be an industry-wide effort and so we strongly encourage clients across the globe to demand more of their advertising, communications and media agencies and include low carbon delivery in their core campaign criteria.Of course, by far the biggest potential impact of the industry is via the products and services we promote for clients. Our&nbsp;<a href="https://mcs2021.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/M_and_C_Saatchi_Global_Sustainability_Update_2022_small_compressed_039c61a1c7.pdf">2022 Global Sustainability Update</a> outlines our actions in this area, including a commitment to grow the % of our revenue from planet-positive campaigns* year on year and we are looking forward to the development of industry metrics around advertised emissions.We look forward to reporting our progress against our science-based target annually.* Our Planet-Positive campaign definition: For a campaign to be defined as Planet Positive it must be able to demonstrate a provable reduction of negative impacts vs&nbsp;the&nbsp;market or previous iterations of a product or service or way of usage.Product/Service: e.g. less plastic in packaging, reduced water usage, shift to electric (vs petrol), circular production techniques, lower impact ingredients (plant based food). NB:&nbsp;The&nbsp;enhanced environmental credentials of&nbsp;the&nbsp;product or service do not need to be&nbsp;the&nbsp;focus of&nbsp;the communication.&nbsp;Behaviour: e.g. &nbsp;the&nbsp;campaigns promote behaviours which reduce&nbsp;the&nbsp;environmental impact of how we live (eg recycling, frequency of travel, mode of travel, water usage, plant based eating, use of renewables etc).&nbsp;About the Science Based Targets initiative&nbsp;The <a href="https://sciencebasedtargets.org/">Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)</a> is a global body enabling businesses to set ambitious emissions reductions targets in line with the latest climate science. It is focused on accelerating companies across the world to halve emissions before 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions before 2050.The initiative is a collaboration between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and one of the We Mean Business Coalition commitments. The SBTi defines and promotes best practice in science-based target setting, offers resources and guidance to reduce barriers to adoption, and independently assesses and approves companies’ targets.&nbsp;

Our near-term science-based target validation

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An app that's designed to connect with young people, and their grown-ups, to better understand the value of money.With their own Kit account and prepaid card, kids can manage their own earnings, saving, and spending through fun, experiential learning. Kids can earn money on ‘chores PayDay’, create savings ‘Stacks’, access their money through an ATM and tap their card to make purchases. In Boss Mode, parents have access to sophisticated controls such as spend limits and card and PIN protection, which can be tailored to each child in the family. “Kit has been an amazing experience to be involved in from concept through branding and helping design the digital product too. It’s been a true partnership between Re and the wonderful team at Kit and X15 who challenged us to push our thinking and vice versa" says&nbsp;Andy Thomas, Executive Creative Director at Re

Re team up with Commonwealth Bank to help launch Kit 

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Africa’s first digital domain Africarare, is a 3D virtual reality immersive hub that houses a&nbsp;metaverse marketplace set in Ubuntuland. Ubuntuland will showcase some of the best of African art, fashion, entertainment, sport, tech and creativity and will provide a platform for artists from across the continent to showcase their work.“The unique afro-themed metaverse establishes local representation in a growing global&nbsp;digital universe and will open our continent up to significant digital and economic growth opportunities for both talent, clients and industry colleagues to come together to solve business and even societal challenges with creativity,“ says Mike Abel, M&amp;C Saatchi Group South Africa founding partner and CEO.“This aligns with our own very clear commitment to pushing the bounds of South African&nbsp;capabilities and creativity in the work we produce across the continent. We love a good problem as a team, and we believe that creativity is the most significant key to solving these. Creating a virtual home for this is a very natural and fluid extension of our ability to do exactly this,” he says.Investing in the first African metaverse allows M&amp;C Saatchi Abel and its partners access to&nbsp;a global network through social technology designed to remove terrestrial borders and open up trade, collaboration and regional or global partnerships. Beyond just business opportunities and social interaction experiences, M&amp;C Saatchi Abel Ubuntuland unlocks an accessible home for economic opportunities, decentralised access to global creativity and best practice, as well as skills and knowledge sharing.Moray MacLennan, CEO comments: “No one knows precisely what the metaverse will look&nbsp;like when our children are no longer children, but anyone with a slither of imagination knows that it will open a new world of opportunities for our clients, and that they will need our industry’s imagination to make the most of it. Get on board. Now."Ubuntuland is created by Mann Made and will be open to public land sales from 2nd or 3rd&nbsp;quarter of 2022 as the team continue to work on the build for their Afro-futuristic world of proudly local creativity. Together with Mann Made, M&amp;C Saatchi Abel and Africarare will create a cultural, social, and commercial destination for African creativity in the metaverse.“For us it’s all about building a thriving engaged community and ecosystem in Ubuntuland&nbsp;as we develop this new metaverse. We are thrilled to be working with one of Africa and the worlds most talented creative agencies as we focus on unlocking Africa’s best talent and connect Africa to the global digital economy,” says Mann Made Media &amp; Africarare CEO, Mic Mann.This planned inclusive world for African creativity will allow creators to be inspired by -&nbsp;and add to - cultural experiences as well contribute to and profit from various commercial opportunities. The virtual hub is also intended to house the largest collection of African contemporary art from the M&amp;C Saatchi collection, host sport and entertainment experiences, establish an open-source platform to share skills and learnings; and will host workshops from agencies across the M&amp;C Saatchi Group.Central to interacting in the metaverse are Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). These digital&nbsp;assets or tradable tokens are created from art, music, videos, pop culture references or unique creative creations that can be bought and sold online. The concept of engaging with and trading on creativity and its value and relevance to individuals is one that is deeply rooted in the agency’s 12+ year run working with South African and international brands. The virtual marketplace will provide the perfect platform for any creative to develop and monetise its creative product as an NFT.“We aim to give Africans the access and resources they need to unlock their creative fire&nbsp;power from the home base of Africa’s digital creative destination – M&amp;C Saatchi Abel Ubuntuland. Using our capabilities as industry leaders, we can enable and empower Africa to grow and flourish on a global playing field,” concludes Abel.

M&C Saatchi enters the Metaverse 

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Pirelli's 150th Anniversary 

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The respective dream teams over at M&amp;C Saatchi Indonesia and M&amp;C Saatchi Performance have been getting their hands on two top awards at the Global Campaign Agency Awards for 2022.Huge congratulations to the teams, thoroughly deserved.&nbsp;

Two awards at Campaign Global awards

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The Return: The New Value Drivers of Travel

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Looking for something else?

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