Bob Isherwood (Worldwide CD Saatchi & Saatchi) – Let me entertain you.
May 18|2004

Oh entertain us he definitely did. By the end of the speech there was a massive crowd surrounding Bob as if he was some kinda rockstar.

Bob began the speech by playing the famous didgeridoo, that weird Australian instrument.

He started talking about how creative the people that made must have been. He made a note that you need to learn to circulate air (break in and out at the same time) so they had to really go at it, but that in the end, a great thing was created.

He then took the crowd in an inspiring speech about the future of advertising. Let me entertain you refers to the fact that consumers will only watch your ads if you are entertaining them, if you are giving them something more than your stupid logo and 1800 number.

Bob brought a couple of spots Saatchi & Saatchi made for Guinness in Africa. They were not spots, but more like mini movies that incorporated the product, in the same vein that BMW films did. Apparently the campaign that doesn’t look like a campaign was incredible successful over there.

Saatchi & Saatchi is an ideas company, and Bob made it evident that it is just not something said in their mission statement and then not implemented within the walls of the agencies. Major restructuring in the way account planners, creatives and account and media people work together is needed to achieve just this; entertainment.

The really fun part of the speech was that every 5 or so minutes something crazy would happen in the speech. We began by having some guy come up put on goggles and blow up one of those warm-water plastic bags. Then later he came on and blew a balloon using his nose and then put it through that back of his nostrils. This was followed by a woman behind me singing opera accompanied by some other guy with a bagpipe. The point was, if you are going to tell somebody something, give them something work watching, hearing, feeling, interacting with.

Bob finished the speech by getting his didgeridoo and playing with a live band. Bravo Bob!