Per Toyota's Request, Saatchi Bulks Up Planning

In response to Toyota Motors' request for a faster planning process and bigger, clearer ideas, Saatchi & Saatchi's West Coast office has integrated strategic planning into its four departments while hiring three new executives to service the car maker, its largest client.The departments—account management, media, planning and creative—have been refashioned into four new units at the Publicis Groupe shop: consumer communications, idea management, creative ideation and strategic planning. The goal is for each unit to integrate strategic planning, instead of departments contributing to final products in a linear fashion, executives said."The luxury of longer planning cycles is no longer in the cards," said Rich Anderman, who left the former Merkley, Newman, Harty & Partners a year ago to take over as president of Saatchi's Torrance, Calif., office. "The process started twelve months ago in a session with Toyota. They asked us for a faster time of planning, with more expansive ideas seeking bigger opportunities."The new structure is intended, in part, to fill gaps in strategic oversight that remained when integrated communications director Bonnie Chan left in October for Interpublic Group's Universal McCann, said Anderman. Toyota, a $600 million account that makes up almost all of Saatchi L.A.'s business, wants the shop to devise more integrated strategies and be less dependent on traditional forms of advertising."We will be sharing best practices with the Saatchi worldwide network a year from now," said Anderman. "We don't think it's far off from what everyone is thinking right now, but we'll have to demonstrate that it works first.""Clarity of communications has to be stronger than ever," said Mark Simmons, Toyota's national manager of advertising strategy and media. "We've re-elevated strategic planning to ensure that the ideas generated are meaningful to the consumer and meet our business objectives. The new team will make sure that each model in our diverse product line gets fully integrated support."The structure's first test will be the launch of work this fall for Toyota's Tacoma pickup truck. Several executives have joined the agency in the last few weeks to implement the plan.Jason Jordhamo, formerly associate media director on Mazda at independent Doner's Irvine, Calif., office, has arrived as interactive and emerging technologies media director. Jim Lorden, who was a senior partner and communications strategy director at WPP Group's Mediaedge:cia in New York, was named a media director specifically assigned to Toyota Sales Events, Certified Used Vehicles, and Parts and Service, a new post. Bruce McDermott, most recently an svp at Y&R Brands' Wunderman, started last week in the new role of brand integration director.All three executives report to strategic communications director John Lisko, who joined the agency from Doner in December.Lisko said Saatchi is now structured as a circle with quadrants and information moving freely among the departments, rather than in a pipeline. "We want integration through and through," Lisko said. "We're using a lot more of the strategic insights on things that differentiate Toyota buyers from others to expose the Toyota intender to breadth of experience."For example, the agency is reaching beyond basic demographic target data. The strategy component will add detailed information on prospective customers, down to their most minute daily habits.That "new creative-development process" will be especially helpful during crucial phases such as model launches, Anderman said. "Steve [Rabosky, chief creative officer of Saatchi L.A.] has fully embraced the idea of thinking expansive," he said. "We're looking for bigger, holistic ideas."

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Per Toyota's Request, Saatchi Bulks Up Planning

Gregory Solman

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Gregory Solman