M&C Saatchi Europe’s manifesto for a ‘single platform for the single market’
M&C Saatchi recently announced a new European ‘client platform’ under the rubric of M&C Saatchi Europe. Here, chief executive Carlo Noseda tells us why the pan-European offering is ‘not an agency’.
![The European Union flag, waving in front of a building The European Union flag, waving in front of a building](jpg/markus-spiske-wiuxlhndclw-unsplasha6bc.jpg)
Behind M&C Saatchi Europe's new 'single platform for the single market' / Markus Spiske via Unsplash
Clients are people and, like us, they are overwhelmed.
Too much change, too many moving pieces, too much to handle – all while budgets are shrinking and pressures are growing.
For a while, we took a lot of this stress on us. We suffered with them and for them. But, as of today, we're taking a more active approach: reinventing ourselves for the times, by creating a more simplified, integrated and healthy system, where all of us can thrive and co-create - again.
Here's how M&C Saatchi Europe came to be.
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A single market
Here's the vision: a single platform for the single market, activating and forming completely around clients and their needs, not around our offices – as it used to be. A place where each client has complete and immediate access to our full offering across all geographies, specialties, and affiliates – in the EU and well beyond.
Our mission is to simplify clients' lives, not complicate them. We’ve taken that to the extreme by eradicating all walls, borders, and old concepts which no longer serve the present moment. We are now one flat EU team ready to respond to any client challenge, no matter where it comes from (or in what form).
Clients no longer need to brief, coordinate, and integrate work between dozens of different agencies on every single project, or get lost in all of our own brand names and tags, not knowing who to ask for what.
The tough task of keeping it all tight, in place, and moving forward: that’s on us.
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Productizing and packaging
Where possible, we’ve also productized the offer by packaging out deals that clients can choose from, pick, and check-out. A simple act of service shopping: add to basket; done.
We’ve also liberated our people: each can work on any EU project, driven entirely by personal passion and value they can bring, rather than where they sit or what they are assigned to.
They can also fish/hunt/farm on their own, no matter their role; the new business responsibility is now embedded in every function, now done not just through the old processes of pitching and networking, but also through the sheer act of one’s imagination: “Hey, what if…?” “…Hey, why not.” All doors are open to ideas.
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How does it look practically?
M&C Saatchi EU is a platform, not an agency. We don’t expect clients to brief us, but to ask us the same questions they ask themselves. Don’t lock us in a box, dear clients; use us fully, please.
As a creative solutions company, our task is to find beautifully simple answers to some of the most beautifully complex questions, and then deliver, with exactly the level of engagement clients choose for themselves. Our guarantee: none of their time or attention wasted.
By accessing our entire talent pool, we enhance the 'brutal simplicity of thought', our trademark mantra, with the power of brutal diversity of thought.
And with new products like A/B Test, where the hardest C-level decision-making is transformed into a card game, clients appreciate the hands-on approach. We’re able to quickly become part of their team while being easy on/off (with the option to subscribe).
Easy for us? No. We had to swallow our own pill of 'make meaningful change'. But for the clients? A resounding yes.
In M&C Saatchi Europe we see an update for the times. Gained time. More focus, unity, direction. And hopefully, more space for play.
Content by The Drum Network member:
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