“…Forty years ago, Charles and Maurice Saatchi founded the advertising agency that was to become one of the most glamorous and influential forces in the land.
But for Saatchi & Saatchi, the London advertising agency founded 40 years ago next week … you mightn’t be reading this page.
Indeed, there just mightn’t have been an Independent at all – something in the time-space continuum could’ve gone slip-sliding away.
That’s the way The Independent’s original 1980s’ founding Gang of Three – Andreas Whittam Smith, Matthew Symonds and Stephen Glover – tell it, anyway.
When they originally conceived the paper, Maurice (now Lord) Saatchi was one of just two people Whittam Smith rang in 1985 for a sanity check.
(The other was a banker, of course.)
Maurice put him on to John Perriss, Saatchi’s media director (later to head the Saatchi Group’s new media-buying agency Zenith).
In no time, the three had a Saatchi team of 16 –
- the agency had just lost a big newspaper account and, according to Symonds, wanted to have a high-profile new one – and a deal.
The deal was basically that S&S would help them to raise the money they needed from investors on a “no win, no fee” basis …
… (if it worked, they could start spending on advertising).
Saatchi would do research among potential readers and advertisers to help develop their pitch …
… and they’d rehearse and sharpen the presentation.
They also said, crucially: “We’ll come with you, if you like.”
“We walked in,” recalls Whittam Smith, “with the glamour of Saatchi beside us; it really helped.”…”
go to source/story>>>How to get ahead in advertising – Advertising, Media – The Independent
