“I Feel Extremely Blessed”: Alister Adams Discusses His Move to Saatchi & Saatchi Canada
In December of last year, Saatchi & Saatchi Canada dropped some big news. After a 17-year tenure at the agency, president Stuart Payne would be stepping down, with Alister Adams set to replace him on January 1st, 2025.
Undoubtedly, this is an exciting move for the agency. While change can be scary, and Stuart’s will be large shoes to fill, Alister brings with him a wealth of experience working within the Publicis network, including 25 years with Saatchi’s sister agency, Publicis Canada. Most recently serving as chief digital officer and managing director of Publicis Toronto, Alister’s resume speaks for itself.
Not only was he the man that led the relaunch of Razorfish in Canada – a digital-first agency that helps brands navigate the marketing realities of today – but he also was responsible for consolidating, orchestrating and elevating the digital production offering of the Groupe, across Toronto, USA, Costa Rica and Columbia. In short, Alister is one of North America’s foremost authorities when it comes to the world of digital, which, alongside his general agency experience, promises an exciting year (and beyond) for Saatchi’s Canadian division.
To learn more about this appointment, how the first month has gone, and why he’s spent his entire career working within the Publicis network, LBB’s Jordan Won Neufeldt sat down with Alister for a chat.
LBB> Obviously, the big news is that you’ve taken on the role of president at Saatchi & Saatchi Canada. Congratulations! What does this opportunity mean to you?
Alister> Honestly, it means a lot. I’m not going to pretend it doesn’t.
Few people in our industry get the honour and privilege of leading an agency, never mind an agency so iconic and respected as Saatchi & Saatchi. I feel extremely blessed.
LBB> And what are you hoping to accomplish in this new role?
Alister> Anyone that is a student of advertising knows the work that Charles and Maurice Saatchi created. They stand up there amongst the giants of our business, alongside the likes of Bill Bernbach, David Ogilvy, Jay Chiat and Lee Clow, Leo Burnett, Hal Riney, and Dan Wieden and David Kennedy.
The Saatchi brothers coined their agency mantra, ‘Nothing is Impossible’, over 50 years ago. However, I couldn’t think of a more prescient rallying cry for today’s marketing landscape. Between AI, ever-evolving and expanding digital landscapes, media fragmentation, shrinking budgets, shortening timelines, and drive towards personalisation, contextualisation and diversification of content, delivering the (seemingly) impossible for our clients is what modern agencies are being asked to do each and every day.
Saatchi & Saatchi Canada, under the successful leadership of my predecessor, Stuart Payne, recently experienced its best financial year. With a talented team of 200 employees, the agency is thriving. Yet, the perception behind our walls is probably somewhat different.
I want to work with the passionate leadership team to restore Saatchi & Saatchi to once again be seen as one of the leaders in our industry in Canada (and beyond).
LBB> This appointment marks a new evolution in Saatchi & Saatchi’s Canadian history. So, what’s on the radar for the coming year?
Alister> My goal isn’t necessarily to ‘change’ things, but rather to ‘unleash’.
As mentioned, Saatchi isn’t broken – it’s anything but. I have been truly amazed by the talent, clients and capabilities that exist in this agency.
Saatchi & Saatchi Canada’s digital team harnessed AI to create over 100,000 personalised films for every Publicis employee around the globe – all for Arthur Sadoun’s annual ’Wishes’ film as a proof-of-concept project to prove the feasibility of an AI-generated video. Saatchi & Saatchi Canada’s search division, Synergize, just won Google Canada’s AI Agency of the Year. The strategy and creative teams worked tirelessly to create some beautifully insightful, authentic and crafted Toyota masterbrand film work that is fantastic.
My focus is going to be harnessing these amazing talents and capabilities, and making the whole even greater than the sum of its already impressive parts.
LBB> Looking at your career history, you’re known for helping launch Razorfish in Canada, as well as consolidating the digital offering of the Groupe. How have these experiences prepared you for this role?
Alister> As you can tell, I guess I’m a ‘digital guy’. This wasn’t intentional. I just organically gravitated towards digital early in my career, as I love learning. I love the unknown. The uncharted. The new. The scary. The innovative. And digital is all those things and more – especially the version from when I was coming up in the 2000s, which was so unfamiliar to most.
(Re)launching Razorfish in Canada was a proud moment for me, as it was an iconic brand that was entrusted to me to lead. It was exciting to be able to create a new brand positioning and capabilities offering that both harnessed the history and heritage of Razorfish, while further modernising it to reflect how digital had evolved. That, and giving it a clear and distinct positioning amongst our other Publicis Groupe digital brands in Canada, which include Hawkeye, Nurun and Sapient.
Consolidating digital production for Publicis Groupe across North and Latin America was a different experience. Publicis decoupled digital production from all US-based creative agencies (Publicis, Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi, Fallon, BBH, etc.) and looked to consolidate the offering into a single production entity, ThePub (later renamed PXP), to provide further scale and specialised capabilities. I was tapped to lead this as in Toronto, we had already built out by far the largest digital production hub in North America. This required me to be the outsider (from Canada, no less) who had to quickly come in, earn trust and respect, bring together different personalities towards a unified goal, and drive organisational change (something that scares some people) – all at North American scale.
I will definitely be relying on these experiences as I work to build trust and partnership with this team, and look to redefine Saatchi & Saatchi’s positioning.
LBB> Building on this, you’re obviously bringing an extensive background in digital production to the team. How are you going to help the agency evolve in this regard?
Alister> Saatchi Canada already has a robust digital production team. I’m a big believer in the importance of strong digital production capabilities. In fact, I think it is a fundamental capability that is required to succeed in modern digital marketing, which requires content to be personalised, contextual and diversified.
Accomplishing this requires production to be in lock step with creative, strategy and analytics. And delivering this demands a high-quality, efficient and effective production team that is empowered with AI and automation tools.
My plan is to continue to build out these capabilities through training, talent, tools, and partnership, to help our clients do more within their budgets and timelines. This is often where robust digital production capabilities can help.
LBB> That’s not the only thing that matters of course – you’re equally keen to blend creativity, strategy and data to make a great offering. What can we expect this to look like?
Alister> One of the many things I love about digital is that doing it right requires the orchestration of consumer strategy, creativity, channel strategy, media, analytics, site content and production. All these disciplines need to be playing in-time, collaboratively, and with a unified goal.
But this can be challenging in today’s fragmented agency ecosystem that most clients have. Some of the challenges I have faced before include not being able to control every aspect of the marketing, and thus not being able to bring the optimal version to life, as it can get blocked or diluted by other partners.
What’s unique about Saatchi is that strategy, creative, analytics, media planning and buying, SEM, SEO, production, events, and website development all sit in a single agency under a single P&L. This will hopefully allow us to deliver an undiluted version of our vision to life.
LBB> Let’s talk a little more about you. How would you describe your leadership style? What can your new colleagues expect from you?
Alister> I truly believe in servant leadership.
I see my job as being to do everything possible to enable each and every person at Saatchi & Saatchi Canada to be the best version of themselves. And to remove any friction points or barriers that are preventing them from accomplishing that.
I also don’t believe in micro-managing.
Instead, I believe in setting a clear vision, expectations and timeline, and then getting out of the way and empowering your leaders.
And I try to make it fun.
LBB> Undoubtedly, this style has been informed by your past experiences, of which you’ve had many. What have been some of the most important lessons of your career, and how do they influence this approach?
Alister> I have been blessed to work for and alongside so many amazing and talented people in my 24 years at Publicis. Publicis Toronto alumni and former colleagues lead FCB global (Tyler Turnbull), FCB Toronto (Bryan Kane), started No Fixed Address (Dave Lafond and Serge Rancourt), launched Mischief @ NFA (Kerry McKibben), founded Angry Butterfly (Brent Choi) and the list goes on. Not to forget the current president of Publicis Toronto, Brett McIntosh, who has been a mentor and friend for over 20 years now.
So, while Publicis might not (yet) have the creative reputation of some other Canadian agencies, it has no doubt been an outsized incubator for amazing leaders of our industry.
Much of that must be attributed to the example set by Andrew Bruce (CEO, Publicis Groupe Canada) and Duncan Bruce (Publicis Canada CEO) who have led Publicis Canada by example, each and every day, for over 25 years now.
One of my earliest bosses and mentors was Tony Ciccia, who was hired to lead the Kia Motors account that we won in 2002 when I was an account supervisor. Tony taught me how valuable account people can be in getting great work sold. How to prime clients. How to inspire clients. How to explain how the work addressed their brief. He showed how it solved… he never had to sell. As a result of Tony – along with some amazing creative talents like Pat Pirisi and Gary Holme – I got to be a (small) part of breakthrough work getting created. And once you get to experience that, you never stop wanting to keep being part of amazing work.
But, many of the most important lessons were taught to me by my mother. Adages such as ‘talk is cheap, actions matter’, ‘everyone deserves respect’, and ‘your word is your bond’ were ingrained into me from an early age. And, since then, they have been words to live by in business and in life.
LBB> Of course, you’ve spent your entire career working within the Publicis network. Why was this the right home for you? And have you found there to be major advantages working within a network system?
Alister> I’d like to preface that I am aware I’m entirely biased in my perspective, as I have only ever worked at Publicis.
When I joined Publicis Toronto in 2000, it was a small agency of less than 40 people which had just won two massive accounts in Microsoft and CIBC (thus why it won Marketing’s Agency of the Year that year). When I left in December, almost 25 years after first joining, we had over 800 employees.
With such growth came constant opportunity. Anytime I maybe got a little bored, we won another account that I could move to. Or we expanded the capabilities that I could launch or lead. There was never a need to leave. It became my home that I was emotionally attached to, especially with people who were more than just coworkers – they were (are) family.
With such growth also comes autonomy from a network. Global doesn’t need to get involved when you are hitting (or exceeding) your numbers. So, I have nothing bad to say about the Publicis network – it has only ever empowered us in Canada.
Publicis Groupe also provides all employees with access to global tools and benefits such as Marcel, Work Your World and Working with Cancer – offerings impossible for independent agencies to offer.
Additionally, the network has been a massive advantage for us in Canada. We have been able to access and earn US and global mandates through Publicis Groupe clients and relationships, including Walmart US, Citibank, Four Seasons, Pfizer, P&G, and Signet Jewelers – something that would be extremely hard to do without those network relationships and connections.
I’m not trying to add fuel to the networks versus independents debate. Both have benefits. No doubt. But too often I only read and hear about the one-sided ‘independents rule’ perspective. And I don’t think it is that binary.
LBB> Finally, the work isn’t everything. Is there anything you’d like your new peers to know about you, or fun stuff you’d like to share?
Alister> I’ve always loved creativity and pop culture. But I have a business mind. So, I love being an ad guy as it marries my passion with my aptitude. My dad was a movie producer – which in some ways is a similar role to figuring out how to bring a director’s vision to life while delivering financial results – so I guess I come by it honestly.
I’m constantly curious and am a lifelong student, so I apologise in advance to my new team for all my questions.
Finally, I love to travel. I love movies. I love my kids. I love my wife. I love my job. I feel truly blessed.
