The New Zealand Edge : Kevin Roberts : The Design of Cultural Identity: www.nzedge.com



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	The New Yorker for New York Award to Kevin Roberts from the Citizens for NYC, media release and acceptance speech, Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York, 14 April 2004.

	KEVIN ROBERTS, CEO WORLDWIDE OF SAATCHI & SAATCHI HONORED BY CITIZENS FOR NYC

NEW YORK, NY April 12
Actor and director Christopher Reeve will present, via video, Citizens for NYC’s New Yorker for New York Award to his friend Kevin Roberts, the New York-based CEO Worldwide of ideas company Saatchi & Saatchi. The award will be presented at the nonprofit Citizens for NYC’s annual New Yorker for New York Awards dinner on Wednesday, April 14, 2004, at the Waldorf Astoria.

This year’s dinner will also pay tribute to renowned newsman Walter Cronkite, Northeast President for Bank of America Anne Finucane, First Lady of the United Nations Nane Annan, journalist and author Kati Marton, and Executive Director of The Studio Museum in Harlem Lowery Stokes Sims. The Dunton Block & Civic Association and entrepreneur Nadia Campbell will receive awards for community leadership. Mike Wallace, of 60 Minutes fame, will host the event.

Mr. Roberts, a world marketing leader, is revolutionizing the advertising industry with his concept “Lovemarks,” which he defines as the combination of respect and emotion inspired in consumers by certain strong brands. His soon-to-be published book Lovemarks: the future beyond brands brings to life a new vision for business and marketing, and defines the relationship between brands and consumers in terms of emotional connections.

Throughout his career, Roberts has developed ground-breaking marketing ideas for companies including Mary Quant, Gillette, Procter & Gamble and Pepsi-Cola. P&G, as one of Saatchi & Saatchi’s key clients along with General Mills and Toyota, continues to benefit from Roberts’ iconoclastic leadership in the ideas business.

“I have never met a global consumer,” says Roberts. “Everything starts in the local. The work of the Citizens for NYC to build stronger neighborhoods is as important to the economy as it is to our spirit. I admire the work of this organization and I am proud to accept this award.”

Mr. Roberts is inaugural CEO in Residence at the Judge Institute of Management, Cambridge University’s business school. He is Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, and the University of Limerick in Ireland. In addition, he serves as a trustee of Turn Your Life Around, an Auckland, New Zealand, charity that mentors at-risk youth. All of Kevin Roberts’ work, both in his formidable professional career and in his outstanding service to the communities where he makes his homes, is guided by the principle that emotional connections and inspirational individuals can change the world.

“It is a Citizens for NYC tradition to honor those who contribute to the enrichment and vitality of New York City,” said Henry Cornell, Chairman of Citizens for NYC and a partner at Goldman Sachs. “Kevin Roberts and the Saatchi & Saatchi family exemplify the spirit of public service that is at Citizens for NYC’s core.”

Co-chairing the event are Mike Burns and Scott Gilbert, co-CEOs of Saatchi & Saatchi NY, Steven Rattner, Managing Principle of Quadrangle Group LLC and Maureen White, DNC National Finance Chair.

Also presenting awards that night will be Schuyler Chapin, former Commissioner of New York City's Dept. of Cultural Affairs, Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly of the New York City Police Department, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frances FitzGerald and Osborn Elliott, former Chairman and Editor-in Chief of Newsweek and Founding Chairman of Citizens for NYC.

The New Yorker for New York Awards dinner, held annually since 1977, raises funds each year for Citizens for NYC, a nonprofit organization founded in 1975 as the Citizens Committee for New York City. Citizens for NYC mobilizes New Yorkers to improve their neighborhoods in the areas of Urban Environment, Beautification, Safety, Poverty, Youth Service and Entrepreneurship, and Neighborhood Diversity, providing small grants, workshops, information and assistance to more than 12,000 grassroots volunteer groups throughout the city’s five boroughs.

Henry Cornell, Chairman · Osborn Elliott, Founding Chairman
Hon. Charles E. Schumer, Honorary Chairman · Michael E. Clark, President
John M. Aerni, Evelyn Cunningham, Henry P. Davison, II, Vishakha N. Desai, Rena DeSisto, Jason Diaz, Peter Duchin,
Frances FitzGerald, W. Robert Friedman, Jr., Hon. Roy Goodman, Victor Gotbaum, Thomas Guinzburg, David Hochman,
Sharon King Hoge, Richard C. Holbrooke, Thomas C. Israel, Henry L. King, Joel Motley, Mark Neuhaus, Samuel S. Perelson,
Joel Press, Bryan Pu-Folkes, Richard T. Roberts, Marcella Rosen, Paul N. Roth, Sandra Silverman, Pierre M. Sutton, Stephen H. Weiss

KEVIN ROBERTS ACCEPTANCE SPEECH FOR THE NEW YORKER FOR NEW YORK AWARD FROM THE CITIZENS OF NEW YORK WED 14 APRIL 2004 AT THE WALDORF ASTORIA HOTEL.

My thanks to Mike Wallace and to Superman, Christopher Reeve. Thank you Citizens for N.Y.C. Thank you Henry Cornell, Osborn Elliott and Michael Clark.

Congratulations for providing leadership and care for this city we love.

I lead a global ideas company. We communicate ideas to markets, to countries, to families, to people. For business. For change makers. For people who want to improve the world.

For me, everything starts in the local. I have never met a global consumer. Everything happens in the neighborhood.

The work of the Citizens for N.Y.C to build stronger neighborhoods is as important to the economy as it is to our spirit.

My home is Tribeca, my work is in Hudson Street, and my city is New York. The city of dreams, of ideas, of working hard.

I grew up in the industrial northwest of England with no money, few options, surrounded by economic and social decay.

For many people in the world for whom this is their story, New York is their symbol of freedom. Still. And, I hope, forever.

The roots of our New York agency go back to 1921.

Our inspirational dream is to be the hothouse for world-changing creative ideas that transform our clients’ businesses, brands and reputations.

I believe that business is the engine room of human progress. I believe that the role of business is to make the world a better place for everyone.

By creating self-esteem, opportunity and choice. Creating products, services and experiences that are both loved, and respected, in the market, is the way we can help do this. By creating Lovemarks.

Anyone, anything, deeply and widely cared about, can be a Lovemark.

It is an invitation to enjoy life on inclusive, human terms. There is no coercion. Love cannot be commanded. It must be given.

I love New York.

I thank the Citizens for N.Y.C. for honoring me, for recognizing Saatchi & Saatchi, and our work creating ideas for the greater good.

To reciprocate, I have one secret to share, and one world premiere to present, of a television commercial for a set of the greatest ideals for our time.

The secret is that I have another home, a long way from here, but this place perfectly counterpoints New York. This place is New Zealand.

There’s a new book out, The Island at the Center of the World, about the founding of New York. My other home is the Island at the Edge of the World. The center and the edge. N Y N Z. New York New Zealand.

The power of the edge is a force to draw inspiration from. Some New Yorkers already know of this.

Julian Robertson. Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne from New Line Cinema with their Lord of the Rings trilogy. The collaboration of that country and this city is one of the most interesting ideas around.

I hope that in accepting this award from the Citizens for N.Y.C, that New Zealand can become one of your neighborhoods. Come visit us.

To conclude, may I offer you the world premiere of a message for tolerance, equality, fair play and, most of all, peace.

These are the first in a series of commercials for our client, the International Olympic Committee, made by Saatchi & Saatchi in New York.

They will start screening worldwide in ten days. I hope we’ll soon be welcoming these great games to this great city of New York.