That's What I Call Marketing S5 Ep10: Inside Saatchi & Saatchi, with CEO Claire Hollands
Inside Saatchi & Saatchi. Sit down with the CEO of one of the most iconic agencies in advertising, a name that carries both weight and expectation, to understand how CEO Claire Hollands leads for today.
This is a conversation about ambition. Not in the abstract, but in how it shows up in the work, in the culture, and in the relationship between agencies and clients.
We get into how Saatchi & Saatchi is positioning itself around growth, why creativity still holds commercial power (even if the industry occasionally forgets it), and how agencies are rethinking their value, from billable hours to business outcomes.
There’s also a clear view on where things are shifting: the role of AI, the reality of pitching, and why agencies need to be more deliberate about the clients they choose.
Running through all of it is leadership, how you make decisions without perfect information, how you build a culture of high challenge and high support, and how you balance legacy with the need to move forward.
What you’ll learn:
- Why agencies need to reposition themselves around growth, not outputs
- How creativity still drives commercial performance and where it gets undervalued
- What actually builds trust between agencies and clients
- Why most pitch processes are flawed and what better looks like
- How to think about agency value, pricing, and remuneration
- The difference between growth brands and transformation brands and why it matters
- What “high challenge, high support” looks like in practice
- How great leaders make decisions without having all the answers
- What AI is changing in agencies and what it isn’t
- Why hiring for attitude and curiosity matters more than experience
Timestamps
00:03:00 – Finding your people in the industry
00:06:00 – Why account management sits at the centre of the agency
00:07:00 – Building trust in client relationships
00:12:00 – How decisions are really made at senior level
00:15:00 – Culture, values, and collective ambition
00:19:00 – High challenge, high support: what it means in practice
00:23:00 – Managing pressure across career and family
00:25:30 – Where the agency world is heading
00:29:30 – The evolving agency model
00:32:00 – The role and reality of pitching
00:33:30 – What needs to change in pitch processes
00:37:30 – Hiring for attitude, not just skill
00:39:00 – What excites Claire about what’s next
About the podcast
That’s What I Call Marketing is a podcast for marketers who care about how brands grow, how advertising works, and how the industry is evolving through conversations with the people shaping it.
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