Kim Thorp

"Kim Thorp, 50, was creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi Wellington for 14 years and chairman of Saatchi NZ for two years, as well as representing Australasia on the agency's worldwide creative board.

I loved my years at Saatchi - it was simply time for me to move on. The pressure of out-delivering the previous year's award haul, year on year for over a decade, was enormous. Ninety per cent of it was best memories. Worst memories were watching the mystery erode.

New Zealanders provide the advertising industry with a complete irreverence for tradition, hierarchy, old boys' clubs and bullshit. Okay, maybe we bring a bit of bullshit.

I spent a sizeable chunk of the last few years locked away in off-site meetings around the world trying to reinvent the business we are in. While we spent years talking about it, we never did it. In hindsight, I think we were asking the wrong question. The business doesn't need reinventing. At a time when physical product or service differentiation is virtually eliminated by competitors overnight, fresh, original ideas based on attitude, personality and branding have never been of more value. What's not so valuable is the cumbersome structure which has been built up to deliver those ideas.

With Assignment, rather than trying to change the structure, we started again. We have no media relationships, we mark nothing up and we have no 'one size fits all' departments. This allows us to be completely neutral in finding the best idea for the job - be that a television commercial or a name change.

I don't think we could have started Assignment five years ago for one simple reason - there weren't enough good people working outside the main agencies. All the good people were locked into the big structures. Now I think the reverse is true. The freshest brains and talents in the world of ideas are either setting up specialised businesses or simply going it alone. These people have replaced our creative, planning and production departments. We work with the very best people for the specific job at hand and that is the beginning and end of our association. It keeps the focus on the job and it ensures the dollars are spent on the work rather than on administering the relationships.There is a stigma attached to working in advertising. But only from journalists. It grieves them greatly to see someone butchering their craft while driving a Porsche.

I think I have a healthy non-obsession with money. I believe that money only becomes a real priority when we genuinely fear we don't have enough of it. Sadly, many of us have wild delusions about how much is in fact enough.

A fantastic ad will never save a bad product. It may sell it once, but it is rare that a product survives with someone buying it just once.

Awards are a hugely important part of the advertising industry. They are the currency used to attract and judge the best talent. But because we now simply wish to work with award-winning talent, rather than employ it, we no longer need to chase awards. It also costs a fortune.

I always wanted to write but I wasn't particularly fascinated by the factual reporting nature of journalism. I was too stupid and naïve to start writing books, but stupidity and naivety were perfect attributes for a copywriter. I started with two years in radio, which taught me the disciplines of timing, and then two years in television, which taught me that it's the toughest medium to get right - particularly when using humour.

I judge a person slowly, quietly and initially without prejudice. Then, when they've said enough, the trap shuts and I rarely change my mind.

With the Tourism NZ account, we want to develop a deeper understanding of the ideal traveller to New Zealand and help make it one of the world's favourite travel destinations - not just this year, but for the long haul. We want to do this by encouraging people to come soon, to stay longer and to tread gently - ensuring that New Zealand's unique environment is also here for the long haul.

I had a 'New Zealand normal' childhood. Biked to school. Milk bottles in the letter box. Family holidays at the beach. Two kids. Two parents. A fluffy cat called Fluffy. A blue bird called Blue.

A vineyard is an interesting and continually rewarding bottomless pit into which to tip money. A good wine is one that's not all mouth and trousers.

We introduced the 'firing clients' policy at Saatchi because our success was killing us. We were getting too big. We were weighed down by a disproportionate amount of government business. We were expanding into areas we weren't good at, but where revenue supposedly lurked. Something had to give. In most instances what gives is the culture and passion of the agency, quickly followed by work quality. In our instance, what gave was a group of clients we were no longer doing our best work for.

Being a writer, probably the greatest 'I wish I'd done that' moment was seeing the Sony spot of many years ago with the Bird of Paradise being courted by the set of speakers. An idea strong enough to look brilliant on the page, executed with simplicity and exquisite timing.

On a good day, New Zealand advertising is surprising, fresh, proud to be local, and irreverent. On a bad day it is the same formula as the 'rest of the West' with even worse execution.

I don't think New Zealand's new multi-culturalism has really changed advertising here, beyond the occasional token United Nations snapshot. Perhaps that's a good thing. Rather than advertising having to round everyone up into the same corral, it now lets us talk differently to different cultures and interest groups. I think this has merit not only from a New Zealand point of view, but also from a global perspective. Maybe we'll start to see the end of the global cookie-cutter message, sent out across the world from Madison Avenue with the only acknowledgement of different cultures being a rough local lip-sync.

Our 'not talking to the media' policy at Assignment? Shall we just say that advertising people tend to chase headlines like dogs chase postmen. We just got sick of it. We don't think clients particularly enjoy being hauled into those brawls either.

I don't really have a favourite ad from those I've been involved with. With a few exceptions, they tend to lose their lustre with time. Genuinely, the only one I'm ever excited about is the next one.

An education is about half as important as an interesting and varied life. That, however, usually starts with a good education.

I think we need to teach children to take nothing for granted; teach them to have respect for more than just those people it seems opportune to have respect for; teach them that life is both fragile and there to be grabbed; teach them quite early on to plan for being left nothing. Then adore them without judgment.

What gives me real pleasure is… spare time. There's never ever enough of it and when I get it, I tend to use it to schedule the 'next wave'.

In the end, what really matters is family. Everything else about most of us is eventually lost and forgotten.

In a perfect world I would… try and do something to mess it up. 'Perfect' is a passive state in which original thought, wild ideas and breakthroughs will never flourish.

I have some regrets. Not many. I've never regretted any of the big decisions. I know I'd regret it now if I hadn't made them.

Do I believe in God?
If He believes in me, sure.