Assignment team's soft sell

By IRENE CHAPPLE

A quartet of powerful advertising names, all formerly of Saatchi & Saatchi, sit over coffees in a dimly lit Auckland cafe.

They have come from New York and London, from Hawkes Bay and Wellington. They have no Auckland office these days.

Howard Greive is the one in fawn jacket and moccasins. Kim Thorp is casual in black and white.

The so-called suits, Peter Cullinane and James Hall, are buttoned up in ... well, suits and ties.

The four are together to talk about their new venture, Assignment.

The suits, formerly top-level executives at Saatchi Worldwide and Saatchi London respectively, do most of the talking.

Indeed, when the Business Herald quizzes Thorp on whether Assignment is likely to woo Telecom, a cornerstone Saatchi client, he offloads to Cullinane, saying: "Why are you looking at me? Do you think I'm the soft option?"

So Cullinane says: "What is obvious, I think, is that we have a lot of expertise in some key areas and we would like to see that well-applied."

Pushed further, he says: "At some stage we would like to be working with a telco. We would like to work with clients where we think we can add value."

The four will not talk about any work they have done under the Assignment umbrella, or which clients are in the bag. This is unusual in an industry where an account win is frequently followed by promotional press releases.

"What we really want is that a chief executive can ring us up and their name is not going to be out in nanoseconds," says Thorp.

Cullinane produces a banking analogy.

"We'd rather be a merchant bank than a retail bank so clients can come to us without the glare of publicity. Discretion should be our middle name in everything we do."

Thorp and Cullinane launched Assignment last year with double-page advertisements.

The agency then sank under the radar, and has emerged again to confirm the appointment of Hall and Greive - respectively, former head of television at Saatchi NZ and senior Wellington creative - as partners.

Since Assignment was launched, Thorp has resigned as chairman of Saatchi NZ. No formal links remain between Assignment and Saatchi.

Advertising executives spoken to by the Business Herald say they know of no Assignment clients.

But they are watching the newcomer with interest. One says the gathering of such talent will make a significant impact on the industry.

Last year, Assignment - then Thorp and Cullinane - helped Saatchi France to win a Bel cheese pitch for the worldwide business.

The partners say they have also given advice to New Zealand companies who "want to clear the fog; have a sense that marketing communications have a role to play but are not sure what they are".

Assignment's work may not result in television campaigns. Indeed, the work so far has been strategic direction at chief executive level.

The four say they have been talking about the concept behind Assignment for some years.

It is the incarnation of how they had wished agencies would operate.

Hall is frustrated at a global move towards holding company structures, where talent is caught up in managing the business rather than the clients.

Thorp remembers being exasperated at corporate love-ins where talk would focus on how the agency could improve, rather than on clients.

Assignment says it will offer "brains, not brawn".

Hall rejects the suggestion that the four will be expensive.

"We can work faster and at a higher level," he says.

"We have four mouths to feed as opposed to a standing army ... to make that economical. [In other agencies] the most junior people you can get away with get put on the account because they are cheap.

"The process is slow, the advice is indifferent and the price goes up."

Last week, Cullinane called Assignment a "virtual agency", but they have now organised a small office in Wellington.

Ideally, they will work out of their clients' headquarters.

The partners do have other interests: Thorp, who has lived in Hawkes Bay for several years, co-owns Black Barn Vineyards.

Cullinane, Thorp and Greive are all shareholders and directors of the Antipodes Water Company, which supplies bottled water to top New Zealand restaurants and hotels.

They have all had high incomes. Cullinane, for example, is believed to have earned more than $1 million for many years as worldwide chief operating officer.

But Hall bristles at the suggestion that retirement on a yacht might have beckoned.

"I've got three kids ... we've all got responsibilities."

Thorp adds: "We're not that old, you know."

Only Cullinane has cracked 50, while Hall, at 44, is the baby. Greive and Thorp are 48.

Assignment, they say, is the first model of its type in the world. Hall calls it a new world order, which is, he admits, a bit high-falutin'.

And none of them want to leave advertising for a while yet.

Says Greive: "It's a bloody good business to be in. I don't think you ever lose the passion - it's a fantastic thing.

"I don't think you ever want to leave."