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An Ad Agency That Wants to Change the World?
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Saatchi & Saatchi's World Changing Ideas Awards recognize and encourage innovative ideas -- like the PerspectaRAD 3-D cancer screening system (pictured) -- that have the potential to make a difference around the world.
A straw that kills germs, an ink jet technology to re-grow tissue and bone, hologram images of a cancer patient's anatomy, and a cap that reads the brain waves of paralyzed people. These are just some of the finalists of this year's World Changing Ideas Awards -- an international competition held biennially by Saatchi & Saatchi.
The awards, which began in 1998, offer a $100,000 prize ($50,000 cash and $50,000 in Saatchi & Saatchi consultancy fees) that is awarded to an innovative idea that has the potential to reach the largest number of people and make the biggest impact. This year's winner is a device called LifeStraw, which aims to provide the developing world with clean drinking water.
Seems somewhat overly philanthropic for an ad agency? We thought so too. The catch, however, is that Saatchi & Saatchi doesn't really consider itself to be a typical advertising agency. "We're an ideas company," says the agency's Worldwide Creative Director, Bob Isherwood, firmly. "We rebranded ourselves in the advertising world in 1997 and took the word advertising out of our name entirely."
A growing recognition that new media was heavily impacting existing channels for reaching the consumer propelled the "former" ad agency's desire to dissociate itself from the traditional view of what the advertising world represents. Saatchi & Saatchi developed its own website during this period, aiming to populate it not just with content about itself and its work like an ad agency usually does, but also with information about developments, ideas, and innovation in the world of communications.
"The awards are in line with our own greatest ideal -- to be a hothouse for world changing ideas," says Isherwood. He underscores the importance of drawing attention to ideas that deserve it, and providing them with the fuel to potentially take off.
This year's winner, LifeStraw, is a highly portable, personal water-purification tool made by Vestergaard Frandsen that claims to turn even the dirtiest water into safe drinking water. It contains a specially developed halogen-based resin that filters out almost 100% of bacteria and 99% of viruses that cause deadly diseases.
For the more than one billion people who lack access to safe drinking water, LifeStraw calls itself an innovation that could mean the difference between life and death, particularly for women, children and people with compromised immune systems.
Although LifeStraw is currently in a stage of infancy, the company's CEO Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen is optimistic about its ability to have an impact. "We want to provide people with a life of health and dignity," he says. "An immediate concern beyond the devastating health impact is that young girls can't go to school because they have to spend the day fetching water."
The company plans to use the prize money to spread the word about its cause. "The world knows about poverty and HIV, but there is no rock star campaigning against diarrhea. Water is a problem for millions of people -- an everyday struggle for survival. People need to know how easy it is to empower a family with the ability to make home-made water," says Frandsen.