AWNY’s Advertising Woman of the Year Luncheon, sponsored by Universal McCann, gathered industry professionals at the New York Hilton Hotel on March 10,, 2010 to honor Becky Saeger, EVP & Chief Marketing Officer, The Charles Schwab Corporation.
Toasters included Rochelle Geller, Founder & President of Drexler Geller Associates; Barbara Apple Sullivan, Managing Partner, Sullivan; Ben Stuart, SVP Brand Strategy, Advertising & Media, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.; Don Hogle, Managing Director, Strategy at Euro RSCG Worldwide; Karen List, Vice President of AWNY and Director of Agency Relations at The New York Times; Jacki Kelley, President, North America at Universal McCann and Shelly Lazarus, Chairman, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide.
Universal McCann’s Kelley speaking as the sponsor, talked about her working relationship with Saeger. As her client, Kelley said Saeger continually inspires and motivates the team at UM. She described her as a respectful, trusting, collaborative and self-aware person—“a pleasure to work with.” This enthusiastic introduction set the stage for a series of tributes to Saeger’s unprecedented work in the industry.
The toasts segued into an “ode to Becky” as Hogle recited three limericks to “do something special for a special person.” The first described Saeger’s willingness to take risks as a marketer, the second listed her very diverse talents and the last limerick touted his admiration of the honoree.
As the next roaster, Sullivan brought a different perspective--as someone who has both worked with Saeger and been her best friend since they were two years old. The two began their working relationship when Saeger was an Account Executive at Ogilvy & Mather and Sullivan her client at American Express. At a time when there were limited technological capabilities in the film & digital worlds, Saeger and Sullivan filmed a television commercial for American Express taken from a storyboard—and deemed almost impossible to create—and executed it in the ‘real world.’ Sullivan explained that this demonstration of Saeger’s creative abilities and steadfastness in the beginning of her work only developed and improved over the course of her career.
Stuart, a current co-worker at Charles Schwab, described a time five years ago when the company was in a ‘stalled corporate turnaround’ and needed new management. When it was announced that Saeger was joining Schwab, Stuart and his co-workers decided to ‘cleanse’ her office before her arrival—a process involving sage, candles, a little bit of vodka and the Beatles’ The White Album. Expecting major changes to come in the staff, the team was surprised when Saeger didn’t change anything--a testament to her being a consummate professional. He credited Saeger with reinvigorating the Schwab brand at the exact time that it needed a change both for the company and within its own industry.
As the last toaster, Lazarus echoed many of the same sentiments about Saeger … she is a woman with an ‘I can get anything done’ attitude. Lazarus worked with the honoree as she helped manage the American Express account at Ogilvy & Mather and loved working with her. As Saeger transitioned from the agency side to the client side of the business, Lazarus noted that she took her agency team and made them better. There were never any big agency reviews and she was able to turn any situation around to make it work. Her final words summed up just why Saeger had been selected for this honor: “She is a world-class ad professional and marketer.”
To a standing ovation, Saeger took the stage to accept her award. She explained that she loves advertising--creating an effective advertising campaign is a constant push/pull between the analytical and creative, the quantitative and qualitative, producing ROI yet remaining subjective.
To illustrate the point, she screened a 3 ½ minute reel of Schwab’s campaigns over the last five years-- beginning with the “Talk to Chuck” commercials from 2005, to the “Talk to Chuck” recession commercials, closing with their “manifesto” commerical, created this year, featuring the tagline “Investors Rule.”
After hearing about Saeger’s many career accomplishments and accolades, the audience might just have come away believing that everyone in this industry should “Talk to Becky.”