David Perry, executive VP/head of broadcast production at Saatchi & Saatchi New York for the past 24 years, is leaving that position at the end of July. Succeeding him as head of broadcast production on August 1 will be John Doris, currently an executive producer at Saatchi whom Perry hired from the agency's London office seven years ago.
Perry told SHOOT that he made the decision to step down a year ago, at which point he began talking to the agency about making a plan to ensure a smooth transition at the top of his department. "John has been a real star. I've been grooming him. The creative director and management agreed with me that he was the best guy to take over the department."
This marks Perry's 44th year as an agency producer. "Not many people are given those kinds of careers anymore," he said. "I decided that while I still had some energy and life in me, I would step down and take some time to see what else, if anything, is out there for me–maybe in media or content or some other area. If not, I'd be perfectly okay retiring. To to go out on your terms, to design your own trajectory is rare. I'm grateful to the company for letting me do that."
Perry has had a remarkable run, breaking into the agency community as a music director for JWT New York. He had been a studio musician and recording studio engineer and JWT was looking for someone with practical experience in the music business. During his four years at JWT, he had a hand in much notable work, getting major composers to take on choice ad assignments, a prime example being Henry Mancini who worked on some high-profile Kodak commercials.
During his JWT tenure, Perry got some training as a producer. "As soon as I got my sea legs, I wanted to produce." He moved over to BBDO New York and filled the producer's slot vacated by Jerry Bruckheimer who had gone to Hollywood to see if he could get into the movies. "I think Jerry managed to do alright," smiled Perry who was hired for the BBDO gig by creative director Harvey Hoffenberg, an instrumental exec in later bringing Perry into the Saatchi fold.
After four years at BBDO, Perry landed his first head of production job, moving over to Scali McCabe Sloves, succeeding Ken Yagoda who had gone over to FCB. Perry spent 10 years at Scali, enjoying a golden era there which included memorable work for Volvo, Maxell and Hertz, among other clients. The Hertz fare included the highly successful campaign featuring O.J. Simpson running through airports. Perry then briefly went to the Midwest, heading production at JWT Chicago. He came right back to New York, though, when Hoffenberg joined Saatchi as chief creative officer in 1989. Perry recalled that Hoffenberg had just come off of winning the Cannes Grand Prix for the classic Pepsi "Archaeology" spot directed by Joe Pytka of PYTKA for BBDO NY. Thus began Perry's lengthy tenure at Saatchi which also included such accomplishments as his helping to launch the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase, now in its 22nd year (SHOOTonline, 6/20), which is unveiled annually at Cannes.
Showcase, Survey
"Until 1990," recalled Perry, "Cannes was a full week of screenings and socializing, with an award show on Saturday night for TV and cinema commercials. Saatchi's creative director in London, Paul Arden, thought there was room for a little more excitement, and came up with the idea of showcasing new, undiscovered commercial directors. It fit right in with what Cannes was all about, so Paul, Jim Baker, our head of TV in London, and I set the criteria for consideration (less than 2 years directing commercials) and scoured the world. In the first Showcase we had 60 directors, compared to 20 to 25 more recently."
"That first year, 1991, we had Tarsem and Jake Scott. We filled the Debussy Theater and it was a huge success. In later years we had Tom Kuntz and Frank Budgen and Mark Romanek and dozens of directors who went on to fame and many Cannes Grand Prixs. In 1996, Bob Isherwood, our worldwide creative director, took over the Showcase and made it the phenomenon it is today. He wanted an added element of theater along with the reel. So we had a theme every year.
"My favorite," continued Perry, "was that the directors on the Showcase reel were going to put established directors out of business and they were going to have to find new lines of work. We hung ad posters all over Cannes advertising Joe Pytka's plumbing service, Frank Budgen's funeral parlor, etc. On the stage we had the Monte Carlo Symphony Orchestra with Tarsem in his new trade, symphony conductor. I had to call all the directors to get permission to use their names. Nobody said no. For the past 15 years the Showcase has been produced by the Saatchi Worldwide Creative Board so we have scouts out all over the world.
"The Showcase's success got other agencies interested in staging their own shows, and now there must be 100 seminars during the week. But The Saatchi Showcase was the first, and is still the hottest ticket at Cannes."
While at Saatchi, Perry also served for 20 years as chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies' broadcast production committee, best known for its annual AAAA Television Production Cost Survey which began in the late 1980s in response to what he described as "a lot of misleading information about costs."
The AAAA reasoned that such "a definitive survey" would, said Perry, "be very useful for the members." He noted that the survey "gained wide-spread credibility and acceptance with clients and agencies but not with the AICP [Association of Independent Commercial Producers], which attacked it every year. The committee also helped straighten out the New York State sales tax as it applies to commercial production purchased by a New York based agency."
An evolving industry
Reflecting on how the industry has evolved during his career, Perry cited the recently concluded Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. "The biggest difference is that when I started at Saatchi, TV and Cinema was the only category at Cannes. This year, Cannes had 17 categories…And an ad agency needs to be on top of all of it." Relative to consumers, Perry related, "Everybody's attention is scattered. They don't spend much time in any one place. And we aren't always welcome when we find them. Then, because we ask them, they tell us what they think of us. We send out our message. We listen. Then we rework the message and send it out again. We used to have to listen only to the creative director and the client. Now everybody gets a say. I am still deciding if that is a better way. But I know we are never going back." As for what interests him today, Perry observed, "I love the resilience of TV. All the cool people have been trying to kill it for 15 years. They sell against it. It is one directional. It is a lean-back medium. But it is still where most of the media money gets spent. And all those storytelling skills we developed for TV are perfect for mobile and tablets and rich Web content. Video is still the only way to engage people emotionally. I love and respect digital media but I never saw a website that made me cry. I never downloaded an app that stirred my emotions. TV and video are still where you engage people emotionally, as human beings. Ten years ago, I thought I would get overwhelmed by all the new media. Now I realize that what I have been doing my entire career is dead center where the business is today. Everything has changed. Nothing has changed."
In terms of advice he'd offer based on his extensive experience, Perry shared, "I'd like to start a movement for self-control and moderation in advertising. There is no getting away from us. There is no place to hide that we can't find you. There is no turning us off. We have invaded every device a person can own. We are everywhere because we can be. We see a moment of silence or a screen without a message as missed opportunities. We would be much more welcome, and our ideas better understood if we occasionally pass up the opportunity to be in people's faces. A little bit less can be a whole lot more."
