Meet the Xplorers

Coco Videla
Strategy Director and Xplorer- Saatchi NY, Milan

Have you ever been caught off guard by an unexpected comment blurted out by the most unlikely person? It's quite thrilling. Actually so thrilling, I'm addicted to the feeling. So often we're bogged down by stereotypes, hearsay and statistics that we miss out on the most surprising and unexpected truths about people. For example, Xploring has taught me that so many people out there have an incredible need to open up and share something beautiful about themselves, but so often they're not given the chance. That's the beauty of Xploring. It gives people the chance to move you.

Emma Kohler

Account Management at Saatchi & Saatchi Simko, Geneva

Having been graced with a fair amount of determination and the ambition to venture abroad in search of a challenge or 2, I've been afforded the opportunity to travel within the Saatchi network. Now I find myself far from home and the shores of Sydney but since embarking on this project – still very much full of Xploring spirit. Saatchi has become somewhat of a true Lovemark for me over the past few years and it is with opportunities like this to embark on Xploring that equate to exactly the reason why. Xploring for me is a tool that opens doors if approached with a whole lot of the best intention, a tonne of honesty, a pinch of empathy and the courage to bear a little of your soul. This will in turn open a world of opportunity in which real insights and real truths are laid bare for you to discover, and as a result - an invitation into people's lives and their hearts.

Martin Fritsche

Strategic Planner at Saatchi & Saatchi Simko, Geneva
Xploring is refreshing, really! It was actually the English/Polish anthroposopher Bronisław Malinowski who brought about 100 years ago something like Xploring to us. As aspirers for our PhDs we blew Malinowski's theorie into bits for it's lack of objectivity. It was fun, though, but very intellectual. And now I am an Xplorer myself – not for academic reasons, but to create new Lovemarks. Telling stories about people I never met before and creating association fields around the myths of their lives. That's the refreshing part about Xploring: plunge into worlds you didn't know you didn't know and create something, you didn't even dare to know that it will be known all over the world.

Delphine Digonnet

Strategic Planner, Saatchi & Saatchi Simko, Geneva

Hi I'm Delphine and I'm from… well I'm not really sure! I have no roots and basically spent my whole life exploring: French parents, brought up in England, hit puberty in Singapore and settled for a while in Mexico. This is my first official Xploring experience and I'm thrilled! What I found absolutely new regarding Xploring was the way we actually get our hands dirty and share. With traditional research you basically write out a questionnaire to make sure you get everything you need out of your "interrogated consumer" and what you give back usually is a gift or money. In Xploring I find the exercise much more human and honest: You have to give a bit of yourself to get a bit of someone else. Basically what you do in a simple conversation with a friend. Sometimes you actually have to tell a personal story to get someone to really tell you their story. If you give them money they will give you your money's worth. If you give them the opportunity to bond and have an interesting conversation it's priceless. For example when you share something in common, they are much more willing to open up.'

Laura Zanni

Account Management, Saatchi & Saatchi Simko, Geneva

Not only was I given the awesome opportunity of going to do what I had only read about… Xploring baby! The excitement started pulsing once I set foot out of the adrenalin-stress-driven agency and realized I was embarking on a full-on trekking and sharing of human company, brains, dreams and imagination. I believed in Xploring way before I had even met Sandy . The book had already hooked me in. This is a tool that is actually going to make a difference not only in the way we research but in the way we look at and talk with our consumers. Coming away from this I am even more convinced of the importance and significance Xploring will have on the future of our business and the way we interact in our lives.