• New Business

Havas Media teams won more than 20 global and regional accounts such as Turespaña, Barclays, Blizzard, Clarks, DBS Bank, EDF, Haier, Israel Tourism, Pepe Jeans or Symantec. The most significant new business of the year was the win of the majority of Hyundai-Kia's business in Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America, after a 160-plus market review. MPG also retained more than half of the media business for Danone and a significant portion of the Reckitt Benckiser business after respective major global reviews.
Havas Media has also had a productive year in most markets, notably in Spain where according to a report published by Grupo Consultores, Havas Media Spain reinforced its absolute leadership in this country, winning 52% of the total new business volume in play in the first half of 2009 – up 11% on last year.

• Client Retention

Client retention is the basis for much of Havas Media’s organic growth and it has retained and, despite the economic climate, continued to develop many of its local and global accounts. Its strategy remains the same - to deliver accountable solutions that improve clients’ business performance, always taking every measure to improve efficiency and stay connected to each client’s business, as well as the consumer.  These strengths have allowed Havas Media to retain and grow key accounts, including EDF (in the UK and France). Havas Media also had positive results from re-pitches called by two of its larger global accounts, Reckitt Benckiser and Danone. Another key account, Hermès, has now extended into China.

• Product development and innovation

Havas Media’s retention of market share has also been derived from a significant investment in its product development, insight and innovation. Its set of strategic Decision Support Systems is considered among the best in the industry (RECMA).

• Digital

Havas Digital has continued to expand its activities. At the same time, the network has actively worked on new product development and implementing strategies to generate value around industry trends such as the digitalization of all media, trading, addressable advertising, data, mobile and other integrated marketing services. Investment in skilled digital teams has continued with an 8% rise in headcount and another 7 operational offices based in Miami, Istanbul, Moscow, Tel Aviv, Cape Town, Bangalore and Seoul.

• Sustainability

Sustainability is a key pillar of the Group’s strategy, both in the way it organizes its internal teams and also the services that it is able to provide to its clients.  From the client side, for the second year running Havas Media has focused significant resources into understanding and analyzing the impact of sustainable programs on brand equity and the Sustainable Futures 09 project was launched in April. The survey is the first of its kind to analyze, track and compare the effect of sustainability programs on brand equity for the world’s leading brands. To ensure that this approach is fully integrated into the DNA of the Havas Media teams and their client work, a comprehensive training and educational program for all teams was rolled out within Havas Media.
Havas Media also continued to push forward an agreed strategy to ensure that as a group it operates in the most sustainable way. To complement this, a global network of internally focused sustainability managers has been set up and a training program initiated, with the aim of integrating sustainable development practices into a range of internal practices.

• Service marketing strategy

MPG has intensified its focus on collaboration across disciplines, media channels, and agency and industry partners with the launch of an initiative to further align the digital teams within Media Contacts and MPG and a company-wide internal communications campaign to get people living and breathing their “Leading New Thinking” agency mantra.
The newly created Havas Sports and Entertainment teams have also boosted their marketing activities with the launch of the Global Sports Forum – a global exchange program for the sports industry that brought together more than 900 delegates from 28 countries in Barcelona. The brand now operates in 40 markets and has strengthened and expanded its offer in the Asian market with a partnership deal with Total Sports Asia.
Work with the Group’s think tank, the Havas Media Lab, also continued, resulting in speaking opportunities and regular postings in the Harvard Business Review and other key academic journals.

• New services and products

MPG has focused on developing new products and created an industry-first reverse auction media buying model based on a proprietary electronic technology platform. This new model allows television networks to bid for client budgets based on a metric called TCO - Total Cost of Order vs. the typical CPM - Cost Per Thousand. MPG's platform allows the buyers to weight the variables which are most relevant for each specific client. By tailoring the auction for each client, this new technology has streamlined the typical and often inefficient buying negotiation model.
New services within the digital spectrum continued to be launched by the Havas Digital teams thanks to a series of partnerships with data providers. Examples inlclude: Media Contacts and digital marketing solutions company Tribal Fusion, Havas Digital and analytics provider Omniture, Havas Digital and marketing analytics provider Media6°, Havas Digital and New York-based digital ad platform Traffiq.
The Havas Sports & Entertainment unit Cake opened a new office in New York, successfully focusing its service offer in the strategic development and implementation of social media and experiential platforms.

• Recognition

MPG won its first Cannes Media Lion and the US and Spain both won Media Agency of the Year awards by key local publications (Media Magazine and Control respectively). MPG Spain was also ranked Most Effective Agency at the Premios Eficacia awards. MPG’s UK office was commended and named as runner-up in the agency of the year awards of industry-leading publication, Campaign. According to RECMA’s latest Compitches Report 2008, MPG is now ranked No. 3 globally (up from No.5) and No. 2 in Top 5 Europe (up from No. 3). Media Contacts Spain was named Best Online Media Agency at the Interaction Awards in May. At the Philippines Ad Congress Araw Awards, Media Contacts Philippines was voted Agency of the Year. At the IAB Chile, Havas Digital won the Best Interactive Media Agency award. The Bizz Awards USA, held in October, singled out MPG Argentina as one of the Most Inspirational Companies in Argentina.

• Talent

In 2009 there were a number of changes within Havas Media.  Anthony Rhind and Gabriel Saenz de Buruaga were appointed as Co-CEOs of Havas Digital; Shaun Holliday as CEO of Havas Media North America; Thomas Wong as CEO of Havas Media Greater China; Roel Van den Borne as CEO of Havas Media Netherlands???; Vishnu Mohan as Havas Media Global Client Director; Jorge Percovich as Regional Manager for Colombia, Ecuador and Panama.