Although 2010 was still marked by a tough economic environment in all major economies, industry results from the final months of the year show that the world has left behind the crisis of 2009. Latest forecast for the advertising market is to grow +4.9% this year (source: Zenith Optimedia).
Havas Media closed 2010 with remarkable results. Targets for organic growth were surpassed and international marketing magazine M&M named Havas Media “Collaborator of the Year”.
Strategy
Havas Media has continued to focus on and invest in the following five areas:
1. New Business
During 2010 the group was able to win more new business than ever – surpassing the excellent 2009 fi gures with wins such as Turespaña, Panasonic, Turkey Tourism, Yahoo! and Huntington Bank. As a result, RECMA’s* latest report names MPG as the most successful new-business agency over the past three years across the top five markets in Europe (the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy). MPG was also ranked as the number one new business agency across the Americas.
2. Client retention
Havas Media has maintained the trust of its clients. 2010 also represented the first full year of the Hyundai and Kia account, Havas Media’s largest account to date. Over the past 12 months, the Havas Media teams have Success fully managed this client across a total of 76 markets. In this process, Havas Media has brought the full range of its innovative tools and approaches to bear successfully on this key global client. During the year the Korean auto manufacturer has gone from strength to strength and 2011 promises to be an important year in its evolution.
3. Leading insight and product development
Havas Media undertook further investment with the development of a suite of offers and tools that help companies understand, track and develop meaningful communications strategies for their brands. Havas Media Intelligence (HMI), the central unit responsible for insight and product development, created an Advisory Services division supported by the appointment of Fredrik Johnsson, with a remit to define and implement the group’s new vision and thought leadership platforms.The Havas Media Lab – the HMI “think tank” – has also seen an increase in resources this year with a subsequent burst of thought leadership activity and articles published on the Havas Media Lab’s blog. In today’s exceptionally dynamic environment, innovation and investment have formed the foundations for the group’s more collaborative approach to media which hasa been recognized by RECMA as the most reactive.
4. Digital
Expanding digital expertise through joint partnerships has become a key focus for Havas Media which places digital at the core. Havas Digital selected Kenshoo, the leading provider of online demand generation solutions for the enterprise and local markets, as its exclusive technology partner for search engine marketing. A global agreement was concluded between Havas Digital and Greenplum Software (part of EMC), the pioneer of Enterprise Data Cloud™ solutions for large-scale data warehousing and analytics. The agency also committed to a partnership with AdSafe to deliver brand verification for display campaigns and closed a deal with online video exchange Adap.tv. The deal, enables Havas Digital to make buys targeting individual users on an impression-by-impression basis, is believed to be the first by a major agency holding company inserting ads into online video programming.
5. Geographical Expansion
Havas Media operations in Latin America have recorded growth levels of approximately 20 to 25%. Countries in APAC, led by strong growth in India and in particular China (growing more than 80%) are also experiencing growth rates that are expected to reach between 25 to 30%. It was also extremely important to establish a foothold in Russia this year and with this objective, Havas closed a joint venture with ADV, a key market player that provides an excellent base in this expanding market. Additionally Havas Media started an ambitious expansion plan in Africa and now works with more than 35 clients in more than five African countries, including South Africa, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cameroon and Morocco.
Sustainability
After defining the global challenge facing our group in terms of Social Responsibility, Havas Media developed and improved its strategy and objectives at a group level to cover the environmental and social impact
of our agencies, ethics and governance, purchasing and responsible communication. As a business built on communication, collaboration and creativity, Havas Media firmly believes these qualities must shape its contributions. As such, the agency is committed to engaging its teams’ talents to understand and move forward on issues such as green marketing, cause-related marketing, social marketing, digital ethics and transparency of practices, as well as philanthropy and pro-bono activity.
Strategy
Havas Media continued the development of its four global networks MPG, Arena Media, Havas Digital and Havas Sports & Entertainment. During 2010 Havas Media continued its commitment towards understanding how the rise of the new socially conscious consumer would affect the relationship between brands and consumers and society. Moving the analysis to a wider level, the group focused on how sustainability and social capital can be used to establish more meaningful relationships between brands and consumers and society.
In support of this theme, Havas Media launched the 3rd edition of its global research programme called Brand Sustainable Futures in October. The analysis covers the views of 30,000 consumers in 9 markets across 10 industries. Senior officials from the group spoke on the subject at events including The Financial Times Sustainability Summit in New York, The TFWA World Duty Free Congress in Cannes and the World Retail Congress in Berlin.
New services and products
MPG Media Contacts UK launched an “Intelligence Unit” which has centralised consumer insight, digital data analytics, web analytics, econometrics, CRM and Artemis™ Analytics into one team.Havas Sports & Entertainment France launched a new offer, Havas Hospitality, which now presents the HS&E offer both in France and globally with a focus on public relations and hospitality services. Havas Sports and Entertainment also devised a new product called “The Flightdeck” – an online dashboard that pulls every single conversation about a brand and their competitors into one place. Havas Media North America established an in-house corporate trading unit called Havas Media Corporate Trading.
Industry recognition
According to the RECMA report Network Diagnostics, published in SeptemberÊ2010, MPG was scored as dominant agency in four markets among the top 20 (France, Spain, Mexico and Argentina). MPG was considered the most competitive and successful agency in new business acquisitions for the Americas and the Top 5 markets in Europe.Havas Media contributed to a marketing campaign resulting in the group’s Collaborator of the Year award from global marketing magazine, M&M. This collaborative way of working also directly resulted in MPG US being awarded Agency of the Year by MediaPost.MPG also received a Good Profile classification in two more markets (UK and Poland). Arena was recognised as Good Profile in three markets (Spain, Mexico and Portugal).
MPG Mexico named Agency of the Year by Merca 2.0 magazine and Neo Magazine. At the Valencia Festival of Media MPG Mexico was named Agency of the Year. The team MPG/Cake/AIS/Havas Sports & Entertainment won Gold at the Internationalist Awards for Media Innovation for EDF’s Green Britain Day campaign. At the Boomerang Awards, Media Contacts Philippines won a Silver and a Bronze.
In 2010, Havas Sport & Entertainment won 22 prizes in eight markets. HS& E France won the Grand Prix du Sport 2010 at the Grand Prix Stratégies du Sport 2010 for its “Drive into the next challenge” campaign for EDF as well as two more prizes at the same event for EDF and Coca-Cola. HS&E also won 2 Brand Content Grand Prix for its work with the French Federation for the Blind (FAF) and TV Veto.
Talents
In the Havas Media North America Operation, Maria Luisa Francoli was appointed Country Manager of Havas Media North America while keeping her role as MPG Global CEO. She was instrumental in achieving the Agency of the year appointment for the second consecutive year. Sasha Savic was hired as Chief Commercial Offi cer. Mr. Savic joined Havas Media from Publicis Groupe, where he was chief operating officer of PG2, responsible for the group’s global relationship with Procter & Gamble. Previously, as exec VP-director of global accounts at Universal McCann, he handled global management and media coordination for clients including Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Lucent, Intel and Mastercard.Rafael Urbano was promoted to General Manager of MPG Iberia. Mr. Urbano developed his career in Procter & Gamble and was hired to lead the Research operation in Havas Media Spain, and later promoted to General Manager of MPG Madrid. He has been instrumental in strengthening MPG leadership in this market.Rogelio Canhoto was appointed CEO of Havas Media Portugal. Rogelio came from Portugal Telecom in which he developed his career in several positions in Marketing Management, Business Development and Innovation. He also has developed an extensive teaching experience as professor in several business schools.
Yves del Fratte was appointed as new Country Manager of Havas Media Belgium, coming from being General Manager of Havas Media France. Yves was co-founder of Euro RSCG 27 and jointed MPG in 2004 as Global Account Director for PSA and later named Chief Client Officer at MPG Network.
At a global level, William Cabrera was promoted to EVP Research & Modelling Global, overseeing all Havas Media initiatives in research, methods, tools and econometric modelling. William was leading the Research & Modelling operation in Havas Media Iberia since 2006, when he joined from extensive global careers in companies such as Royal Philips in Amsterdam, Mckinsey&Co in Zurich, Sao Paulo and Madrid and Goldman Sachs in London and New York.
Martin Dufty was hired as Global Account Director of the global Hyundai Kia account, managing the marketing investments of the fast-growing Korean auto market in 76 markets. Mr. Dufty has spent more than twenty years working with both leading agencies and media independents in locations as diverse as London, Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Moscow.
Outlook
Havas Media’s main goal for 2011 is to accelerate growth by continuing to gain market share, especially in its traditional fortresses of France and Spain whilst also pushing above-market growth in emerging markets of Latin America and Asia-Pacific Havas Media will continue to invest in digital and more specifically in disciplines such as social media, data and analytics and mobile marketing.
Today, 25% of Havas Media’s total revenue comes from digital activities, the objective being to increase this to 28% in 2011.