Havas invests €400m in data and tech to woo clients

Havas has committed to invest €400m (£338m) in data and technology – including AI – over the next four years as part of a new strategy designed to answer clients’ ever-increasing needs for cross-functional, fully integrated communications solutions.

The move comes as the French-owned agency group looks to the future and prepares to shift out of private ownership to become publicly traded.

At the heart of the strategy lies a new operating system, which the group maintains will deliver an “integrated and meaningful value proposition”.

Built on the foundations of Havas’ “Converged” media tool, an AI-powered solution that aims to provide transparent, cross-platform audience planning and efficiency, the Converged OS aims to take integration further.

Fuelled by data, tech and AI, with creative ideas at its core, the new OS will be available across all Havas’ networks and beyond its current media focus. Havas claims the system will empower the group’s 23,000 staff to not only work smarter and faster, but also to craft integrated and sustainable solutions through four steps to match the client journey, intelligence; design; activate; and measure.

Building on its “Together Strategy” and the Havas Village approach launched in 2014, Converged is designed to bring global collaboration at Havas even further, “seamlessly fusing talent, capabilities, platforms and expertise”.

With ideas at its heart, it will leverage Havas’ creativity, media, and production capabilities, powered by data, technology and AI, bringing its global networks and agencies even closer to help drive clients’ businesses.

The €400m commitment builds on Havas’ investment in new capabilities and tools, the establishment of international networks dedicated to content production, customer experience, and ecommerce as well as the formation of strategic partnerships with global technology giants like Adobe. Havas will appoint a Global Task Force to support this major investment.

Havas chairman and CEO Yannick Bolloré commented: “Aiming at supercharging our positive impact for our clients and contributing to shaping the future of the fast-evolving communications industry, our new Converged strategy will build even more bridges between creativity, media, production, and technology than ever before.

“We are building a model that is future-thought, agnostic in terms of data and tech partnerships and perfectly interoperable with our clients’ systems, to meet their needs even more swiftly and cost-effectively.

“Converged is a collective journey, as it marks a further acceleration in our growth journey, representing a cultural shift that will resonate across every level of our organisation and ensure the success of our clients and partners.”