Havas Media Network UK is merging performance agency Search Laboratory into Havas Market UK to supercharge a “limitless performance” proposition, designed to drive incremental growth in commerce and performance marketing.
HMN acquired Search Laboratory in 2021, and the merger will create a 150-person strong agency that aims to help brands break down barriers between commerce and performance, creating more connected customer experiences that bring people to the point of transaction faster.
Havas Market UK’s enhanced proposition is designed to help brands capture the growth metrics that matter by ensuring clients’ strategies lead to real commercial success through focusing on meaningful measurements that drive business impact, not just superficial metrics.
It will also combine human direction and machine precision, bringing smart minds together with powerful technologies to turn insights into impactful action while connecting with the human behind the click, creating digital experiences that connect more deeply and meaningfully to drive superior digital and commerce performance.
As part of Havas’ Converged strategy to provide fully integrated, cross-functional communications solutions across creativity, media, production and technology, the agency claims the new proposition will deliver “unique technology and creative solutions, offering market-first innovations in signals, creative and measurement”.
Havas Market UK will offer expertise across several core specialist services including strategy and planning, channel activation (paid search, display and video, SEO, digital PR and organic, paid and commerce social), retail and commerce (marketplaces, retail hubs), retail media and data, analytics and technology consultancy (data strategy, tech solutions, data insights, data activation and measurement and visualisation).
Clients will have access to Havas Market UK’s suite of partnerships including Amazon Ads, TikTok, Google and Optimizely.
The agency will be led by managing director Alex Walker (pictured), who founded commerce specialists Expert Edge, which HMN UK acquired in 2022 and became the nucleus of Havas Market.
He said: “The rules of commerce and performance have changed again. Brands need a cohesive multichannel experience delivered at the speed of technological development.
“Commerce and performance can no longer remain siloed if we are to provide the cohesive multichannel experience that our clients increasingly ask for. With a renewed Havas Market proposition, we are creating a powerful assortment of performance capabilities to unlock limitless performance and real commercial opportunities tailored to clients’ needs.”
Havas Market sits alongside Havas Media, Havas Entertainment, Havas Play and Ledger Bennett within Havas Media Network UK. Clients will include Bonhams, DA-SH Water, JDE, Topps, Lucky Saint, Riviera Travel and TOAST.
HMN UK & Ireland chief executive Patrick Affleck commented: “By combining the digital marketing expertise of Search Laboratory with our existing commerce experts, we are creating something unique that will help deliver limitless performance for our clients.
“The expertise, capabilities and technology housed within Havas Market will enable us to build experiences that bring our clients’ customers closer to the point of transaction or action faster, more efficiently and more effectively. Locally relevant but part of an expanding global Havas Market network, this is an exciting new chapter for the agency.”
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