Havas picks Bland to build digital centre of excellence

Havas Media Network UK is beefing up its digital credentials by creating a new role of chief digital officer with a brief to establish a ‘centre of excellence’ for brand and performance media.

Paul Bland, who joined the agency from iProspect in 2021, will play a critical role in creating a unified digital approach and philosophy designed to push the boundaries of innovation and drive efficiency and effectiveness as part of centralised service offering.

Over the past three years, Bland has helped the team grow from 100 to over 200 digital specialists across programmatic, retail media, paid search, SEO, paid social, CRO and affiliate marketing.

He has built a central team who span the UK across London, Leeds and Manchester, driving brand and performance activation – establishing globally scaled capability in well over 100 markets.

In 2024, Paul helped establish new AI solutions in market, including enabling retailers to optimise product descriptions at scale through custom-built Havas Media Network’s generative AI tools.

In his new role, Bland will be responsible for the agency’s digital output, team and product across all channels supporting both Havas Media Network UK and International (UK Hub) clients and agency teams. Overseeing a diverse team of digital specialists across paid performance, paid social, programmatic, SEO and CRO, Bland will lead the digital product and strategic roadmap across all digital disciplines to ensure clients have access best-in-class digital infrastructure.

He will also now sit on the board of Search Laboratory, a 100+ strong digital specialist agency Havas acquired in 2021.

Bland will report to Havas Media Network chief operating officer Simon Bevan, who said: “We now operate as one digital centre of excellence across the whole of the UK, ensuring Havas Media Network UK is truly a digital-first network, fuelled by a diverse array of digital expertise. Under Paul’s leadership, we have got best-in-class talent to meet the ever-evolving digital needs of our clients through our breadth of products, diverse capability and fluid approach in digital.”

Bland added: “Let’s face it, advertising is at a critical inflection point in digital transformation, shaped by AI, commerce and privacy imperatives. Against this backdrop, the role of specialist experts is ever more important to meet clients’ evolving needs in digital where there are mounting growth opportunities to unlock. We’ve brought together the best expertise from across our Network to harness and navigate these trends to help clients be more customer-centric in their digital transformation.