Havas has unveiled an important evolution to its global strategy, including major investments to answer clients’ ever-increasing needs for cross-functional, fully integrated communications solutions. The “Converged” plan is designed to bring global collaboration at Havas even further, seamlessly fusing talent, capabilities, platforms and expertise. With meaningful ideas at its heart, it will leverage Havas’ standout creativity, media, and production capabilities, powered by the best data, technology and AI, bringing its global networks and agencies even closer to help drive clients’ businesses through:
- A new Operating System delivering an integrated and meaningful value proposition. Built upon the foundations of Havas’ industry leading “Converged” media tool, an AI-powered solution that aims to provide transparent, cross-platform audience planning and has demonstrated its efficiency in recent years, the Converged OS takes integration further. Fueled by data, tech and AI, with creative ideas at its core, the new OS will be available across all Havas’ networks and areas of expertise and enhanced beyond its current media focus. It will empower the group’s 23,000 talents to not only work smarter and faster, but also to craft integrated and sustainable solutions through four steps to match the client journey: 1. Intelligence 2. Design 3. Activate and 4. Measure.
- The best in marketing technology, data and Gen AI, supercharging the delivery of creativity, media and production with an expected investment of €400 million (some $430 million) over the next four years. This additional financial commitment builds on Havas’ consistent investment in new capabilities and tools, the establishment of international networks dedicated to content production, customer experience, and e-commerce as well as the formation of strategic partnerships with global technology leaders like Adobe. Havas will appoint a Global Task Force to support this major investment.
- And a transformed client experience that leverages this unique end-to-end integrated model, to create, produce and distribute real-time, optimized, personalized and meaningful content and experiences at scale. To unlock the full potential of its capabilities across all markets, the group will adopt an even more centrally led client structure with a new global chief client officer, ensuring a seamless experience for clients across the world.
The announcement comes as Havas looks to the future and prepares for a new chapter with the potential to become publicly traded, and continues to experience solid growth, strong commercial and creative activity, as well as record years in mergers and acquisitions.
Havas has already successfully demonstrated the principles of this approach with some of its clients, with promising and transformative results, and for RFPs. The new OS will be implemented over the next few months to accelerate new growth opportunities for its clients.
Yannick Bolloré, Havas chairman and CEO, commented, “I couldn’t be more excited about this transformative development for Havas. 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 organization and ensure the success of our clients and partners.”
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More