by Irma Mutuc
MANILA – Lawin Bulatao is now Executive Creative Director of Havas Creative. Levent Günes, CEO, SEA of Havas Creative Group and Jos Ortega, Chairman & CEO, Havas Ortega, announced this, in an exclusive interview with adobo.
Ortega explains that with Havas Creative, they now have another sub-brand within the network, which is advertising/creative lead but with the other services available, “All the other five brands we now have are gates to the Havas village.” The announcement also serves to introduce Havas Ortega, which now becomes the “village” where Havas Media, Havas Sports & Entertainment, Arena, Havas Life and Havas Creative belong.
Günes expounds on the village concept, “The Havas village is not a concept of assimilation, we don’t put things into silos and make it managed by one person. It’s not a concept to save on administrative costs. It’s a concept to foster collaboration. And in the end, he adds, that it’s full integration with everyone working as a team, “This benefits the group and more importantly, it’s great for the clients.” Bulatao pitches in to say,” The concept allows to approach client’s business in a more holistic level. In a silo, you’re obliged to push your specialty much to the detriment of client, but when you do it this way, it’s one business taking care of another business, which is how it should be.” From the sideline, Sunny Hermano, Business Development & Integration Director, SEA, shares that it’s about trust, “Trust that we’re going for the same goal, trust that we got each other’s back and that’s what’s missing in the other agencies I worked with.” Günes sums it all up: category independent communication solution offered out of one hand.
Ortega adds that Havas has covered as much ground as it can, “ Now, its’ about going deeper. We have a lot of services available to the clients. We’re also expanding services from within.” They recently tapped Rudy Villar to head Havas Sports & Entertainment and Ortega proudly announces, “We already picked up three new businesses and one of then is a solid, global brand. We’re looking at how to get more services and products that are relevant to our clients. There will be lots of other good things which Havas will be introducing in the coming months.” He mentions that the Havas Ortega Playground in the Ad Summit 2016 in Subic serves as representation of the village and their way of throwing a big party to announce all these exciting developments.
When asked about Agatep, a long-time local partner, Günes said that even prior to his stint in Havas, he knew that there was a very good relationship with them in terms of PR and creative communications. The relationship remains cordial and open to the possibility of collaborating in the future but he mentions, “No more contractually based affiliation.”
On the heels of the Havas announcements, Grupo Agatep also recently announced that it is going back to its roots as an independent fully integrated marketing communications agency after over seventeen years of partnership with Havas Worldwide.
