SINGAPORE Havas Worldwide chairman Yannick Bollore knows all too well the toxic environment that can result when collaboration is missing.
“Havas meetings used to feel like Game of Thrones,” said Bollore, offering the notoriously blood-soaked drama as an example in his presentation, Creating Effective Brand Communications Through Collaboration Between Creativity, Media and Innovation.
Creating an ecosystem where people can start understanding each other, he said was the first order of business in making collaboration a reality among diverse business units.
In response to clients demanding greater integration, the holding group has been co-locating its specialist divisions – media, creative, digital among others – in what it dubs a Havas Village.
“People are sharing best practices, sharing clients, so it has developed a unique approach in different markets. So I think that if Havas has posted an economic growth in the market with 36% is because of this unique model,” Bollore said. “It’s like a hospital…you have every specialist in the same building.
“If you manage to get everything together, you will have a winning machine,” Bollore said of the three pillars of creativity, media and digital working together.
Speaking to adobo on the sidelines of the Spikes Asia Festival, Bollore believed the group’s financial strength would keep larger, acquisitive rivals at bay. First half revenues rose 2.7% to US$1.14 billion, with organic growth rising 5.7%.
“I don’t see (the group being acquired) because Havas is in a very good financial situation,” said Bollore, the 33-year-old son of top shareholder Vincent Bollore, who took over as chief executive of the world’s sixth-biggest advertising agency early this year.
“The question is if Havas is interested in acquiring another group and the answer is what we bring to our clients.
“We are very happy the way it is and we will keep building our group with motivation and the success we are facing today.”
The holding group netted $1.7 billion in new business in the first half. Asia Pacific, which picked up the LG and Emirates Airlines business, earned $84 million in first half revenue.
As with its holding company rivals, Havas is embracing digital, he added. In significantly expanding the media and content space, digital has made it harder to catch people’s attention today.
Accordingly, Havas has been building its digital muscle, acquiring Paris-based big data firm MFG Labs in 2013 and one of the UK’s leading full-service social, mobile and digital shop Work Club earlier this year.
Bollore meanwhile insisted awards were a priority though the group has been largely overshadowed on the circuit by its bigger rivals.
This year, Havas Media was named alongside McCann Lima for Coca-Cola’s ‘Happy ID’, which won a Cannes Media Grand Prix this year and Bollore also spoke of having a “good number” of award wins in Europe and the US.
