New Havas Brand to Drive More Than $70M in Data-Related Revenue
The ad network has consolidated its full-service global agency Havas EHS and data intelligence agency Havas Discovery into one new brand called Helia.
Havas EHS and Havas Discovery, two global agencies under the Havas network, have agreed to join together to form a new global brand called Helia, which will reportedly start with a combined data-related revenue of more than $70 million.
Data is the essence of the Helia group, as more than 200 data specialists there will leverage data to deliver business results for brands.
“It’s really data-driven, personalized marketing rather than mass media marketing,” says Paul Marobella, president of Havas Worldwide Chicago Group, who will lead Helia along with Havas EHS Group chief executive (CEO) Tash Whitmey and Havas EHS Group chief operating officer (COO) Matt Fanshawe.
For example, when Helia worked with Sony PlayStation, they analyzed different types of data sources such as consumer behavior data, gaming data, and engagement data to help Sony PlayStation deliver information that is relevant to gamers.
According to Marobella, data drives creativity. “The thing is that all human interactions with brands today are creating different data streams that can be harnessed by marketers,” he says, adding that data is becoming more and more important for the creative group at Havas.
The Helia Group will include more than 200 data scientists and 700 staff and incorporate six agencies within the Havas network. Helia will set up offices across the U.S. (Chicago, Richmond, Baltimore, and New York), Europe (London, Cirencester, Warsaw), as well as in China (Shanghai) and Latin America (São Paulo).
It will further include more agencies to reach other markets such as Sydney and Singapore in the Asia-Pacific region, and Cape Town in Africa.
“Under the new Helia brand, for example, in North America, we have about 120 to 125 people at [Havas] Discovery driving $15 to $20 million revenue and in the U.K., we have [around] $35 million [in revenue]. Altogether we are making a stronger offering as a global brand,” says Marobella.
The benefit of bringing everything together under one brand, according to Marobella, is “one common leadership team and one common approach on how data drives marketing decisions.”
And Havas is certainly trying to position itself as a data-driven ad network. Prior to today’s announcement of the Helia brand, Havas formed a data partnership with Universal Music Group (UMG) earlier this month, which was hoped to provide more revenue opportunities for UMG artists.
This move also follows the reorganization of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide in January of this year, where the network clustered its markets into “established” and “dynamic” markets.
