United States – Havas Group, through its global advertising agency Havas Creative, has launched Havas CX – a new international-wide network dedicated to delivering brand experiences across the entire customer journey.
The new network brings together more than 1200 people from 20 of Havas Creative’s global agency groups and local agencies as well as additional CX specialists from across the Havas network, under a common structure and methodology.
Havas CX will span 18 major Havas Villages – Havas’ cross-functional sub-departments – around the world, with key hubs in London, Paris, New York, and Mumbai. Some of the agency groups that will be brought together are digital transformation services ekino and customer engagement agency Havas helia. It also unifies under one roof Havas’ newly launched customer experience firm BETC FullSix, and recently acquired digital engagement-focused Langoor, digital consultancy Gate One, and user experience services Think Design.
In a press statement, Havas said the CX network’s competitive advantage lies in its ability to combine a deep-rooted and newly coordinated CX expertise with Havas’ rich insights. Currently, Havas runs a number of proprietary indices, namely, its brand study Meaningful Brands, a prosumer report, and its X Index, which is a new barometer for measuring and managing customer experience.
The combination, Havas continued, provides the network with the ability to marry the technological and functional aspects of CX with its clients’ brand promise and the personal and cultural context devised from Havas and BETC’s consumer insights.
The component agencies’ branding will be updated to reflect the new network identity. Chairman and CEO Havas Group Yannick Bolloré believes that it is the right time to unify the agencies under one joined-up, global brand, having pursued an acquisition strategy of cutting-edge agencies in the customer engagement space over the recent years.
“In Havas CX, we believe we have the most comprehensive customer engagement proposition the industry has to offer – and it’s one we intend to continue to strengthen by hiring top talent and making further best-in-class acquisitions,” said Bolloré.
Global CEO of Havas Creative Chris Hirst added that in today’s time, customer experience is the bedrock on which a brand is built, where majority of a consumer’s experience of any brand won’t be through above-the-line advertising, but through their personal interactions with it.
“As technology advances, almost any conceivable purchase is just a couple of clicks away, and the opportunities for brands to get it right or wrong, are manifold. CX is the new battleground, and the brands that get it right will win, and those that don’t will lose; it’s as simple as that,” he said.
