Australia – Michael Kay, most recently the business director for OMD Australia, has been appointed as the new client experience officer at Havas Media Network. In his new role, he will focus on unlocking business growth strategies for CMO’s and senior business leaders.
Using Havas Media Network’s integrated smarts across data, tech, engaging content and media amplification, he will aim to open up powerful ways of communicating that help marketers’ businesses grow well.
With close to 20 years’ of experience both in Australia and the UK, Kay has won and worked across some of the world’s most prestigious brands including Coca-Cola, Apple, Amazon, LEGO, Johnson & Johnson, Spotify and Sony Pictures.
Prior to OMD, he was the head of client and business development at Initiative, and the managing director of IPG’s Rufus where he helped launch Amazon into the Australian market and oversaw its rapid growth across Retail, Prime membership, Smart Devices and Entertainment (Prime Video and Amazon Music).
Virginia Hyland, CEO of Havas Media Network, said, “I am enormously excited to have Michael join our team. Michael is a highly respected industry leader with a proven track record in unlocking audience insight and cultural moments that deliver greater growth for marketers brands and businesses. He has the unique ability to balance strategic high-level thinking with grounded day-to-day deliverables. In addition, Michael has won multiple awards in the most impressive and competitive environments such as Cannes Lions.”
She added, “Michael will also bring greater support in how we integrate the uniqueness of the Havas Village teams and ensure we work closer than ever. I look forward to watching Michael get to work and grow our client’s businesses and the agency opportunity.”
Meanwhile, Kay said that he is thrilled to be joining Havas Media Network and is incredibly excited to help drive the client relationships and agency product forward, both within Havas Media Network, Havas PLAY, Havas Market and the wider Havas Village offering.
“I’ve known Virginia for a while and always admired her accomplishments in our industry. So when she approached me about this role I jumped at the opportunity. Virginia has been assembling an impressive team and has reorganised the agency around an integrated set of capabilities that truly enables us to operate across the end-to-end customer journey. It’s a great time to be joining Havas Media Network with the recent global brand refresh, and you can feel the energy of building an agency for the future,” Kay said.
