Australia – Host/Havas has announced the appointment of one of Australia’s most experienced and highly awarded creative leaders, Justin Ruben, as executive creative director.

Ruben joins from CHEP, where he led the Sydney creative department as ECD after returning to Australia from New York in mid-2021. 

After beginning his career at DDB Sydney more than 20 years ago, Ruben has worked at a number of leading agencies in Australia and the US, including Publicis Mojo, BMF, BBH New York and Droga5 New York, where he spent four years as group creative director.

Ruben’s work has been recognised with multiple awards at shows including D&AD, Cannes, and The One Show. His ‘Summer rituals’ ad for Drumstick was voted among the best of the decade. Other highly regarded, influential and innovative work includes changing the bagel emoji for Philly Cream Cheese, ‘Read Yourself Better’ for The Wall Street Journal, and getting legendary baby photographer Anne Geddes to change her iconic photo style for Karicare.

Host/Havas CEO Gayle While said, “Justin’s passion for creating culturally influential work that impacts society and brands makes him an ideal fit for Host/Havas and its commitment to making a meaningful difference to clients.” 

“Justin is a talent of the highest calibre, with an infectious energy to success. We’re lucky to have him on board to continue our legacy of creating meaningful, attention-grabbing work for clients. We can’t wait to see what he brings to Host/Havas. It’s going to be amazing,” added While.

Ruben himself commented, “I’m incredibly excited to be joining the agency. It’s the perfect combination of the independent spirit of Host, with the incredible capabilities and smarts of Havas. I can’t wait to create some outstanding work.” 

He fills the role vacated by former ECD Jon Austin, who departed the agency last month after more than a decade working at the agency.

Last March, the agency also promoted Anthony Moore to managing director.

Australia Creative agency Host/Havas has announced the promotion of Anthony Moore as its managing director to continue being hands-on with the agency’s clients including Reckitt, Tourism Fiji, and the Australian Federal Police, whilst expanding his responsibilities more broadly for the agency.

In 2015, Moore joined the agency as its managing partner. He became an integral part of its projects including the creation of Australia’s second most popular podcast for the Australian Federal Police. He also contributed to the win of the hotly contested Tourism Fiji pitch and helped Air New Zealand become Australia’s most trusted brand five years in a row.

James Wright, chief executive officer at Havas Creative Network, said that Moore has been a crucial player in the agency’s success, from developing strong client relationships, supporting the delivery of their iconic campaigns, and building a fun culture. 

Meanwhile, Moore said, “I’m really proud of everything we have achieved together, particularly over the past few years and the culture we continue to build at Host/Havas. The team here are incredibly talented and certainly make my job easier every day.”

Host/Havas specialises in blending creativity and technology to solve real business problems, from brand thinking and design to innovation, CX, tech consulting, and digital development.

Palau – The island nation of Palau has launched a new tourism campaign that rewards those who practice responsible travel in their country, aiming to change the way people interact with the country’s pristine environment and local culture. 

Conceptualised alongside creative agency Host/Havas, the ‘Ol’au Palau’ campaign allows visitors to Palau to be able to accumulate points in the Ol’au Palau app by doing things such as offsetting their carbon footprint using Palau’s world-first personal carbon calculator; using reef-safe sunscreen; frequenting businesses that are reducing their impact on the environment and culture; visiting certain culturally significant tourism sites; eating sustainably-sourced local food; participating in community regenerative tourism projects; and avoiding single-use plastics.

The campaign, rooted from the word ‘ol’au’ or meaning a way of calling out to a friend to invite them into your space, creates a different type of tourism value exchange: one where visitors can accumulate points for demonstrating responsible and regenerative behaviour during their stay. In return, visitors can use these points to unlock some of the best and most unique experiences Palau has to offer, which have previously only been accessible to Palauans and close friends.

Alan T. Marbou, board member of the Palau Visitors Authority and former Speaker of the Koror State Government, said, “Palau’s tourism industry has been hit hard by the pandemic with no visitors entering Palau for almost two years. Despite the economic impact, Palau’s tourism sector is determined to stick to its high-value ecotourism strategy and find a way to bounce back sustainably from the pandemic.”

He added, “By launching Ol’au Palau we get to reward our most conscientious guests and protect our most highly-prized tourism asset: our pristine environment and unique culture. The pandemic has provided our planet with a much-needed wakeup call and an opportunity to see what’s possible when nature has a chance to rebalance itself. We hope that Ol’au Palau will make more destinations think about the true cost of tourism and rethink who they reward with their best experiences.”

‘Ol’au Palau’ was launched in Palau to coincide with the global ‘Our Oceans Conference’, and has already garnered worldwide media interest. Palau had previously worked with Host/Havas with the launch of the Palau Pledge in 2017. The pledge is a first immigration law that requires all visitors to sign a mandatory environmental pledge to Palau’s children that’s stamped into a visitor’s passport on arrival which became the most awarded campaign in the world in 2018.

Jon Austin, executive creative director at Host/Havas, commented, “The ‘Pledge’ did an incredible job of setting the right intent amongst visitors arriving in Palau. Now, Ol’au Palau takes an important step forward in turning that intent into tangible, positive action. The notion of applying gamification principles to ecotourism has been incredibly exciting, and it’s been a privilege to work not just with the amazing Palau Legacy Project team, but also with the private sector and Palauan elders to bring this important initiative to life.”

Australia – To reach a new generation of recruits and continue to land their ‘A Step Ahead’ positioning, the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the national and principal federal law enforcement agency of the Australian Government, has launched a new podcast series that takes listeners deep behind the scenes of some of the country’s most involved investigations.

The series, which was created in collaboration with creative agency Host/Havas and Australian podcast Casefile, opens the vault on some of the AFP’s most complex investigations, including interviews with the officers responsible for cracking the cases and some insight into the techniques used to unravel the crimes.

Titled ‘Crime Interrupted’, the podcast is supported by a 30-second trailer for the first episode, created in partnership with the Emmy Award-winning director of the True Detective main title sequence, Patrick Clair.

Host/Havas said that the series is a compelling alternative to creating stock standard police recruitment ads to engage the next generation of officers for the AFP, with a focus on women, people from diverse backgrounds, and First Nations people.

Marina Simoncini, Australian Federal Police’s manager of the culture and communications branch, believes that the podcast series created with Host/Havas takes an unexpected approach to recruitment. 

She further shared that the six hours of content will not only intrigue and entertain, but it will show potential recruits—people who may not have previously considered a career with the AFP—what they can expect.

“As we’ve shown through the podcast, we need people from all kinds of backgrounds with all kinds of skills to help keep us a step ahead,” said Simoncini.

Meanwhile, Jon Austin, Host/Havas’ executive creative director, shared that when it came to recruiting for the AFP, they didn’t need to hyperbolise or dramatise as the most compelling reasons come obviously with every case story heard from officers.

“What a privilege to be able to work not just with the officers behind these stories, but with the likes of Casefile and Patrick to bring them to life so powerfully,” said Austin.

The podcast series was launched last 4 February 2022, and is available on AFP’s YouTube.

Sydney, Australia – Creative agency Host/Havas has announced the appointment of former creative director at Droga5 New York Henry Kember as its newest group creative director, where he will play an important role in the agency’s creative leadership, and will also help in continuing to shape and drive company culture.

Through his new role, Kember will be overseeing projects across the entire Host/Havas client portfolio which includes Air New Zealand, NBA, Reckitt, Stockland, Palau Legacy Project, Avis Budget Group, Tassal and United Nations Free & Equal.

He brings into the agency over 15 years of experience both locally and internationally. During his stint at Droga5 New York, During his career, Kember has worked on some of the world’s most iconic brands such as Covergirl, PayPal, IKEA and Diageo.

Jon Austin, ECD at Host/Havas, commented that they are thrilled to have someone of Henry’s fearsome calibre and talent join them at Host/Havas, noting that he has long admired Kember’s creative talents during his other stints in other agencies.

“Not just for his incredible aesthetic and passion, but also for his ability to genuinely impact and leverage popular culture in his thinking. In fact, when we were chatting, I’d leave every call feeling like he’d somehow managed to jam several SXSW talks into our Zoom chat. And not even premium Zoom, just the 45-minute one, which is even more impressive,” Austin said.

Meanwhile, speaking about his appointment, Kember commented, “It’s a fascinating, challenging time to be in advertising. No one gets this more than Jon Austin, Olly Taylor and Laura Aldington, and no one’s better set up to thrive at this moment than Host/Havas. Plus they’re so nice I could never have pitched against them. Even the fact that Jon was front man for NZ’s version of Blink 182 couldn’t stop me signing on.”

Australia – Due to the scare of health and environmental hazards of most commercial bug repellents, people tend to resort, although unverified, to natural remedies – with some even surprising to see people agreeing to.

This is the theme of the new campaign by Reckitt’s hygiene brand Aerogard as it presents the value of its new ‘100% plant-based’ insect repellent, Aerogard Naturals.

The campaign, which was created in partnership with creative agency Host/Havas, aims to introduce the product as a new ‘force of nature’ that is both effective and safe, in a series of four 15-second spots, designed for TV and online.

The spots feature the ‘Murphey Family’ and the alternative attempts they used to avoid bugs with common and not-so-common natural remedies, such as onions, mozzie bands, and fly swatters, as well as essential oils.

Saurabh Jain, Reckitt Hygiene’s marketing director for ANZ, said, “The creative from Host/Havas brings to life some familiar scenarios, with a touch of humor spritzed throughout, which will resonate with all.”

Jon Austin, the executive creative director at Host/Havas, commented, “It was great to work with our partners at Reckitt Hygiene to showcase a genuine force of nature when it comes to natural pest repellents. I’m looking forward to busting out the Aerogard Naturals as we launch into summer.”

The campaign has been rolled out on 7 November 2021 across TV, online, and social.

Australia – With travel restrictions now slowly being lifted, car rental company Budget in Australia has launched a new campaign titled ‘Get to the Good Stuff’, to encourage vacationers to hire cars for a more enjoyable vacation, done in collaboration with creative agency Host/Havas.

Budget is a subsidiary of Avis Budget Group, the global mobility solutions provider based in the United States, that offers various car rental deals and services.

The campaign aims to showcase the hassle-free journey of vacationers through renting a car, as Budget provides convenient locations, digital check-in service, and programs like FastBreak.

The story features a couple on vacation, and their make-believe smooth trip, which only lasted for a few seconds. The ad leaves them with the reality of an exhausting travel journey they initially chose.

Avis Budget Group Pacific’s Head of Marketing, Product and PR Vanessa Wolczak said, “Travelers see car hire as a necessary means to an end and want to hit the road and head to their next adventure as soon as they can. This campaign communicates how Budget can help them do that in a clear and clever way.”

Meanwhile, Jon Austin, the executive director at Host/Havas, commented, “This process has been a series of standout moments. It’s been a brilliant, collaborative journey and we can’t wait to get started on the next installment.”

The campaign has been rolled out across digital and OOH advertisements.