Havas has committed to invest €400 million (£338m) in data and technology, including AI, over the next four years as part of a new strategy designed to answer clients’ ever-increasing needs for cross-functional, fully integrated communications solutions.

The move comes as the French-owned agency group looks to the future and prepares to shift out of private ownership to become publicly traded. At the heart of the strategy lies a new operating system, which the group maintains will deliver an integrated and meaningful value proposition.

Built on the foundations of Havas Converged media tool—an AI-powered solution that aims to provide transparent cross-platform audience planning and efficiency—the Converged OS aims to take integration further. Fuelled by data, tech, and AI with creative ideas at its core, the new OS will be available across all Havas networks and beyond its current media focus.

Havas claims the system will empower the group’s 23,000 staff to work smarter and faster and to craft integrated and sustainable solutions through four steps: intelligence, design, activate, and measure. Building on its Together Strategy and the Havas Village approach launched in 2014, Converged is designed to bring global collaboration at Havas even further, seamlessly fusing talent capabilities, platforms, and expertise.

With ideas at its heart, Converged will leverage Havas’ creativity, media, and production capabilities powered by data technology and AI, bringing its global networks and agencies even closer to help drive clients’ businesses. The €400 million commitment builds on Havas’ investment in new capabilities and tools, the establishment of international networks dedicated to content production, customer experience, and e-commerce, as well as the formation of strategic partnerships with global technology giants like Adobe.

Havas will appoint a Global Task Force to support this major investment. Havas chairman and CEO Yannick Bolloré commented, “Aiming at supercharging our positive impact for our clients and contributing to shaping the future of the fast-evolving communications industry, our new converged strategy will build even more bridges between creativity, media, production, and technology than ever before.”

Converged represents a cultural shift that will resonate across every level of the organization and aims to ensure the success of Havas’ clients and partners.

Source: Havas invests €400m in data and tech to woo clients – DecisionMarketing.