ITV

Tag: Boondoggle

  • Havas Q3 revenues grow 10.6% year-on-year

    MUMBAI: French media communications agency Havas has reported a 10 per cent rise in its revenues in the third quarter ended 30 September to €428 million from €387 million a year earlier.

    The group‘s organic growth was 2.0 per cent in the third quarter and 2.5 per cent for the first nine months of the year. Revenues from new businesses in the third quarter were €304 million, which includes new clients, clients retained after a competitive review, and new product or brand expansions for existing clients.

    The Asia Pacific and Africa region grew at 11.8 per cent with India and China being the forerunners in the growth. The region witnessed a number of significant new wins in this period like Tata Motors in India, Playstation and Study Adelaide in Australia, Sugon and YFY Investment in China. Danone opted for Havas digital agencies in Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur.

    Havas CEO David Jones said, “The macro-economic environment continues to be challenging. Notwithstanding, the Group‘s organic growth in North America, Latin America and Asia-Pacific increased in the third quarter, and we continued to generate healthy net new business. Not surprisingly, Europe slowed in Q3 though the Group continued to gain market share in the region, reflecting our competitive strength in this market. Digital continues to accelerate and is an increasingly important driver of the business.”

    In September Havas rebranded 316 of its creative agency Euro RSCG Worldwide offices to Havas Worldwide to underscore the group‘s unique integrated structure.

    Havas said growth slowed across the whole of Europe in the third quarter. France declined slightly in the third quarter due to a limited number of clients reducing spend. The UK, too, was down slightly as last year‘s loss of certain accounts continued to affect this quarter, although the losses have now been almost entirely offset by new wins.

    Performance in the rest of Europe was mixed, with growth driven by Belgium, Italy, Ireland, Germany and Russia in particular, plus a return to growth for Spain. The performance delivered by BETC London, a start-up launched just over a year ago, deserves special mention, as do recently acquired agencies such as Boondoggle and Creative Lynx.

    The growth rate for North America accelerated in the third quarter, a particularly pleasing performance given the high comparative base in Q3 2011.

    Double-digit growth in Havas‘ Asia-Pacific operations was driven mainly by China and India, with all business lines contributing to this strong performance.

    Havas said growth in Latin America accelerated considerably and continues to deliver solid performance, driven mainly by digital, media, advertising and healthcare communication. Brazil in particular delivered strong performance in the region.

  • Havas acquires Boondoggle to fortify digital pesence in Europe

    MUMBAI: France-based communications network Havas announced today the acquisition of a majority stake in Boondoggle – a fully integrated digital agency in the customs union of Benelux.

    With this Havas hopes to strengthen its digital lead in Europe and its position in the Benelux region and become one of the top three agencies.

    Boondoggle will continue to operate under its current name and keep its current offices in Belgium and the Netherlands. The Boondoggle management team remains unchanged and continues to own a minority stake in the agency.

    The agency was founded in 2000, but took the name Boondoggle only in 2007. Today it employs more than 120 digital and creative experts in its offices in Amsterdam and Leuven.

    The agency offers fully integrated solutions to its list of clients which include the likes of Coca-Cola, Nike, Heinz Europe, Iglo Europe, Belgacom, Thomas Cook, Tiense Suiker, Belfius, Kinepolis, Delhaize and Rabobank International Direct Banking.

    Havas Global CEO David Jones said, “Boondoggle is a brilliant agency which combines first-class digital expertise with award-winning creative talent making it totally in line with our “digital at the core” model. They are not just one of the best agencies in Benelux, the work they are doing across digital, social and data is as good as anything I‘ve seen anywhere in the world. We‘re very excited to have them join the group and look forward to delivering their expertise and ideas to our clients.”

    Boondoggle CEO Pieter Goiris added, “Joining one of the leading and most innovative international communications services group was the next and logical step for Boondoggle to achieve our ambitions for the years to come. David Jones‘ “digital at the core” vision for Havas is something we really share and believe in, and it will help us to further accelerate Boondoggle‘s business in a more international context.”