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Tag: David Jones

  • Brandwatch raises $33 million to fuel social intelligence growth

    Brandwatch raises $33 million to fuel social intelligence growth

    MUMBAI: Social intelligence company Brandwatch has completed a $33 million Series C financing led by new investor Partech Ventures, with participation from existing investors Highland Capital Partners Europe and Nauta Capital.

     

    Brandwatch’s continued growth demonstrates the strong appetite organizations have for a best of breed social analytics platform as social networks have evolved into a critical source of consumer and business insight. The funding will be used to accelerate development of the company’s core technologies and products to keep setting the standard in an increasingly complex, global social landscape.

     

    Building on its strong US presence, which now accounts for more than half of the company’s revenues, Brandwatch will open more offices following the June 2015 launch in Singapore. The company also plans to invest heavily in strategic partnerships with other best-of-breed products to offer customers integrated social intelligence solutions.

     

    Recently, Brandwatch has added new brands to its 1,200-strong roster of customers – including Samsung, Cisco Systems, and Sony Music – and it is now one of the largest VC-backed SaaS companies in Europe. In 2015 the company launched the most sophisticated automated intelligence alerts on the market, Brandwatch Signals, which notifies users in real time of significant or unexpected changes in their social data.

     

    The company has built a reputation for excellence with its two products – Brandwatch Analytics (which includes Signals) for deep social intelligence functionality and Brandwatch Vizia, a beautiful display platform used by enterprises to inform real-time business decision-making in every department. Brandwatch plans to continue its ambitious innovation with Vizia, including the rollout of an app ecosystem.

     

    Brandwatch recently appointed two new senior executives, naming David Jones as chief technology officer and Amy Collins as head of product. These tech veterans bring with them many years of experience in analytics, information technology, and business intelligence to the company’s leadership team.

     

    “We decided to invest in Brandwatch because of its incredibly strong vision, technology and team. Social data is driving the future of every business function from marketing and sales to customer service. We are very proud to partner with the worldwide leader to tackle this massive opportunity,” said Partech Ventures general partner and Brandwatch new board member Omri Benayoun.

     

    “This is another big milestone for us. It’s a substantial investment from a great firm, Omri and the Partech team are world-class. We are going to continue building an extraordinary company – one that listens to and looks after its customers, cares for its staff and works hard to build innovative, elegant, useful products. I love working here and I love the energy that every Brandwatcher brings into our offices every day. Game on,” added Brandwatch CEO Giles Palmer.

  • 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 group rebrands; Euro RSCG now known as Havas Worldwide

    MUMBAI: France based communications network Havas has implemented a new business model with an integrated structure with the aim of placing digital at the core of all its activities and agencies, unifying creative and media assets and strengthening the visibility of its global brand by renaming its largest network.

    Effective from today all Euro RSCG agencies have been renamed Havas Worldwide (316 offices in 75 countries, including the Euro RSCG, Euro RSCG Life, Euro RSCG 4D and Euro RSCG WW PR brands). This does not translate into any change in leadership.

    Euro RSCG was formed in 1991 by the merger of two French agencies Eurocom and RSCG, both formed in the mid-1970s.

    Under the new brand structure, the Havas group consists of two main brands – Havas Media and Havas Creative. The former entity will include all of the group‘s media agencies while Havas Creative will include Havas Worldwide (previously known as Euro RSCG) and Arnold Worldwide (16 agencies in 15 countries across five continents) along with other communications agencies.

    The rebranding also involves the creation of a new brand Havas Digital Group which will be an umbrella brand operating across media and creative. It will not be a new network pr operational division, but purely a brand. The move comes as a step towards proving the group‘s commitment towards digital.

    Havas CEO David Jones said, “A decade ago, we set ourselves apart by being the first major communication holding company to place digital at the core of all our agencies around the world. Our industry doesn‘t make it easy for clients. They are the ones who have to do the hard job of sifting through big bureaucratic holding companies to try to get a variety of different companies, cultures and P&L‘s to work together; to try to get creative, media and digital to collaborate. With this name change and with the moving together of our creative and media companies in Paris and New York, we‘re aiming to reinforce a key competitive advantage of Havas – that we‘re the most integrated of all of the communications groups with the simplest structure that can offer our clients a powerful combination of creative excellence, digital expertise, scale, agility and innovation.”

    Jones added, “Today with the rebranding we‘re making a small change, but it‘s one we want to use as a catalyst for driving big change through Havas and the broader industry.”

    The Havas Media brand, as well as its network names (MPG, Arena Media Communications, Havas Digital and Havas Sports & Entertainment) remains unchanged. Havas Media will reveal a new visual identity at the beginning of 2013.

  • Havas post 7.7% rev growth for H1 2012

    MUMBAI: The Havas Group posted revenue of $654.41 million for H1 2012 ended 30 June 2012. This is a 7.7 per cent increase from $607.58 in H1 2011.

    The group‘s income from operations for H1 2012 increased by 4.21 per cent to $125.72 million, compared to $120.64 million reported for H1 2011.

    Geographically, Europe continued to be the media group‘s strength with $529.34 million coming in revenue from the region followed by North America ($358.10 million) and Asia Pacific and Latin America bringing in $165.08 million.

    The group‘s Q2 revenue stood at $561.28 million, a 9.40 per cent rise from Q2 FY12‘s $513.03 million. During this period too, Europe led the share of revenue with $284.45 million followed by North America with $185.40 million and APAC+Lat Am bringing in $$91.43 million.

    Havas CEO David Jones said, “All our regions continued to deliver growth in the first half led by Asia, Latin America, digital, media and healthcare. New Business performance strengthened in H1 2012, delivering one of the best half-year new business results in recent years with major wins including Novartis, GSK, Hershey‘s (digital), Intel Asus, (global), Sony Playstation, New York Life, Atlantic City, Lycra (USA), Yili in Asia, Nokia in India and Volvo in China, to name but a few. We made a number of targeted acquisitions during the first half of 2012, bringing into the group innovative agencies and talent adept at using digital technology and creativity to meet the future needs of our clients.”

    Over the first half of 2012, Havas made a number of acquisitions of agencies representing a total investment of approximately $44.45 million. These targeted acquisitions made to reinforce the group‘s digital, technology and creative resources and are in line with the Group‘ strategy.

    The group acquired agencies Boondoggle, Ignition, Victors and Spoils, Creative Lynx, Mediaxis and launched Havas Media Ortega in Philippines.

    The agency won some prominent accounts like Expedia (Euro RSCG 4D Matrix), Nokia (digital business won by Euro RSCG), Parle (media account won by MPG) and TVS Tyres (media account won by MPG) in India.

  • 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.”

  • Havas reveals rebranding plans

    Havas reveals rebranding plans

    MUMBAI: Worldwide communications group Havas chief executive of advertising David Jones has revealed plans to rebrand the agencies under the company as it repositions for an increasingly digital future.

    The group‘s new clients for online marketing include Unilever and Sony Playstation.

    Jones said that the group will be retiring the 20-year-old Euro RSCG name for Havas’ largest creative network and bringing almost the whole group under the Havas brand.

    Euro RSCG was formed in 1991 by the merger of two French agencies Eurocom and RSCG formed in the mid-1970s. The company structure will be consolidated into Havas Advertising and Havas Media. Jones was quoted in the Financial Times, “Within that we will launch Havas Digital as an umbrella brand for digital.”

    He further informed that he aimed to take on competitors like WPP and Publicis and create a model that contrasted their structures.

    According to FT, Jones said, “The rebranding of Euro RSCG will reinforce the fact that our competitors have hundreds of brands and cultures and CEOs, and ours is an incredibly clear and simple structure. We haven’t got big, old-fashioned ad agencies that just do TV ads and have a separate digital silo.”

    Havas Digital will not have its own independent leadership or financial structure. The repositioning will underline Havas‘ more integrated model for providing services for example, by bringing formerly separate media-buying and creative teams into the same buildings in Paris and New York.

    Meanwhile, Havas announced its financial results for the year ended 31 December 2011. The group has registered net income of 120 million euros, up 9 per cent from 110 million euros in 2010.

    The revenue for the year was recorded at 1.65 billion euros, which is 5.6 per cent more than the revenue for fiscal 2010 at 1.56 billion euros.

    The group informed in an official communiqué that its digital and social media grew rapidly and increased their contribution to the company’s overall revenue, as the group pursued its strategy of putting these businesses at the core of all its activities and agencies around the world. Digital and social media made up 23 per cent of the total group‘s revenue.

    The geographical revenue break up reveals that Asia-Pacific reported growth of 9.8 per cent for full-year 2011.