PETALING JAYA: A united, integrated approach across markets and disciplines, powered by data and technology, is key to Havas’ growth plans in the region, according to Rana Barua, group chief executive officer of Havas Southeast and North Asia.
The global communications group has ambitions to transform Asia’s advertising and marketing landscape, driving creativity and effectiveness through a cohesive, collaborative framework.
Its “One Asia” strategy, for instance, champions region-wide cooperation and problem-solving across countries and departments. Additionally, Havas’ global “Converged.AI” proposition aligns all agencies and departments together under a fully AI-enabled product suite.
“The idea is to break down the silos and the geographical boundaries, so that our people aren’t working alone, but have team members across all markets and specialties to support them on a project, pitch or challenge. They are more confident because they can reach out to each other at any time to help in their work,” Rana said.
During a recent visit to Kuala Lumpur, Rana and Joji Jacob, Havas’ regional chief creative officer for South-East Asia and North Asia, sat down with StarBiz to shed light on Havas’ strategic vision for the region.
At the heart of the One Asia mindset is the goal of delivering meaningful brand impact and the highest standard of work for its clients.
For this reason, Havas’ teams in every market collaborate across agencies and borders, ensuring that the best suited experts in the region are enlisted for each specific project and need.
“When we both came on board two years back, we decided, let’s disrupt these ways of working and make them simpler,” Rana said. “A client could be based in Malaysia, but our solution can come from any one of our eight markets in Asia.”
Jacob added: “When teams and agencies are able to come together as one, the work is done faster and at a better quality, and as a result, the client is better served.”
Further enhancing these collaborative processes is the Converged.AI framework, which deploys AI throughout the group and unites talent, skills, platforms and expertise to deliver cross-functional, client-centric solutions.
“Converged.AI is a global operating system used by the entire Havas network that brings all our people, practices and capabilities together into one connected approach, so that we can provide measurable and integrated solutions for clients,” explained Rana.
He added that the AI-powered tools were developed to better address questions around ROI measurability of solutions, allowing for data-backed results that agencies can clearly convey.
According to Havas, the Converged.AI ecosystem of products uses AI to assist in audience targeting and activation, analytics, dynamic intelligence, planning, creative production, and content personalisation.
Jacob opined that the advancement and use of AI has significant potential to enhance creativity in the marketing and advertising industry, rather than dull it.
“For example, for creative teams today, Converge.AI is able to generate a target audience persona that is highly tailored and specific than the scattershot approaches of the past.
“I don’t think it sacrifices creativity – if anything, it makes the world sharper, and is a powerful tool that allows us to refine our message so that it resonates more deeply with each individual,” he said.
Moving forward, Rana says his priority is on seeing that the One Asia philosophy is put into practical action as teams increasingly work together.
“Now that we have our people and our different countries in order, we are focusing on winning larger clients, which will naturally lead to stronger growth,” he added.
“The potential is huge in this part of the world. With the number of new successful startups coming out of the region, and the strong entrepreneurial way of working that exists here, I think we’ve just scratched the surface of opportunities.”
The leaders also said that Malaysia, in particular, has emerged as a key hub in the region for business growth, due to its stability, strong infrastructure, technological advancement and reasonable costs.
“We’ve met with many clients who are extremely bullish on growth here, so this is an important market for us,” said Rana.
They were also quick to note the quality of creative talent and dynamic energy found within Havas Malaysia.
“There’s always been a very authentic, distinctly Malaysian voice here, and I think our job is to protect that. Even their day-to-day work has a certain standard – it makes you smile, it makes you think, and it’s often a very elegant solution,” Jacob said, adding that the integration of the Converge AI and One Asia strategy will only further propel Havas Malaysia ahead.
“They’ve got the ideas, and now with all these resources, tools and collaborators available to them, it’s time to think bigger and scale up.”
