Havas

Havas (; ) is the second largest advertising group in France and is a "Global advertising and communications services group" and the sixth-largest global advertising and communications group worldwide, operating on the communications consulting market through three main operational divisions:

Introduction

Havas was the first French news agency, created in 1835. The Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency comes from it. Havas was acquired by Vivendi in 1998, and renamed Vivendi Universal Publishing. VUP in turn merged with Lagardere to become Editis in 2004.

French corporate raider Vincent Bolloré, through his holding company the Bolloré Group, is the main shareholder, controlling 26.41% of the share capital as at 20 July 2006. Bolloré is also the Chairman of the Havas board (Président du conseil d'administration).

History

History and evolution of the Havas name

Havas Conseil S.A.

In 1975, Havas Conseil became Eurocom, holding company of a Group of subsidiaries specializing in various communications activities.

Since the 1970s, the Group has grown significantly in France and internationally, both in the communications and media buying sectors, by broadening the scope of services that it offers and expanding into new communications techniques and technologies.

Havas was first listed on the Paris Bourse (now the Euronext Paris) in 1982. The principal milestones in the Group’s strategic development are the following:

Acquisition of Snyder Communications Inc.

SNC was a listed communications group controlled by Daniel Snyder, and their activities were mainly outsourced marketing services, such as Direct marketing, database marketing, proprietary product sampling, sponsored information display in prime locations, call centres, field sales. SNC's three divisions: Bounty SCA Worldwide, Arnold Communications and Brann Worldwide were respectively merged with Euro RSCG, Campus, and Diversified Agencies. Arnold Communications becomes Havas' second network, Arnold Worldwide Partners.

Services

Traditional advertising services consist of defining the nature, content and illustrating the advertising message for dissemination through traditional media: television, radio and print and display advertising for the promotion of products or brands.

Other marketing services would include marketing strategies designed to acquire customers or clients through specific or specialised audience targeting. These would include direct marketing, sales promotion, corporate communications, Healthcare Communications, internal communications, Television sponsorship, Design, human resources communications, New media & interactive communications, media planning and media buying.

Trivia

See also

References

External links

Category:Advertising agencies Category:Companies of France