Havas eyes lucrative entertainment marketing sector with launch of new division
Havas has officially launched its Sports and Entertainment division in Australia, looking to take its share of the burgeoning sponsorship market.
The new division is being led by general manager, Francis Coady, who has worked in sports and entertainment for the past 15 years, most recently at brand partnership agency Merchantwise in Los Angeles, where he dealt with major Hollywood studios around the TV and film space.
Coady told Mumbrella that while a number of local agencies were working well in the sports space there is a “world of opportunity” in entertainment, particularly with local brand integrations in Hollywood films.
“There’s a broader depth outside the sports space. There are a lot of terrific agencies doing a lot in sports and we want to open out the world of entertainment more broadly.
“I think my personal relationships with studios – coming back into the market from Los Angeles in the early days – has proven to be a powerful asset. We’ve also got the Vivendi Village which has a direct relationship with the Universal Music Group, the number one music company in the world.
“Overall, coming from a holistic approach around sport and entertainment – and truly using that word ‘entertainment’ – will provide us some cut-through.”
While the agency launched officially today it has already been in market and created the brand tie-up between LG vacuum cleaners and recent movie reboot, Ghostbusters.
Coady also said there would be a strong focus on data analytics and proving return on investment for clients, with the agency integrated into the Havas Village model, which allows them to draw on resources from sister agencies Havas Media, Havas Worldwide and Red Agency.
Coady said: “I don’t think the rigour of analysis around return on investment has been done very well, and there’s been some analysis in marketplace recently around logo placement metrics, but I think using the data team here and helping me audit the relationship between the rights holder and the brand before during and after the sponsorship program is really quite a powerful tool.
“Our aim is to provide justification before we engage with sport and entertainment, and then during and, most importantly, afterwards. I don’t think any other industry right now has had as much scrutiny as sport and entertainment around measurement.”
General manager: Francis Coady
The agency has four people currently in its core team, but has collaborated already with other Havas agencies on several pitches, with Coady saying the division has a big client announcement coming in the next fortnight.
Sports and Entertainment already has clients including L’Or Coffee, LG and IBM.
Francis Coady is hosting a session interviewing Bupa Australia’s national sponsorship and activation strategy manager, Adrian Baillargeon, at the Mumbrella Sports Marketing Summit in Sydney tomorrow. To see the program and buy tickets click here.
