Havas opens new Melbourne Village, uniting all agencies under one roof
Havas Australia and New Zealand has launched its new Melbourne Village in Richmond, consolidating all Melbourne-based agencies to strengthen its integrated service offering.
The announcement:
Havas Australia and New Zealand, part of global communications group Havas, is celebrating the opening of its new Melbourne Village in Richmond, a move that unites all owned agencies in Melbourne following several years of strategic acquisitions and organic growth.
The Melbourne Havas Village houses more than 100 staff from its agencies Havas Red, Havas Media, Havas Play, Havas Host, Bastion Brands and Pulse, elevating the network’s ability to deliver highly specialised yet integrated communications, media, creative, health, social, production, experiential, and digital marketing services.
The Melbourne hub complements the established Sydney Havas Village, which is home to more than 300 specialists across nine agencies, with additional offices and staffers located in Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand.
Havas has invested heavily in Australia over the past three years, acquiring agencies Frontier Media, Australian Public Affairs (APA), Bastion Brands, and Hotglue, the latter two of which are headquartered in Melbourne (note: Hotglue now operates as Havas Media Melbourne, and APA as H/Advisors APA). Havas is eying further acquisitions to extend its comms, creative, digital/CX, and media capabilities.
James Wright, Group CEO Havas ANZ and Global CEO of Havas Red, said Melbourne and Victoria is a critical market and a hub for several of the group’s largest clients.
“Havas has enjoyed a long and successful history in Melbourne and we’re investing further to ensure we continue to deliver world-class results for our clients that are based or operate there,” Wright said. “Following several years of excellent growth in Melbourne, it’s an exciting time to bring all our talent and capabilities together to meet the rapidly changing needs of marketers and brands. The pioneering Havas Village model means we can further integrate the full gambit of our capabilities, maximising expertise, resource and technology to better benefit our clients.”
Uniting all the Havas Melbourne-based agencies accelerates the group’s transformation to become an AI–driven organisation fuelled by human ingenuity. It will also further enable deeper integration of Converged.AI, a groupwide Operating System, powered by the best technology and AI with creativity at its core.
“Forming the Melbourne Village helps us accelerate our vision to be the most client-centric agency network that utilises data, tech, people, and AI to unlock the full potential of our capabilities. Havas has committed €400 million to deliver its Converged.AI strategy over the next four years, and we’re supporting that investment through growth and integration of our local agencies,” added Wright.
Located at 4-12 Amsterdam Street in Richmond, Melbourne Havas Village is designed as a true creative and collaboration hub, including dedicated state-of-the-art content and production studios, and large indoor/outdoor meeting and entertainment spaces.
Source: HAVAS Red
