Company Profile - Havas

Havas Entertainment: getting the message across

Tristan Brooks, managing partner at Havas Entertainment, takes Toy World behind the scenes of Azure Media’s recent merger with the media, creativity and PR specialist, what it means for both company’s clients, and how Havas can help toy suppliers navigate the continuously evolving media landscape.

Azure Media joined forces with Havas Entertainment a little over a year ago. Why was it necessary to make this move?

We’ve been watching the decline of kids’ commercial TV as the market transitions towards digital media. The move was therefore essential to ensuring we have the right organisational structure and set-up in terms of our teams’ capabilities and expertise, with digital media located at the heart of everything. Merging with Havas Entertainment has also enabled Azure to maintain its specialism while bolstering its offering with greater access to the wider group’s full suite of services. We continue to evolve based on shifting market dynamics: this integrated model gives us the flexibility to pivot and pull in the expertise needed to meet our clients’ requirements head-on.

How has the reorganisation unfolded? Have there been any particular highlights?

It’s been a real success so far, and it’s also been great working with likeminded specialist teams. Sharing knowledge and expertise has helped us create an inspiring environment and a real ‘can do’ culture across the agency. Our enhanced set up seems to be resonating with advertisers too - I’d say the main highlight from the past year has been welcoming a total of four new clients. Tamara Strange joined as client partner back in late 2020, responsible for overseeing our client relationships. She’s made a real impact and is helping us achieve client servicing scores of 9 out of 10 once more. She’s also at the heart of spearheading our innovation, which is vital during the period of change we’re witnessing.

What would you say are the biggest benefits offered by Havas versus other agencies in the same field?

Several things make us unique in what we offer. Firstly, as mentioned earlier, our set up stands us apart. We’re a core team of toy media and creative experts, and we only represent toys and games clients. However, we also have direct access to the capabilities and services of the wider group on both a local and international level. Secondly, I’d highlight our culture. We really do go the extra mile for our clients in building servicing requirements around their individual business needs. I’d like to think we’re viewed as trusted partners and advisors to our clients, essentially an extension of their marketing teams. This is what drives us - their success is our success. Thirdly, I’d say it’s my team. I’m extremely lucky to work with such a passionate and talented bunch. We’re all motivated by doing the best for our clients and pushing our thinking forwards, but we also make sure we have some fun along the way.

What is Havas’ evolution strategy for 2023?

We’re continuing to focus on increasing performance in digital media, as that’s where our audiences spend most of their time. When engaging child audiences, we need to address the ongoing decline of kids’ TV by building awareness wherever children are actually spending their time. Let’s not forget, kids’ TV is quite restrictive in terms what you can run. Digital platforms offer greater opportunities for advertisers to be more creative and engaging, whilst also allowing for much more flexibility.

There will also be a greater emphasis on reaching and converting purchasers. This means thinking about the audience first and really getting under the skin of who they are: which media resonates with them, when are they in the market and most receptive, and what are the right messages with which to engage them. We have a wealth of learnings from this last year that will help to advance our performance in this regard.

We’re also evolving our services. We’ve recently acquired some brilliant digital performance businesses that really bolster our end-to-end solutions for clients, so continuing to enhance our services for our clients’ businesses will be another key focus moving forward.

Has the team expanded since the merger, and will it expand in the future?

The team has grown. It needed to, as we’ve onboarded more clients since the integration. We always aim to build the right team based upon our clients’ businesses. This means our core team of toy experts is supported by wider media and creative teams that benefit from being integrated onto relevant accounts. As we continue to increase our services, our team will continue to grow too.

What are the biggest opportunities in the media, creative, content, data and eCommerce spaces next year – and on the flip side, what challenges are your clients facing?

Agencies need to maximise cost efficient child audience reach for their clients. Kids’ TV has primarily become a ‘frequency media’ rather than a ‘reach media’. The ability to reach audiences at scale is now challenged, so addressing this reach gap by leveraging the right blend of digital video is critical for advertisers looking to drive awareness of their products.

Also, as child audiences become harder to reach via kids’ TV, it will become increasingly important to engage purchasers directly to drive purchasing (as mentioned earlier). Creative and content needs to be tailored to audiences and platforms to maximise on the opportunity to engage. At Havas Entertainment, we have integrated dynamic copy optimisation into our services and have had real success this year by increasing creative performance in social channels. Social commerce will become a growth area of eCommerce as purchasers look for greater convenience, and this selling model lets customers complete purchases without leaving social media apps.

Working with content creators will continue to be a core component of marketing campaigns. It’s well proven that if you can get the right creator to produce great content, it really does enhance performance - but you’re dealing with people, not media businesses, and therein lies the challenge. We’ve had a lot of success in this area and will be building on this in 2023 to further support our clients in this sector.

Understanding eCommerce performance and how to optimise conversions is vitally important for any toy company. We have a very strong eCommerce and direct to consumer product built around our own proprietary tools with direct API feeds. Enhancing eCommerce performance through tech and data is a great opportunity for this year and one toy companies should be looking at closely.

Do you feel the media landscape is going to continue fragmenting/evolving at the same pace we’ve witnessed over the last few years?

I see no reason to think otherwise. Certainly, when we consider ongoing trends, growing fragmentation seems inevitable - a part of the digital world we live in. There will continue to be new platform and app launches, for example Sky announcing it will be launching a non-commercial kids’ channel. That won’t change. However, with Netflix and Disney+ offering part ad funded subscription services, commercial opportunities will also grow in a fragmented market.

What else do you think is important for our readers to consider as they head into 2023?

There’s a growing divide between when retailers want suppliers to start marketing their products to consumers and when the market is receptive to that advertising. In my opinion, retailers and suppliers either need to align their marketing plans with when consumers are likely to purchase or provide really strong reasons why consumers should be buying early. Otherwise, my advice is to hold onto your marketing investment until shoppers are receptive to the messaging.

Last year was very tough for the industry, especially across Q4, when macro-economic factors impacted consumer confidence and businesses. This is likely to continue. Going into this year, the silver lining it that there are plenty of useful learnings from last year that will aid planning. Take the time to go over the data and start building your plans early so you’re best prepared for what comes next.

To find out more about what Havas Entertainment can do for your toy business, contact Tristan by emailing tristan.brooks@havasmg.com.