CEO and Chairman, Havas, Havas N.V.
Maggs on Media || Yannick Bollore
The world according to Yannick Bolloré consists of two types of people: those who, faced with change, hunker down and try to protect what they have; and those who welcome disruption and use it to spot new opportunities. He’s the chairman and CEO of Havas one of the world’s largest advertising networks.
About Yannick Bollore
In a June 2019 interview, Yannick Bolloré stated that Vivendi was working to find a strategic or financial partner for up to 50% of Universal Music Group (UMG) to accelerate its growth, clarifying that the company had not said it wanted to spin off UMG. He expressed confidence that the process was on track and that the company was not in a hurry, as UMG was performing well. Regarding trade tensions between the U.S. and China, Bolloré said he did not see a slowdown in advertising investment but described uncertainty as "very bad for business" and expressed hope that an agreement would be reached by the end of the year. In a 2014 interview, Bolloré described Havas's scale as an advantage, arguing that the company was large enough to manage global clients while remaining agile enough to adapt to industry changes. He emphasized the importance of innovation, stating that "when a company stop to innovate it starts to die," and discussed the integration of media and creative disciplines within Havas Villages as a strategy to enhance advertising campaigns.
Transcript (15 segments)
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Host0:07
This is Magazon Media on ENCA. Some brand news in brief: now the Absa brand is pushing the launch of its new payment Pebble, which the bank claims is a high-tech, easy way to make and receive card payments in the tough financial services market. Brand building these days, we suggest, requires big, bold messaging on the technological front. And Castle Light has introduced a new addition to its Extra Cold family with a through-the-line campaign highlighting a flavored variant with a dash of lime. The flavored beer category, by the way, has seen a 7% growth spurt globally during 2013, and South Africa is no different. Finally, this week from the Financial Times, which writes: 'The world, according to Yannick Bolloré, consists of two types of people: those who, faced with change, hunker down and try to protect what they have, and those who welcome disruption and use it to spot new opportunities.' He's the chairman and chief executive officer of Havas, one of the world's largest advertising networks. He was in South Africa just a few days ago and sat down for an exclusive one-on-one with Magazon Media, in which we touched on the tough global advertising market and why Africa is the last big brand frontier. Now, I've just been looking at your Twitter feed—Cameroon, Congo—I'm surprised you can still keep your eyes open! In fact, you seem to have done such a lot of airplane traveling. But we have two big groups in South Africa right now, WPP and Publicis; they have massive checkbooks—they're buying up agencies left, right, and center. What is your strategy as far as Africa is concerned?
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Yannick Bollore1:51
When the Bolloré Group, which is my family group and one of the biggest conglomerates in the world, took over Havas in the middle of 2005, our first concern was to get back to growth and to have a healthy financial situation for Havas. But in 2008-2009, the group was already doing much better, and we decided to focus on our global strategy. We found that sub-Saharan Africa was not covered, except South Africa, where we have an agency that employs almost 100 people. Then we have two options for how to be present in Africa. First option, which is the most convenient and easiest, is to get agreement with local agencies so we don't spend that much money and we have commercial agreements so we can serve our clients. But that's not exactly what we did. What we did over the last four years was to build our own network. We started in Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Congo, and in 13 other countries to build Havas agencies, and now we are one of the top pan-African players with our networks. So for our clients, it's very convenient because we can really manage our people, our talent. We manage to attract great talent. I'm very satisfied with what has been achieved over the last four years, but we still have a lot of ambition. So we will still dedicate some time and some money to invest into Africa.
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Host3:17
But it's a tough job for you—you're a relatively small group, I think the sixth largest ad holding group in the world. Can you really compete with giants like WPP and Publicis?
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Yannick Bollore3:28
I think it's the opposite. I think it's an advantage because when we compare our scale, we have a double advantage. First advantage is we are big enough to manage global clients—we manage global clients. I think it's very hard for an independent agency to become global, but we have done this journey so far with great success. But at the same time, you have talked about digital and innovation. When you are working in an industry that is facing so many changes, I think it's important not to be too big, because when you're too big, you have too much inertia, so it's very hard to change, it's very hard to move. When you have our scale, you have agility, so that's something we can really play with. And I think our scale is a great advantage.
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Host4:15
Let's return to that word that you used—innovation. Explain to me why this is becoming so much more important in advertising these days and how you inculcate a culture of innovation in an agency group globally.
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Yannick Bollore4:31
I think innovation is not important only to our industry, not only important to the advertising industry. I think that in every industry, when a company stops innovating, it starts to die. This is very obvious in our industry because with digital, it's changing everything. Now we have mobile, so people are talking about brands on social networks, they are buying differently. I mean, all the distribution network is completely disrupted, and I think that in the next 10 years we will see many new revolutions. So every morning, every night, we need to think about how the future will look like to be able to help our clients to adapt. But it's very difficult to build a strategy around constant disruption, isn't it? It's very difficult, but it's easier when you have our scale. You need to be very open-minded, you need to work a lot to be very curious. But if you start to embrace these changes with enthusiasm, you will win the race at the end of the day.
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Host5:13
Isn't it?
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Yannick Bollore5:14
It's very difficult, but it's easier when you have our scale. You need to be very open-minded, you need to work a lot to be very curious. But if you start to embrace these changes with enthusiasm, you will win the race at the end of the day.
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Host5:26
Often clients are resistant to innovation; they're afraid of innovation. They think innovation will cost them money. So it's all very well to have this culture of innovation within your own group, but how do you make sure that your clients are buying into it? You have the silver bullet there?
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Yannick Bollore5:41
We all have in mind the Kodak example, because Kodak didn't die because of the digital camera—they invented the digital camera but didn't want to launch it because they thought it would cannibalize their traditional camera. So I think it's very important to explain to our clients that they need to see this innovation as a key factor for change for their consumers, because at the end of the day, the consumer will decide. I mean, it's impossible to tell people what they need to consume; they will decide. So what's very important for us is to help our clients to go to this new generation of consumers, to this new reality. I mean, that's something that is key work, and all our clients are very satisfied with what Havas is bringing to them.
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Host6:26
I just want to ask you one final question, if I can. I know that key to your agency network growth strategy has been the integration of creative and media buying options. In years gone past, those two have been very separate. Where's the advantage of bringing them together, and how difficult has it been to integrate those two disciplines?
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Yannick Bollore6:47
See, one change in our industry brought by digital is that there is no point anymore to cluster or separate digital and traditional media buying and creative. Because just take an example like social media: are media people more relevant to deal with social media, or are Havas creative people? I mean, when I meet a client, you just want to talk about communication; I don't see the difference. Because today with digital, I think that the medium, the way to address the message, is becoming as important as the message itself. So when we combine people from media expert and creative expert, it really brings like a magic potion—it's a secret to enhance the advertising campaign for our clients. So that's what we have called Havas Villages: people working together. My strategic plan I presented last year was 'together'—it's already success with a lot of major wins. So I think that bringing people together is key for the future of industry.
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Host7:46
Yannick Bolloré from Havas, thank you very much for joining us.
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Yannick Bollore7:49
Thank you very much for having me.
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Host7:51
The views there of Yannick Bolloré from the Havas group. He was in Johannesburg just a few days ago, and that's this week's program. As always, thank you for watching, and goodbye.