Havas bets on being 'deliberately different' as mega-mergers squeeze the middle

Havas Group ANZ is rolling out a new ‘Deliberately Different’ positioning, yellow branding and a refreshed Village structure just as the global holding company map is being redrawn and independents face a costly AI arms race.

While Omnicom and IPG push ahead with their US$13 billion mega-merger and WPP weathers takeover rumours and profit warnings, Havas is trying to carve out a third path – a mid-sized, integrated group that says it can move like an indie but invest like a network.

At the centre of the play is James Wright, Havas Group Australia and New Zealand CEO, who has spent 14 years inside the business, first running the PR network in Asia Pacific and Australia, then Havas Red globally, before returning to take on the creative and media networks locally.

“We've always thought Havas is different because we're not one of the big monoliths and we're not an independent but that difference isn't about being different for different sake,” Wright says. “It's about having difference with intent, strategic intent.”

Internally, ‘Deliberately Different’ is being framed around three Cs – culture, creative and commercials – and a sharpened Village model that pulls creative, media, PR, public affairs, social, influencer, health, medical comms and more into a single leadership structure across Australia and New Zealand.

SEE MORE: James Wright appointed group CEO Havas Media ANZ

The Village concept itself isn’t new. Havas first pushed an integrated “together” strategy and physical Villages back in 2012, designed so a client could walk into one building and cover “90% of their marketing needs”. But Wright argues the market has caught up and, in some cases, converged into what he calls “homogeneity”.

“There’s homogeneity happening in the whole land,” he said. “A lot of clients [are] concerned about where their business is, how important their business is in these giant monoliths.”

Havas ANZ sits somewhere in between. The local Village covers around 400 people across nine or ten agencies, with what Wright describes as clear “swim lanes” rather than internal land grabs.

“We've got the individuality of the brands, but getting them working better together,” he said. “We don't have a huge amount of competitive agencies in the same space… no one's trying to eat each other's cake.”

The new positioning is meant to give that structure a clearer organising idea and a common language for clients and staff – helped along by a high-visibility shift from Havas’ traditional red to a bold yellow across the ANZ Village.

Australian-led, with global eyes watching

Unusually, ‘Deliberately Different’ is being driven from Australia and New Zealand rather than Paris or New York. Wright describes his leadership style as a “benign dictatorship” – one CEO for a sizeable but contained market, with enough autonomy to move at speed.

He says the concept has already been shared with global leadership and is broadly aligned with Havas’ global focus on “meaningful brands” and “meaningful difference”, but with a distinctly local tone.

“In Australia and New Zealand, we want to be Australian and Kiwi,” he said. “Some of the language is a bit different in other markets, but we all kind of have the same blueprint feel for how we want to present Havas in market.”

That local nuance comes at a time when the rest of the holding company world is consolidating hard. Omnicom and IPG are pushing to finalise their tie-up by the end of 2025, after regulators including the ACCC concluded there would still be enough competition from remaining holdcos and indies.

At the same time, Havas has been dragged into global speculation about WPP’s future, with reports suggesting the French group had explored taking a stake in the embattled rival before CEO Yannick Bolloré publicly told staff the company was “not in discussions” with WPP.

Against that backdrop, Havas ANZ is positioning itself as a comparatively stable, growing mid-tier player. Wright says the local business has had “a good year”, particularly across the creative network, with some agencies “way above budget” and others at least on plan in what he repeatedly describes as a “tough and very sluggish” market.

SEE MORE: Havas CEO Yannick Bolloré shuts down WPP deal rumours

Crucially, the group is diversified across disciplines, which Wright argues has protected the ANZ business from the worst of the slowdown.

“We’re not leveraged in any one particular agency discipline and or in any one particular agency,” he said. “We’ve got some agencies that are really performing excellently and a few that are in line with budget, which is actually a win in most people’s books. And then you’ve always got an agency you’re working on.”

AI – from the C-suite down

If the Village is Havas’ structural play, AI is its transformation bet.

Globally, Havas has committed a €400 million AI investment over four years into its Converged.AI operating system, which fuses data, tools and production across media, creative and PR. Wright says that investment only matters if it’s pushed deep into markets like Australia rather than left as a global slideware project.

He points to a “top-down and bottom-up” AI strategy.

At the top, every member of Havas’ global C-suite and executive leadership – “including me and Yannick Bolloré,” Wright said – must pass mandatory, non-basic AI proficiency training to even attend global leadership meetings.

“It sounds a bit draconian that you mandatory the C-suite, but actually, unless we all understand the benefits, [it doesn’t work],” he said. “Everyone has to have a certain level of proficiency.”

At the bottom, the ANZ Village is appointing its first chief AI officer in Alastair Baker, previously chief planning officer at Havas Media Network Australia. Baker has already been heavily involved in Converged.AI and internal AI education, and will now move into a group-wide role, reporting across the full wheel of agencies rather than sitting inside media.

“As soon as I made that decision, all these agency leaders… they’re all like, he’s the perfect guy,” said Wright. “We need it to be driven into every agency on that wheel.”

Baker’s remit spans AI strategy, execution and governance, as well as local partnerships and tools where global platforms fall short in the Australian market. The brief is to drive internal efficiency, unlock client value and open up new revenue lines rather than chase AI for its own sake.

“For me, AI has democratised creativity,” Wright said. “If everything’s about algorithms and automation, what actually then becomes super important is originality, and originality comes from strategy and creative.”

He is also wary of the brand risk that comes with over-reliance on generative tools, particularly given his PR background.

“You get AI to write a press release and something’s incorrect in it, you know, that's a brand police issue,” he said. “Just because it’s a good idea doesn’t make it the right idea.”

Three pillars for growth

Underneath the positioning and AI moves, Wright is working to a new three-year business plan built around three main levers. First, optimising services: finding smarter ways to share production, strategy, AI, social and influencer capabilities across agencies without eroding the individuality of each brand.

Second, a clear M&A strategy that looks both at bandwidth plays in existing capabilities and at new skills “nobody has right now, but it’s going to become important.” Third, talent: making Havas ANZ a “beacon” for senior talent who can bring different perspectives into the Village leadership and help steer the next phase.

On M&A, Wright is cautious but clearly active. He calls Havas “one of the most inquisitive and active” players in partnerships and deals, both globally and in Australia, and says independents are increasingly knocking on the door as they weigh up how to fund technology and AI investments.

“Some [indies] are doing well right now, some are finding it challenging, but all of which are very worried about how do you keep up when you don’t have that sort of level of backing,” he said.

He stops short of specifics but hints at announcements “in months, weeks and years” as the Village looks to expand its footprint, particularly in media and health, which he sees as key long-term growth areas.

Culture as the real differentiator

For all the talk of AI and M&A, Wright keeps circling back to culture as Havas’ real differentiator.

“We don’t sell a commodity, we sell strategy and ideas, and that’s created by people,” he said. “Our best assets walk in and out of the buildings every day… so it’s absolutely critical that we continue to retain and attract the best talent.”

He points to a consistent leadership team, a majority family-owned parent company that is prepared to back medium- and long-term plans, and a simple internal mantra: start with “yes”.

“People have to be willing to work together and not be out purely for themselves and their own agency,” he said. “A rising tide floats all boats.”

For CMOs, Wright says that culture may end up being more important than the colour palette. As marketers reassess their own agency rosters in the shadow of the Omnicom-IPG mega-group and ongoing speculation around WPP’s future, the choice isn’t just between indie speed and holding company scale anymore.

Havas is betting that a deliberately different Village – one CEO, one plan, one AI operating system, multiple specialist agencies – can give marketers a simpler way to buy integrated ideas without waiting for global restructures to settle.

Whether that bet pays off will become clear over the next three years as Wright’s business plan plays out, Omnicom-IPG lands its integration, and independents decide whether to sell, scale or stay stubbornly solo.

For now, Havas has nailed its colours – bright yellow – to the mast.