This week Havas Media announced the launch of Havas Media Labs, which they state will underline “its commitment to offering a cutting edge, real-time data and content based response to changing client needs.”
Havas Media Labs will be led by Head of Futures, Amy Kean, and will also broker relationships between brands and start-ups. They’ve selected people analytics provider and neuroscience specialist Cognisess as their first partner, whose role will be “to help transform the way it recruits and evaluates its staff.” Havas Media Labs defines its own role as being “to use technology to solve clients’ brand and business problems, adding a future-proofing layer to their consumer understanding and communications,” offering long-term solutions rather than short-term fixes. To accomplish this they will collaborate with Tech City start-ups through a partnership with Three Beards.Havas Media CEO Paul Frampton said, “We’re extremely excited to be launching Havas Media Labs, a unique initiative which will offer clients new ways to connect with consumers that draws on cutting edge developments in the use of data and content to create intelligent campaigns. The agile culture of Tech City has been permeating our industry for some time now, and with the launch of the Labs we look forward to harnessing this ethos throughout our partnership work.”
“We are excited to be working with Havas Media -it is an ideal partner as we start to better understand and change the way agencies manage their most important asset – people,” added Cognisess CEO Chris Butt. “We share Havas Media’s meaningful brands strategy as it matches our desire, through the use of neuroscience and big data, to find more meaningful ways of understanding employees and consumers.”