Empire State of Mind
As a Senior Project Manager I got really excited when I was chosen for Havas Lofts, and as a Frenchy I was thrilled to go to New York City. It’s been a week (already) that I’m on the other side of the Atlantic, and it has been a terrific journey!
My departure was kind of scary as I had the pleasure to met the US Marshall in Paris before boarding. Nice guy, with his tiny notebook (so cliché), trying to know me better than my mom. Well I must have done well as I finally went through :)
Kips Bay in Manhattan — that would be my new home address for the next month! Not bad at all (thank you Global Team), even on the 8th floor with all the noise from the street (welcome to the city that never sleeps). Of course, my first move was to run to the rooftop to see the view. Breathtaking!
Come on in
Obviously I did not come here as a tourist (although…) but to learn, to exchange, to network, to meet my American colleagues.
I was kind of nervous on Monday morning… it reminds me of my first day at Havas 3 years ago, except everything is brand new… from your breakfast to the subway to commute to work, and that’s exciting!
For the unlucky one whom never went to the NY office, I’m warning you… it would blow your mind (especially coming from Puteaux, Havas Paris Village)!
Located in the heart of Tribeca in a 10 floors building (only the first 8 are leased by the Group, Havas Media has the 3rd and 4th, Havas WW NY the 5th to the 8th. An architecture firm and a small agency complete the building for the most curious ones). Designed and conceived by architects to facilitate communication and creativity of course… what’s else? as George would say
For a Putoélien (Paris office is located in Puteaux, a city nearby actually) the NY office flies! Concrete floors, wood and glasses as walls, huge windows, high ceilings, etc. It looks like I’m on page 47 of Ikea catalog. A lot of meeting rooms (and I mean a lot) where you can have meetings, call your clients or just work on something in a peaceful & cosy way!
In the end, only the open spaces look like the ones we have in France… grey carpet with many whites desks, where everyone is at “the same level”: no closed area even for the bosses! Everyone should be (and is) accessible.
Creativity at heart
Cake is located on the third floor.
If you are patient enough you can do the line up (people are really lining up to get into the elevator… so interesting for a French to watch) and take the elevators or take the stairs for the most impatient! And I thought that our elevators in Paris were the slowest on earth… until now! 87 seconds of wait on average! Grab a snack, read your newsfeed and start doing your grocery list… you have plenty of time :)
Actually before I go further I’d like to take the time (elevators wouldn’t mind) and describe the elevator as one of the first “rooms” you visit when entering the building! There are three, they look good, mirrors all over them, perfect to check your morning face before your weekly meeting, especially when you are jet-lagged and about to meet an entire team waiting for you! But most of all this specific area has been designed (except for their speed obviously) on purpose. Music will help you wait (I have a preference for the 2nd floor where it plays soul music) — and forget about the arrow buttons showing you the way (so 80's), but look at the light on the top of it!
If it’s red you’re going to hell so you’re going down, if it’s white you’re going to heaven so you’re going up! Basically going to work every day is paradise :) Damn it, it is well-thought! And I don’t even talk about the lights mood in the waiting space that turn your skin violet… (let’s hope you are not under Proactiv Solutions).
Parentheses closed! On the third floor and on the same open space, are gathered Cake team (around 35 people), Ignition/HSE (6 people) Socialyse (8 to 10 people), Mobext, the New Business team (6 people) and the Havas Media executives.
Stay hungry my friend
One of the most famous rooms within the entire building is the “magic kitchen” located on Cake’s floor. It is a huge, fully-equipped kitchen at everyone’s disposal. For the gourmands (whom I’m a part of) it’s a real dilemma every day, since it offers the choice between fresh fruits, cereals, energy bars or cookies and other sweets (damn you Skittles!). Here, even the mugs and glasses are corporately stamped Havas.
Since there is no “cantine”, the employees can bring their lunch break from home or go to the 5th floor where, every day, a restaurant or vendor offers fresh produce (a kind of local food truck somehow). The area also offers good options. No eating at the desks, but fortunately there are long bar tables and several small rooms where people eat and enjoy taking “breaks”. Note the brackets are important here, because Americans don’t take breaks. Or at least smoking breaks like French always do. They start work at 9.30am and finish around 6 or 6.30pm.
Business is business
Let’s talk about business… because the form is pretty nice (as I mentioned) but content is key!
Cake is specialized in social media content. They work on “news” (daily work for a client through social media like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest but not only) and on “features” (bigger projects like events, films, stunts…).
They are young, hungry and nimble! As we are back home :)
Divided in 4 teams: Strategy&Analyst/Account/Creative/Production… and managed by a female duo (a head of content & a head of global strategy).
What surprised me is that most of the team is new at Havas. They have been recently hired to join the wolf pack. Indeed Cake is evolving and growing in terms of manpower, going from 12 to 35 persons within 18 months. They must do pretty well :)
Fun fact - no phone is ringing in the entire floor. None! Everything is done by email or dealt with by mobile. It is quite relaxing as sometimes you could feel like being in a customer service call center in Paris when it’s rush hour.
They have a project meeting every Monday morning at 9.30am and an editorial meeting every Wednesday to share what people talk about and what’s going on on social media. The heart of what they do actually… making people talk about brands. This week the World Series (let’s go Mets!) and Halloween for most of it!
Every Thursday, the Village organizes “Bar 8” where everyone is invited to meet at the 8th floor for drinks. Of course, they don’t wait to see each other outside work for a late drink. On this matter, French and Americans look alike :)
Slowly but surely
From a personal point of view, this first week was full of surprises and I feel lucky I ended up at Havas New York and especially at Cake!
We (Lofters) have been greeted by the Global Talent Team but most of all we have been invited, with two new employees, to an introduction to Havas (2 hours of presentation of who we are, what we do, who are our partners, who are running the agency, etc). I’m not sure we do that back home, (at least I did not get that back in the days) but if not, we should start. It’s a great way to feel at home.
The Cake team also wears their colors proudly. I knew Americans were really into cheering for their sports teams and wearing their jerseys but I did not expect to see so many colleagues wearing Cake’s hoodies at work.
This journey has been a real blessing so far. I had the chance to meet many interesting people that I can’t wait to sit with to talk about business, to exchange ideas, and of course to introduce my agency and to see if there is any synergy possible between us.
A Havas Village across continents… That would be a nice thing to witness…
