Havas Culture Stretches Across the Globe
Some of the best parts of the Havas culture can be found in Frankfurt, as it is a very sociable and team-oriented group. Below are a few of the best things that stand out in my mind from my 4 weeks in Frankfurt.
Hard-working People doing Great Work
While I’ve been here, I had the opportunity to meet with people from all different specialties / middle office teams including Socialyse, Mobext, Affiperf, Content and Analytics. I also sat with the Forward team, a group solely dedicated to the Telefonica account (a large Telecom company here in Europe) that does some creative things in OOH. Most recently, they won an industry award for the Best Media Idea in a Public Space for the O2 Gaming Traffic Light.
In the digital space, Telefonica was one of the first teams worldwide to start using Havas’ new Client Trading Solution, and they are working pretty heavily with most of the internal teams.
Aside from some of the more granular similarities and differences, media is media no matter where you are in the world and it’s nice to share this common understanding with international counterparts across the globe.
Always learning, evolving, and striving to be Better Together
The HM International team has done a great job of pushing their clients to be more programmatic and digital, and educating them on the right ways to do it. This month, I was able to help create a strategic proposal for one client to shift to a heavy digital media plan for their upcoming campaign, with more advanced targeting and a personalized creative approach. We crafted a strong story to make the case for why they need to go in this direction and to showcase all the great things Havas can offer.
The team here in Frankfurt is always trying to learn from others and evolve the way things are done, which will keep our clients happy and keep us at the forefront of the industry.
Some differences I have seen so far, that other offices can learn from, are that they have a multi-faceted Socialyse team that not only handles paid social, but also community management, influencer programs, and content creation. They recently spun off the content group into a dedicated Havas Content team, which also manages branded content programs for clients. I think this would be a great addition to most offices, especially in the US, where branded content is such a hot topic for most clients.
Many people here were interested in learning about the way things are done in another office, and to continue to evolve the way things are done in Frankfurt, so I had a number of great conversations about this with different teams. There is a strong global mindset here, which will only help Havas become a stronger force worldwide!
One team, one dream!
Everyone is extremely team-oriented in the Frankfurt office. For example, getting coffee and lunch together as a team is a regular thing.
There is one team that gets coffee together every morning, and always brings a cup back if someone is unable to make it. I also got the chance to have lunch with a few different teams, as they often make an effort to leave the office and sit outside to eat as much as possible. Too many of us in NY are eating quickly at our own desks when we’re busy (including myself), so we should make the effort to go outside more and enjoy the fresh air!
Thanks again to everyone in Frankfurt for being such great hosts! That includes my coach, Henrik, and the rest of the HMI team who I worked with and got to spend some time with outside of work (Christina, Paul, Xu, Felix, Alba, Rebecca, Nina, Nathalie, Julia, Franzi, and more). Also Sabine and Christina in HR, and all the other teams who let me sit in with them for a day!
Danke für alles, und ich werde euch alle vermissen!
