Miami: 305 Cafecitos Later
The clock is ticking
I can’t believe it’s almost time for me to say goodbye to la familia. These days among the media team of República Havas have been fascinating and enriching, as I get the chance to be involved in so many projects. Not only have I learned new technical skills, but I have also had a complete view of the life of an integrated agency — from social, to PR, to creative. Coming from the Paris office, I must say that this smaller and nimbler version of the Village creates an exciting place to work.
República x Havas
From an outsider’s perspective, you can tell the agency’s recent integration within the Havas network makes things a little bit different in terms of process and tools. For instance, the team I am with doesn’t benefit from the Polaris suite — yet; and when it comes the Mx System, just a few people have been exposed to it. So, it was interesting to share my experience with Mx on a recent pitch I did, while also briefly introducing them to Converged — they can’t wait to have a hand in!
However, the Meaningful Brands study is already a corner stone of their strategic recommendations, which really makes the difference during pitches.
Making a Meaningful Difference
One of the major takeaways of this experience is their integrated communication approach, which allows them to deliver consistent work and position themselves as key business partners of their clients. During my entire day immersion at the Sedano’s store opening, I could really see the full commitment of each entity at work and the benefits of having a seamless bespoke communication plan for the client.
From an organizational point of view, I was amazed to find the same ‘multi-skills approach’ as we have at Havas International Paris.
With a team of 5 people only, this means that each one of them must do everything — from strategic thinking, to buying, to campaigns trading. As a strategist, I really liked to get down to the nitty-gritty of setting up Facebook ads; something that I never do in my day-to-day work but has helped me to better understand the insights we could get from a clever UTM tracking plan, for example.
Media strategist
The downside of the situation is that the strategy team hardly serves the media team, as there is no strategist dedicated to them. This is the main difference from my home agency where every account team has its own strategist. I truly believe they would gain a lot if the strategy team was more involved and was working more closely with them.
However, being part of a multicultural agency has been enriching in terms of consumer understanding —e.g. how you uncover specifics insights on Hispanics living in the U.S. I’ve also learned new brainstorming technics and personæ building tips, which will be useful back in Paris.
As I start the last week of the program, I would like to thank the wonderful people of República Havas for their warm welcome and a special thanks to my hosts, Frances, Karen, Armani & Joel, without whom the experience would not have been as great!
PS: I’ll miss the amazing cafecitos too ☕
