“It was a unique opportunity for us to bring [a] A new proposal in the game, ”said Peter Mears, CEO of Havas Media Network, in Digiday.

Why did Horizon and Havas unite their strengths?

The American market is important for Hava – 33.8% of its income (925 million euros, or $ 1.08 billion) came from North America in 2024, according to its annual report. But compared to their holding company, peers, Havas and the horizon are snappeurs swimming among the whales. Since Omnicom and Intepublic are a few weeks to forge the largest advertising group in the world, it is not a comfortable position in which to be.

At the same time, the president of Horizon Holdings Bob Lord and Mears said that there was an current opportunity for agencies in the right place. WPP problems never stop, international Denta activities are on the auction block and customers can be struggling with attention. “We believe we are going to become, […] Hopefully the favorite choice of these great marketing specialists who want a culture of transparency, less bureaucracy, less complexity, “said Lord.

These marketing specialists, noted that the founder of Madison and Wall, Brian Wieser, is likely to sit in a “close profile” – companies mainly occupied by the American market, but with a sufficiently large international presence of which they need an agency that extends through borders. “In this case, Horizon has a better chance of gaining business, and Havas obtains an additional volume,” he noted.

Steve Boehler, president of the Mercer Island group consulting company, agreed: “It is an intelligent idea to better compete for global customers based in the United States of a certain scale. If you may spend $ 100 million worldwide, and largely in the United States, this provides an alternative to giant Holdcos. ”

Havas and Horizon also praise the effect of their team on their respective AI capabilities. Both exploit their own AI – Horizon platforms is called Blu, while Havas converged. American customers of the new company will have access to a double decker version of these platforms, nicknamed Bluconverged.

“The Havas will considerably benefit from the Horizon Blu platform, as converged as a marketing operating system is just over a year old, and relatively emerging from the rest of the category,” noted the vice-president of Forrester and agency analyst Jay Pattisall in an email.

Under the hood on Havas and Horizon’s Alliance

Horizon Global will only work in the United States on global accounts led by Lord as an acting CEO, and Renata Spackova, based in Paris, as a global COO. The board of directors of the joint venture will include Mears, CEO and founder of Horizon Bill Koenigsberg, CEO and president of Havas, Yannick Bolloré. Horizon and Havas will each hold 50% of the new company.

The staff will be drawn Both in Horizon and Havas on an account base by account, Lord said.

Elsewhere, Horizon and Havas Media will operate independently and even compete with others for national American customers. Mears left the door open to future collaborations with Havas’ creative agencies, for American customers who extend in international markets. “We expect there to be an opportunity for a global horizon to strengthen certain creative capacities, so we hope and we would wait for this to take place via Havas Creative Network,” he said.

Contreprises are a lower form of transaction in marketing. They are often reserved for situations where a market holder sees advantages to bring an international foot -free operator to the ground, as with Japan TBWA \ Hakuhodo or Havas Gimc in China. In a sense, this is what happened here – with established horizon taking Havas hand.

An edifying story can be found in the local planet, an assembly of agencies formed in 2016, of which Horizon was – and is always – a stakeholder. The idea was to bring together, but not sewing together, agencies around the world to create a global network. In the end, said a consultant who spoke under the guise of anonymity, this never represented much.

The local planet, “has always been positioned as the best of both worlds, providing this global network, but it was ultimately made up of numerous independent agencies,” they said. “The problem is that customers ended up having to pay for a very inflated management layer that was sitting on top, and all the agencies had their own P&L panels, and they are all very independent. It has never really gathered a lot of steam with customers.”

“Contreprises rarely are worth the document on which they are written”

Global horizon aims to be different. But success will depend on how its constituent teams are able to make customers gelin. “Partnerships do not work for everyone. They do not feel enough connected for certain customers, ”said Boehler. “If it appears to be transparent and seems transparent, then it can work. If it appears as” Oh, I now have two agencies that I have to deal with a billing base, on a basis of media operations, then it’s a lot of questions. “”

The consultant who spoke under the cover of anonymity noted: “Unless there is real skin in the game, [joint ventures] Rarely are worth the document on which they are written. »»

“”[It’s] The kind of thing where customers will have to take a risk, “said the consultant.” Will it not be as convincing as an omnicom-interpublique, a WPP or a publication, where you have an operating model, a way of working, all this pedigree and case studies and the experience of delivery actually on the scale. »»

Perhaps the group of agencies which should feel the most threatened by global horizon should be toast, itself in a state of transition. The assets of the company outside Japan are for sale, the investment capital buyers considered as the most likely suitors. It is difficult to win new cases, when your own business is an object of speculation.

The consultant noted that Dentsu should be the largest beneficiary of customers leaving the “three big” because they were not large enough to attract the attention of these Holdcos teams.

Now, it seems that the combined influence of a global horizon could offer a tempting alternative, especially while the Dentsu fate is suspended in the air. “Dentsu will look at this reflection:” I have not seen the one coming “,” said the consultant. “And they were probably rubbing their hands thinking that they could clean in the United States with these dissatisfied customers.”