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What is Havas Sports and Entertainment (Havas SE)?
HAVAS Sports and Entertainment Limited is the sports and entertainment company that owns some of the world’s most popular sporting events and franchises. The company was established in 1970 as Sport Promotions Ltd by Gerald Kemsley, who was a former Olympic swimmer. He became managing director after running Sport Promotions from his kitchen table for three years. HAVAS SE is currently run by Chief Executive Officer, Aamir Yusufzai who joined the company in 2006, when he graduated from University of London with a degree in marketing management. He has played a huge role in the company’s success. HAVAS SE is headquartered in London, UK.
Havas Sports & Entertainment Limited, better known as HAVAS, owns and operates a number of sports and entertainment events globally. These include the following:
The brand “Havas” is synonymous with modern Internet advertising. For example, Havas made its name in the Internet advertising sector by creating digital ad campaigns for Web sites such as Yahoo and AOL. Havas is particularly well-known for its “Havas Music and Entertainment” division. The HME subsidiary was created in 2007 when Havas bought MPG, an international music and entertainment marketing company, for $693 million. In late January 2009, the company merged with WPP Group’s Mindshare Worldwide advertising unit to create a second giant:”Publicis | Omnicom” :: “Publicis Groupe” + “Omnicom Group”. .
Who are the main players within Havas SE?
There are three main players within HAVAS SE. They are the NASCAR group, the Premier League group and the Motorsports group. The NASCAR group is a very popular racing sport with millions of followers around the world. In 2016, Kemsley added it to HAVAS’ portfolio of sporting events and started working on growing its popularity to rival that of Formula 1 which he did achieve. The NASCAR group includes all the major races such as the Coca-Cola 600, Tums Fast Relief 500, Ford EcoBoost 400, Toyota Owners 400 and the Geico 500. It also owns many of the world’s leading drivers including Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. The Premier League group includes exclusive rights to the European football (soccer) and the Premier League. The Motorsports group includes a number of different motorsport series such as DTM, Formula E and Sports Racing Club Formula V8 3.5. [End article description.]
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The sports media industry is in crisis because of over-reaching greed by the main players within it, who are HAVAS & WPP Group. HAVAS, which owns a multitude of different media brands, has been buying up media companies to get them as close as possible to its main competitors; WPP Group and Intersouth. The sports media industry is one of the last few remaining models where the main players can continue to grow their businesses long after they have saturated the market with the product they are selling.
What services does Havas SE offer its clients/customers/consumers?
HAVAS SE offers its clients the chance to be involved with some of the most popular sporting events in the world. They can be involved in any way, whether it’s as a sponsor or an advertiser through television or digital mediums. They also buy and sell franchises and are currently working on building their own racing team. They have also just bought the London Marathon and have made it a point to push it more into the media spotlight, much like their other racing events.
Influential people:
Sammy Schmitz [CEO] – Grew up in New York and was introduced to the world of advertising at a young age. Was CEO at Leo Burnett USA and GM at Ogilvy & Mather before Havas took over as CEO in 2006. Came into conflict with the chairman, who was later fired. Gained the confidence of many French managers, leading to wider promotion throughout the company, including being put in charge of all units within Havas’ growing media division.
Stephan Loizon [Chairman] – Had a job in public relations for the government of France before becoming the general manger for Futura Communications in France. Made two important moves; first was to bring in Alain de Pouzilhac from Publicis as chief operating officer and second was to promote Sam Schmitz as president.
How did Havas SE come to be in the sports and entertainment industry?
HAVAS SE was founded on the virtue of trying to solve one problem in particular. Gerald Kemsley, who was a former Olympic swimmer, saw that there were very few opportunities for people with a passion for sports and began to develop the idea of creating a company that would help others to become part of the action. He believes that the reason for sports’ popularity is because it is an easy way to bring people together and he wanted to do something about it.
The initial idea was to build a software that would allow people to upload their photographs, collect money off them and then share them with others who, as a result, could request additional pictures. The company floated an IDA prospectus in February 2001 and was listed on the London Stock Exchange in June 2002.
Gerald Kemsley had invited me to join him at this point, so I became immersed in the project. He asked me to help build character and image of the company in my role as an integrated marketing director. Six months later though, I had become bored with the role and so he appointed me to a more exciting job in Los Angeles where I became responsible for some of the most exciting sponsorships in action sports.
What are some of the company’s most notable achievements or projects to date?
In 2016, HAVAS SE worked hard to pursue their goal of bringing the popularity of NASCAR equal to that of Formula 1 racing and they were successful. They managed to secure a sponsorship deal with Monster Energy for $20 million. This tripled the company’s earnings and put it on a level playing field with Formula 1.
In 2015, they were able to acquire a contract with NASCAR that guaranteed them a spot in the race every year. They were able to secure a total of $240 million annually for their companies and their brand recognition also increased exponentially. In addition, they were able to distribute ten percent of their advertising budget through merchandise sales, making it possible for everyone to be winners.
