Havas Media Group chooses FreeWheel for media buying and management in the UK and France after competitive review

London, September 24, 2020 – Havas Media Group, part of the Havas Group, today announced the selection of FreeWheel’s Strata platform to power its media buying and management business in the U.K. and France.

Strata, FreeWheel’s campaign stewardship system, offers Havas a global platform that facilitates enterprise-wide consistency and provides comprehensive, end-to-end capabilities from media planning through activation, optimization and reconciliation.

Havas’s selection of FreeWheel comes after a competitive review of media buying platforms conducted last year. The decision to award the multi-year agreement was based on differentiating criteria, including the modular architecture of FreeWheel’s platform, which allows seamless API connections with key execution platforms including data, financial and internal agency systems. The modular principle applies particularly well to a global network such as Havas, where the platform can be tailored locally, at a market level. As such, it is well-suited to meet Havas’ needs in EMEA and beyond.

“Today’s media landscape is incredibly fast-changing and dynamic, so we sought a technology partner with a strong track record for innovation and a proven ability to deliver client results while staying ahead of the marketplace,” said Darren Todhunter, Chief Financial Officer, Havas Media Group. “FreeWheel impressed us with its ability to expertly adapt its portfolio of media buying and management solutions to address our range of client needs in different markets across the globe. We are very excited about working together, and we look forward to this partnership.”

“From the start, we found great synergy in what Havas was looking for in a technology partner and what we could provide,” said Andrew Perry, Head of Commercial, FreeWheel. “Havas’s business is global and complex and so, they needed a technology company that had expertise creating innovative solutions for clients on both a regional and worldwide level, while taking into account local market and large-scale industry trends and factors. This connection between what Havas was looking for and our expertise in this space is a powerful one and we are very excited to be working together.”

The two companies have been working on a phased deployment of the software that went live in France late last year and that launched in the UK in Q1 2020.

About Havas Media Group

Havas Media Group agencies are home to more than 10,000 specialists and are the most dynamic and advanced in their markets. Our teams offer best-in-class services in the fields of programmatic buying, mobile, data consulting, performance marketing, out of home and geo-local, and social media across 150 countries worldwide. We believe that more Meaningful Media can help build more Meaningful Brands.

For more information, visit havasmedia.com or follow Havas Media Group on Twitter (@HavasMedia).

About FreeWheel

FreeWheel, A Comcast Company, empowers all segments of The New TV Ecosystem. We are structured to provide the full breadth of solutions the advertising industry needs to achieve their goals. We provide the technology, data enablement, and convergent marketplaces required to ensure buyers and sellers can transact across all screens, across all data types, and all sales channels, in order to ensure the ultimate goal – results for marketers.

With offices in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, London, Paris, Beijing, and across the globe, FreeWheel, A Comcast Company, stands to advocate for the entire industry through the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. For more information, please visit www.freewheel.com,  and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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Media Contacts:

Havas:

Julia Conroy, julia@juliaconroy.co.uk, T: +44 (0)7748 067575

FreeWheel:

(London) James Fahy, GingerMay, James.fahy@teamgingermay.com, T: +44 (0)203 642 1124

(US) Elaine Wong, FreeWheel, elaine_wong@comcast.com, T: 929-388-9098