Following on from Sir Martin Sorrell’s recent swipe at the $35 billion mega-merger of Publicis and Omnicom, Havas CEO David Jones has weighed in by stating either would have better spent on an investment in internet businesses such as Instagram, Twitter or Tumblr.
Jones said Havas needs to have scale in the current climate and said he believes the future of the industry and his company is digital.
“In today’s world in our industry you need to be a global company, but there is a size and scale at which you become too big to change,” Jones told The Telegraph in the UK.
"My single biggest focus is digitising our business globally. That is number one because it is very easy to grow in digital and slow [down] in traditional advertising," he added.
Jones went to say that his whole focus is to getting Havas to act like a “smaller, more entrepreneurial, more dynamic, more agile business, not a bigger one”.
“People might say I’m just jealous, but I say, 'No, if I had that kind of money I’d be looking to buy something like Instagram or Twitter or Tumblr because I think that is where the game is changing,” added Jones.
He also said that the merger “was orchestrated and happened in Paris so it looked like the French had the upper hand, but in two years the power will all be in New York”.
”Do I think it will be a disaster? Not at all, but there will be talent and clients dropping out so there are opportunities for the rest of us, too.
