Havas PR North America, part of publicly-held Havas, is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its founding as Creamer Dickson Basford by donating $400,000 of PR professional time to pro bono work in the year to March 1, 2017.
The program was announced by Marian Salzman, CEO of Havas PR North America.
|
|
Each Havas North American office will provide pro bono help to organizations in the respective city or region.
The New York office will work with the Bob Woodruff Foundation which helps injured veterans, service members and their families.
The Phoenix team will work with Tucson Values Teachers and the Pittsburgh office will work with New Sun Rising which supports leaders of social enterprises and community projects to create local, sustainable and measurable impact.
Havas/Pittsburgh will also work with the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and other local citizens’ groups.
“This is a landmark year in an extremely exciting time for Havas PR,” said Salzman. “We’re so proud to lean in to our charitable culture with our pledge of ‘$400K for 40’—and I’m excited to engage this group in the initiative, knowing that every member of the Havas North America team will throw themselves into the efforts wholeheartedly.”
PR Group Launched as CDB in 1976
The PR group was launched in 1976 as Creamer Dickson Basford and over the years segued to Kratz & Jensen, Magnet, Euro RSCG Worldwide and currently to Havas PR.
It has been identified with many PR firsts and innovations, said Salzman, including her own popularization of the “metrosexual man” more than a decade ago. RSCG used ithe term in conducting a marketing study in the early 2000’s.
The Metrosexual is defined as a single young man with a high disposable income, living or working in the city because that's where all the best shops are. He is said to be perhaps the most promising consumer market of the decade. In the eighties he was only to be found inside fashion magazines such as Gentleman’s Quarterly. In the nineties, he’s everywhere and he's going shopping, said WP.
|
|
The agency has long held the belief that “local is the new global,” she said. Salzman and the Havas staff are authoring Agile Public Relations which will be published by AMACOM before Christmas.
“We’re newscrafters and buzz builders who launch and nurture brands that people admire, adore and emulate,” she said.
Havas PR North America has won more than 375 honors in the past seven years and is one of the most honored agencies in its size category, she said.
Salzman will be jury chair this spring for Design & Art Direction for Jacques Seguela, one of the Havas founders. D&AD is the U.K. charity that promotes excellence in design. She will also be a judge for the BBC’s One Show PR industry awards.
Havas Net Grew 22.7% in 2015
Havas reported a 22.7% gain in net income in 2015 to euro 172 million. Revenues were euro 2.188 million and reflected organic growth of 5.1% and unadjusted growth of 17.3%.
CEO Yannick Bollore said, “2015 was another record year for the Group which once again posted one of the strongest performances in the industry. We delivered growth in all our regions, increase income from operations margin by an additional 30 basis points to 14.4% and maintained a strong balance sheet to support our future growth.”
Havas continued to implement its “collaboration and integration strategy” by creating 37 “Havas Villages” around the world that “bring creativity, media and innovation under a single shared roof.” Opening in 2015 were villages in Bangkok, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Manchester, Mumbai, Phnom Penh, Reunion, Seoul, Laos and Myanmar.
The Group produced nearly 120 pro bono campaigns representing 2,800 working days by the teams involved. It won a total of 1,100 awards in 2015 including those from the Canes Lions (International Festival of Creativity); Clio Awards; D&AD; International Awards for Innovation; the AWARDS awards; Spikes Asia; Eurobest, FIAP, El Sol, El Ojo de IberoAmerican and at regional and national Effies.
Havas PR North America won Best Mid-Sized Agency for Corporate Reputation and Good Works, Midsize Agency of the Year and Global Agency of the Year (Multinational Practice) at the Bulldog Awards.
DJE Holdings, parent of Edelman and Zeno, launches RUTH as an independent shop named after Ruth Edelman, mental health advocate, wife and longtime business partner of Dan Edelman.
New York City PR firms make up the largest slice of O'Dwyer's 147 firm overall ranking with 33 of 40 in the New York/New Jersey area either calling Manhattan their home or having a presence there.
Subject Matter+Kivvit, which joined forces in May, has rebranded as Avoq, an integrated shop with more than 200 professionals in Washington, New York, Asbury Park (NJ), Miami and Chicago.
While PR pros stationed at in-house comms. teams and those working for agencies share many of the same objectives, they also have markedly different top priorities, according to a recent report.
Edelman is cutting 240 employees or about four percent of its workforce to cope with the cooling down of the PR sector, according to a memo from CEO Richard Edelman.
Have a comment? Send it to 
No comments have been submitted for this story yet.