Arnold Furnace and Havas Worldwide’s recent strategic restructure sees the Havas Village grow

At the beginning of the year Havas undertook a strategic review of its operations and in particular its advertising businesses.

The purpose of this was two-fold. Firstly, to look at how it maximises its resources across the Havas Village to engender a much greater sharing of knowledge and expertise between Havas Worldwide and Arnold Furnace that would enhance the creative offer to clients. And secondly to make it more agile and profitable.

The outcome led to a restructure in both businesses. As part of that Arnold Furnace ECD Tom Spicer left the agency in April. Tim Green (above centre), ECD at Havas Worldwide, took on the duties of over-seeing creative at both agencies. Additionally James Wright (above right), who had taken on the Group MD role in January, moved into a broader group COO role to oversee operations and business strategy, in addition to continuing his MD duties with PR agency, Red Agency and Havas PR APAC, and the Melbourne creative agency, Havas Worldwide Melbourne.

Spicer (left) had overseen a very successful creative period for Arnold, which saw it pick up its first Webbies and AWARD Awards.

Says Anthony Gregorio (above left), group CEO, Havas Worldwide: “The body of work Tom and the agency produced under his watch speaks for itself. Tom’s very talented and great guy to have in any agency. Agencies though are under massive pressure to keep reinventing themselves to satisfy client needs and our own shareholders. This restructure is a direct result of our desire to stay relevant and competitive. We wish Tom the very best in his next role.”

Says Green: “I’m excited to be working on the Arnold Furnace roster of clients and building on the legacy of fine work that has been produced. I am looking forward to continuing the edginess of the creative thinking that has been the hallmark of the agency.”

Arnold Furnace is a key part of the Havas Village and since the restructure the Arnold brand has grown in revenue terms and had success on the new business front. This includes wins with Huawei Digital, DFAT Smartraveller and Ocean Spray. The agency also successfully defended the Sanofi account.

Overall the Havas Village continues to grow as it move towards even greater integration with all the Havas Group including Red Agency (PR and experiential) and Havas Media. In February the agencies moved to new office at 155 Clarence Street in the CBD, growing out of its previous home in North Sydney where the business was based for 22 years.

The move to the new premises aims to further foster the group’s new Village strategy, a global initiative to streamline Havas agencies to be more aggressive in integrating advertising, digital, PR and media to provide efficiencies for clients.