Havas Group has acquired full-service ecommerce and Amazon consultancy Expert Edge to accelerate its global expansion of Havas Media Group’s full-service ecommerce agency Havas Market from the UK. The acquisition equips Havas Market with the tools to offer clients end-to-end support across their ecommerce ecosystem and positions the agency as ecommerce consultants that look beyond media.

Expert Edge brings to Havas Market specialist capabilities in strategic consulting and expert operational capabilities in ecommerce. The business has roots in supporting brands to grow their global revenues on Amazon. HMG clients will now have access to Expert Edge’s expertise in Data Insights & Reporting, Amazon Advertising PPC, Product Listing & SEO Boosting, Content Optimisation and DSP on Amazon to build out their ecommerce enterprise.

The acquisition strengthens HMG’s capabilities in providing a full-funnel suite of services across the ecommerce journey. These services include awareness and attention (traditional, digital and performance media) right through to sale (product, pricing, forecasting, organic, shops, logistics) and much more. Sitting within Havas Market, Expert Edge’s capabilities will operate from the UK and its services will be accessible to clients through the Havas network locally and globally.

Havas Market was launched in October 2020 to create more meaningful shopping experiences for consumers and drive meaningful growth for brands in commerce. Havas Market has since expanded to over 20 markets, most recently launching in Australia, India and Singapore in Q2 2022. Other offices include Madrid, New York, Paris and Santiago de Chile. It is also currently supported by over 2000 media performance specialists across the HMG network, working with the likes of Dreams, Pernod Ricard and JDE.

The acquisition follows the integration of digital experience agency Inviqa, awardwinning integrated digital agency and Google partner Search Laboratory and dynamic creative optimisation specialists additive+ into HMG UK in February, April and September this year respectively. Inviqa shapes digital experiences, products, processes, and culture, meanwhile Search Laboratory provides implementation, training and service support for Google’s suite of tools and additive+ brought dynamic creative optimisation into Havas Media Group for the first time.

Expert Edge was founded in 2016 by Alex Walker with David Jennison joining to lead and run the business in 2018. They previously worked together at Amazon where Jennison launched Amazon Global Selling and ran the marketplace business for Softlines before joining Expert Edge. In four years, Expert Edge has worked with over 100 brands, including Unilever, DASH and launch client, Tenzing, helping the drinks brand grow its Amazon sales revenue over 100% in both 2020 and 2021.

Jennison, who’ll become managing director of Havas Market as well as CEO of Expert Edge, said: “We have developed a powerful mix of technology, data analytics and commercial frameworks to deliver optimal growth strategy for brands on Amazon. While our origins are in Amazon, our capabilities, services and expertise are channel agnostic and malleable across categories and sale on any retail channel. Havas Media Group offers Expert Edge the opportunity to scale what we do best, and internationally, and that’s to transform approaches to ecommerce.”

All Expert Edge staff will move to HKX, the Havas Village in King’s Cross, London. Alex Walker becomes a Non-Executive Director and will continue to support David Jennison and the HMG team as a member of the board. David will report into Patrick Affleck and will join the Havas Media Group leadership team.

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About Havas Group

Havas is one of the world’s largest global communications groups. Founded in 1835 in Paris, the Group employs 22,000 people in more than 100 countries and operates through its three business units covering all communication activities. Havas Group’s mission is to make a meaningful difference to brands, businesses and people. To better anticipate client needs, Havas has adopted a fully integrated model through its 60+ Havas Villages around the world. In these Villages, creative, media and healthcare & wellness teams work together, ensuring agility and a seamless experience for clients. We are committed to building a diverse culture where everybody feels they belong, can be themselves, thrive and grow. Havas Group integrated into Vivendi in December 2017. Further information about Havas Group is available on the company’s website: havasgroup.com

#MeaningfulDifference

About Havas Media Group UK

Havas Media Group’s one of the largest advertising groups in the world, working with the likes of Dominos, O2, Legal & General, UMG and Starbucks.
Our overarching mission is to make a meaningful difference to the brands, businesses and lives of the people we work with. Working with our clients, our solution is simple: we identify, agree and deliver meaningful media experiences from the three practices within our Group:

• Havas Media – through which we deliver meaningful outcomes through meaningful media
• Havas Market – through which we help clients build meaningful retail experiences
• Havas Entertainment – through which we help clients create meaningful moments in culture.