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 UK 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, optimisation 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.