The Campaign

For inspiration, we looked to our context: advertising award shows. Ad people love to take themselves seriously – and no more so than when they’re chasing after awards. But award shows are also when the industry bares all: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the downright weird. And that provided us the perfect opportunity to poke fun at ourselves. Our idea: The Havas Gazette. A satirical newspaper, produced in-house, and distributed on-site at the Havas Café. The Gazette took aim at the ad industry and all its funny, strange and surreal behaviours. Coffee and a thought-provoking newspaper – what could be better?

Creative Execution

The Gazette was designed and produced entirely in-house. All articles were written from scratch, with drafts being prepared several weeks in advance. We researched the current crop of buzzwords and industry trends, and then set our sights on them – in anticipation of these topics getting airplay at Spikes. To make sure the final product felt as authentic as possible, great care and attention was put into the editorial layout, type styles and paper stock. The Gazette masthead was styled after the French daily, Le Monde – as a tip of the hat to the origins of Havas in the French newspaper industry. We also arranged for real ad placements to mimic as closely as possible the content of industry publications. The Gazette was published each morning over the three days of the festival, and distributed for free from the Havas Café. Our print run was approximately 500 per day.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Despite reports to the contrary, it seems the ad industry does have a sense of humour after all. The Gazette was very well received by ad folks, as well as our peers in the real publishing industry – with the paper being featured in other industry organs such as Campaign Asia. The goal was to use our presence at Spikes to lift the profile of the Havas brand in a cluttered media environment, while our larger competitors were also vying for attention in the same space. The Havas Gazette became one of the highlights of the event and a true crowd-pleaser. In conjunction with the Havas Café, we helped make Havas one of the most talked-about agency brands on social media during the Spikes festival.

Our target audience were all the delegates attending the festival, including representatives from every major agency in the region, as well as clients, media and production partners. Spikes Asia is attended by approximately 2000 delegates from 30 different countries. Our goal was for the café to become the most vibrant destination within the conference hall, as well as the most talked-about experience at the festival. While footfall at the café was a tangible sign of popularity, at the same time we were looking for online impressions as evidence of our overall PR success. The satirical nature of the Gazette also helped us create a distinctive voice for our brand. While many of our competitors were reporting on the festival in an earnest and straightforward manner, our content offered an irreverent and light-hearted counterpoint to their ‘serious journalism’.