‘From the heart to the heart’
French advertising giant and Havas director Jacques Seguela tells Neil King why Middle East creatives should be creating the advertising of the future
Advertising legend and Havas director Jacques Seguela says love is the answer for the Middle East marketing industry.
‘‘ARAB CULTURE, MUSIC, LITERATURE, CINEMA – IT ALL GOES FROM THE HEART. SO HOW CAN ARAB ADVERTISING GO FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE THAN THE HEART?’’
F or French advertising legend and Havas director Jacques Seguela, love is definitely the answer.
On a recent visit to Dubai, the octogenarian ad-man tells Campaign that love – more specifically, the heart – is how the Middle East can take the lead in global communications, especially with other regions around the world being stifled by political challenges and limiting mindsets.
“Now is the time for the Middle East in communications,” says Havas’s former chief communications officer, chief creative officer and vice president as we discuss the potential of the region’s creative industries.
“The United States chose America First; Europe with Brexit is in dire straits; Africa is not yet mature; and China is strong but staying at the same place.
“There are three types of advertising in the world. British goes from the head to touch the heart – it’s always intellectual. Latin advertising goes from the heart to the head – always too emotional. And the American advertising goes from the head to touch on the wallet. It’s very materialistic.”
The road ahead, he argues, is therefore paved for the Arab world.
“The advertising of the future – and the UAE and Middle East should be inventing it – needs to go from the heart to touch the heart.
“Arab culture, music, literature, cinema – it all goes from the heart. So how can Arab advertising go from somewhere else than the heart?
“It’s only the beginning and it’s now the time. They will never be better than the Americans in materialistic advertising, nowhere better than the British for humour. They need to be specialists of the heart, of love.”
With more than 50 years in the advertising industry, Seguela is well placed to predict how events might play out in the years ahead. Indeed, throughout his career he’s been well placed to strongly influence them, having launched Roux-Seguela in 1970. It later became RSCG, and then Euro RSCG after a merger with Eurocom – a subsidiary of Havas – in 1991. Eventually, in 2012, the brand was renamed as Havas Worldwide.
In the past half century his impact has been undeniable, not least in the political arena. Seguela is credited as having been directly or indirectly responsible for the successful election campaigns of numerous world leaders. Chief among these premiers is former French President Francois Mitterrand, who Seguela helped to victory in his 1981 and 1988 election campaigns.
More recently he has been part of a different type of legacy; that of Havas’s Village model, which the company brought to Dubai in 2015 as part of its gradual global roll- out. The model sees all Havas divisions brought together in one community in a bid to offer a united front, with greater efficiency and cooperation.
And the concept took on extra impetus following media conglomerate Vivendi’s $2.5bn acquisition of 60 per cent of Havas in 2017 – a deal described at the time by Vivendi CEO Arnaud de Puyfontaine as “a major milestone in our drive to build a global leader in content, media and communication”.
“We joined forces with Vivendi to create the first agency of the future – the content agency. We’re passing from the container to the content,” explains Seguela.
“We created 62 Villages in the world, and one of them is here. They unite media and creativity. It’s irrational to have your media in an agency and your creative in another agency that will compete and wage war against each other. Today’s efficiency is to fuse both together.”
But while that particular war may have been averted, there is another that Seguela believes is raging in the communications world.
“There’s the side that is choosing technology, such as WPP and Publicis, and there’s the side that is choosing creativity, such as Omnicom with the three most beautiful agencies in the world – DDB, BBDO and TBWA – and Havas,” he says.
“What do brands need today? They need to make a difference. Technology doesn’t make a difference. It’s wonderful because of its targeting capabilities, with a better ROI and efficiency, but it doesn’t seduce.
“Everybody says the new media is data – that data is the new media. That’s wrong. The new media is the idea. Data without an idea is like a gun without bullets. Tech without affect is the death of humankind. And tech without ideas is the death of advertising.”
And as our conversation draws to an end, it’s on the theme of ‘ideas’ that Seguela offers his single piece of advice for young advertisers in the region.
“Advertising has been, is, and will remain to be about having an idea,” he says.
“The only advice I can give is have ideas or change jobs.”