Havas Closes Struggling Multicultural Unit Totality

Havas is closing down Totality, the multicultural unit the company officially started in October 2011 and based at the New York office of Arnold Worldwide. A source familiar with the effort said that after trying to create a broader multicultural offering, Havas decided it would be better to integrate multicultural work in operating companies such as BETC-Euro-RSCG' class='directory_entry' title='Ad Age LookBook '>Euro RSCG and Arnold rather than add another layer. The person pointed out that agencies are increasingly integrating what used to often be separate services, such as digital and shopper marketing, and now perhaps Hispanic. Havas hired two Hispanic experts, Leo Olper and Mauricio Galvan, from Hispanic agencies Lapiz and Vidal Partnership, back in April 2010 to reinvent the company's foundering Euro Latino unit. Not much happened for the next 18 months, and last October the company announced Totality as a branded, multicultural offering. Messrs. Olper and Galvan became CEO and chief creative officer, respectively, and were joined by Alicia De Armas, who worked on Hispanic business at Euro RSCG, and Reginald Osborne, to spearhead African-American initiatives. Mr. Osborne also continued his existing role as senior VP-director of multicultural marketing at Arnold , where he led multicultural efforts for McDonald's. Totality has won little in the way of new business. For Ad Age 's annual Agency Report, Totality reported winning five new accounts between May 2011 and January 2012. Three were pro bono efforts, and two were local McDonald's assignments in Boston and Washington D.C. Only about half a dozen people worked at Totality, including the original four employees. Havas is believed to be discussing possible opportunities for Mr. Olper and Mr. Galvan within the company's agencies, but the pair are actively job hunting and hope to stay in New York and possibly join a new agency together. The source familiar with the matter said Arnold already has about 20 people who do multicultural work for agency clients, including McDonald's and Brown-Forman, and that a somewhat smaller number of people do multicultural work within Euro RSCG. General-market agencies have a growing interest in capturing their clients' Hispanic business, but often struggle, whether they try to set up a separate unit, as Havas did, or integrate the business within the agency, as Havas now intends to do. KBS&P tried to build up a separate multicultural unit called Ramona, but effectively closed it down in December 2012 after Ramona lost is main client, Tecate.

Havas Closes Struggling Multicultural Unit Totality

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