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Havas acquires Mumbai-based digital marketing agency PivotRoots
Mumbai: Havas has announced the acquisition of PivotRoots, one of India’s leading digital marketing and communications agencies. The network’s latest acquisition comes at a time when Havas Media India is experiencing a period of impressive growth and represents Havas’ commitment to positioning the network for expansion in this key market.
Launched in 2016 by co-founders Shibu Shivanandan, Hetal Khalsa, Dhruvi Joshi, and Yogesh Khanchandani, PivotRoots is one of the fastest-growing marketing and communications agencies, providing cutting-edge solutions to clients across a wide range of industries in India and the UAE. PivotRoots has worked with brands like Amazon Prime Video, Swiggy, Hindustan Unilever, Disney, Bisleri, Medlife, Urban Company, among others. Being a fully integrated agency, PivotRoots is a leading provider of solutions in brand and performance marketing, UI/UX, digital content creation, and marketing technology through its recently launched division PivotConsult.
The acquisition will allow Havas Media India to tap into PivotRoots’ deep understanding of the Indian market and enhance its capabilities in the rapidly growing digital advertising space. By combining PivotRoots’ local expertise with the group’s global resources, PivotRoots will be able to deliver best-in-class digital marketing solutions at scale.
The addition of PivotRoots strengthens HMGI’s powerful roster of agencies and specialized divisions which includes media networks Havas Media and Arena Media; specialist brands Havas Market, Havas Programmatic Hub, Havas Analytics, Socialyse, and Havas Media Tribes; and the recently launched global offering, Havas Play. PivotRoots’ state-of-art digital capabilities, supplemented with Havas Media’s meaningful media experiences (Mx) approach will allow HMGI to offer a unique audience-first data-driven solution to the clients. This acquisition not only bolsters Havas’ position in the industry but also demonstrates the company’s commitment to staying ahead of the competition by investing in cutting-edge technologies and innovative strategies.
“We are thrilled to welcome PivotRoots to the Havas family,” said Vivendi chairman, and Havas chairman & CEO Yannick Bolloré. “The acquisition is part of our broader strategy to expand our presence in lighthouse markets around the world. With a global network that spans over 100 countries, Havas is well-positioned to help clients reach audiences wherever they are.”
Bolloré elaborated, “We see tremendous potential in India, and we are committed to investing in actions and efforts that help us actualize and leverage this potential meaningfully. This acquisition will further strengthen not only Havas Media India’s and Havas India’s position in the country where PivotRoots primarily operates, which is one of the fastest-growing digital advertising markets in the world, but also add a specialized edge to Havas Media Network, and to Havas as a whole.”
PivotRoots founder and managing director Shibu Shivanandan said, “We are excited to be part of Havas Media India. We share a common vision for the future of advertising, and by combining our expertise and talent we can deliver better solutions, services and results to our clients. We are proud of what we have achieved at PivotRoots so far, and we look forward to the next chapter in our journey.”
“I’m delighted to welcome Shibu and the PivotRoots team to the Havas family,” said Havas India CEO Rana Barua. He further added, “This acquisition comes at an extremely interesting time for Havas India, which has undergone a complete transformation in recent years and has seen unprecedented growth and success. The addition of PivotRoots and their capabilities, advanced analytics and technology, and a new perspective on creativity and innovation distinguishes Havas Media India in the industry in meeting the evolving needs of its clients and succeeding in an increasingly competitive and extremely dynamic market.”
NATIONAL: Amazon Ads has laid out a sharply tech-led vision for the advertising industry in 2026, arguing that artificial intelligence, streaming TV and creator partnerships will combine to turn brand building into a more precise, performance-driven business.
At the heart of the shift, the company says, is the fusion of AI with Amazon’s vast trove of shopping, browsing and streaming signals, allowing advertisers to move beyond blunt reach metrics to campaigns designed around real customer behaviour.
“The future of advertising is not about reaching more people, but the right people with messages that resonate,” said Amazon Ads India head and vice president Girish Prabhu. “By combining AI with deep customer insights, we help brands move from broadcasting campaigns to having meaningful conversations wherever audiences spend their time.”
One of the biggest changes, according to Amazon Ads, will be the collapse of the wall between media planning and creative development. Retail media, powered by first-party data, is increasingly shaping everything from brand discovery to final purchase, pushing marketers to design campaigns around audience insight rather than internal instinct.
AI is also moving from a support tool to a creative engine. Agentic AI, which automates and accelerates production, is expected to make high-quality creative accessible even to small businesses, compressing weeks of work into hours and giving challengers the ability to compete with larger brands on speed and scale.
Behind the scenes, AI-driven analytics will take on a bigger role in campaign optimisation, identifying patterns, spotting opportunities and recommending actions that would previously have required teams of analysts.
Streaming TV is another big battleground. With India’s video streaming audience now above 600 million and connected TV users at 129.2 million in 2025, advertisers are set to treat streaming not just as a branding channel but as a performance engine, measured increasingly by sales, sign-ups and bookings rather than just reach.
Finally, Amazon Ads sees creators and contextual advertising reshaping how brands tell stories. Creators will act less like influencers and more like long-term partners, while scene-aware ads on streaming platforms will allow brands to insert hyper-relevant offers into the flow of what viewers are watching.
Taken together, Amazon Ads argues, these shifts mark a move towards advertising that is both more human and more measurable, where AI handles the complexity, and creativity does the persuading.
