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Havas Media Group and NewsCred form global partnership
MUMBAI: Havas Media Group is taking its content offering for its clients to a new level through a global partnership with NewsCred, content marketing platform. Through the partnership, Havas clients are able to boost their content marketing capabilities to engage with consumers with greater relevancy, increased consistency, better efficiency and higher returns, at every step of the consumer journey.
Brands need to become Publishers
Significantly, the deal enables Havas agencies and clients to have access to more than 5,000 leading publishers worldwide covering a variety of topics and dozens of languages. Publishers include the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, BBC, Billboard, Bloomberg, CNN, Daily Telegraph, The Economist, EPA, Evening Standard, Forbes, The Guardian, Gawker, The Independent, Nielsen, New York Magazine, Reuters, Shutterstock, WENN and many more covering 100 countries in different formats (text, pictures, videos, infographic and audio files).
This platform will be also enhanced by the exclusive partnership between Havas and Universal Music Group announced last month during CES 2015.
Creating a leading Content Publishing Platform
NewsCred’s cloud-based software, combined with Havas Media Group’s expertise and data analytics, gives clients access to an unrivalled and fully integrated management tool covering the complete content marketing value chain across all platforms: from content strategy and planning to production and validation through to content curation and publication.
This deal comes following nine months of collaboration between Havas and NewsCred with one goal – to produce a ground-breaking solution that simplifies and scales the entire content marketing process of each client.
The NewsCred software is also being used for Havas clients to enrich corporate websites and to create meaningful thematic sites. All agencies within the Havas group, including Havas Worldwide, Havas Healthcare, Arnold Worldwide and BETC have full access to this partnership and the deal has already resulted in more than a dozen commercial leads.
Content Amplification with Socialyse
Havas global social pure player Socialyse will integrate NewsCred’s software to further increase the relevancy of social campaigns and all Havas Social Newsrooms (currently located in London, NYC and Paris with further opening during 2015) are already integrating NewsCred and its management platforms to engage with audiences.
The partnership further facilitates social media monitoring, content performance tracking and audience engagement metrics, all of which are key to generating meaningful connections.
Havas Media Group global managing director Dominique Delport said that this New York start-up, its inspiring CEO and their 210 employees have created a simple way to understand how Havas can use content to build meaningful relationships with people.
“2015 is the year of content for Havas. This has been an incredible 9 months of working together and we are so pleased to formally add the team at NewsCred to our future. Brands need more relevancy and consistency than ever. Our partnership with NewsCred provides our clients with the sort of agility and speed that can mean the difference between success and failure,” Delport added.
NewsCred CEO and co-founder Shafqat Islam said that every brand has a story to tell and firmly believed that the brands that will win in the future are those that think of content as a strategic asset across their organisation. “We’re excited to partner with such a major media network like Havas Media Group to help our joint customers reach key audiences with compelling, valuable content. Together, we will be rolling out the world’s most advanced content marketing technology, alongside the largest content network in the world. And best of all, everything will be available to all Havas customers worldwide, in a single technology platform,” Islam said.
MAM
ASCI study uncovers how Gen Alpha navigates ads in endless digital feeds
‘What the Sigma?’ ethnographic report maps blurred boundaries between content and commerce for 7–15-year-olds.
MUMBAI: Gen Alpha isn’t scrolling through the internet, they’re living rent-free inside its never-ending dopamine drip, and the ads have already moved in next door. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) Academy, partnering with Futurebrands Consulting, has published ‘What the Sigma?’, an immersive ethnographic study that maps how Indian children aged 7–15 (Generation Alpha) consume, interpret and live alongside media and commercial messaging in a hyper-digital environment.
The research draws on in-home interviews, sibling and peer conversations, and discussions with parents, teachers, counsellors, psychologists, marketers and kidfluencers across six cities. It examines not only what children watch but how algorithms, content creators, peers and parents shape their relationship with the constant stream of shorts, vlogs, gameplay, memes, sponsored posts and ‘kid-ified’ adult material.
Five core themes emerged:
- Discontinuous Generation, Gen Alpha is not growing up alongside the internet, they are growing up inside it. Cultural references, humour, aesthetics and language sync globally in real time, often leaving adults functionally illiterate in their children’s world. A reference that lands instantly for a 10-year-old in Mumbai or Visakhapatnam feels opaque or disjointed to most parents.
- Authority Vacuum, Parents and teachers frequently lose cultural fluency in digital spaces. The algorithm responsive, inexhaustible and perfectly attuned to preferences becomes the most attentive presence in many children’s daily lives. Rules around screen time feel increasingly difficult to enforce when adults cannot fully see or understand the content landscape.
- Digital as Society, Online and offline no longer exist as separate realms, they form one continuous reality. The phone is not a tool children pick up; it is the primary social environment they inhabit.
- Great Media Mukbang, Content flows as an ambient, boundary-less, multi-sensorial stream. Entertainment, advertising, commerce, gameplay, memes and vlogs merge into one undifferentiated feed. The line between active choice and passive absorption has largely collapsed.
- Blurred Ad Recognition, Children aged 7–12 typically recognise only the most overt advertising formats. Influencer promotions, gaming integrations and vlog sponsorships often register as organic entertainment. Children aged 13–15 show greater ad literacy but remain highly susceptible to narrative-integrated, passion-driven and emotionally resonant brand messaging. Discernment remains low across the board in a non-stop stream.
ASCI CEO and secretary general Manisha Kapoor said, “ASCI Academy’s study is an investigation into the content life of Generation Alpha not to judge them but to understand them. Their cultural reference points seem disjointed from those of earlier generations. Insights on how they perceive advertising is the first step towards building more responsible engagement frameworks, given that they are the youngest media consumers in our country right now.”
Futurebrands Consulting founder and director Santosh Desai added, “While earlier generations have been exposed to digital media, for this generation it is the world they inhabit. This report explores not only what they watch but how they are being shaped by algorithms, content and advertising.”
The study proposes four adaptive, principles-led pathways:
- Universal signposting of commercial intent using design principles that make advertising recognisable even to young audiences.
- Ecosystem-wide responsibility shared among advertisers, platforms, creators, schools and parents.
- Future-ready safeguards built directly into children’s content experiences rather than as optional background settings.
- Formal media and advertising literacy embedded in school curricula to teach age-appropriate understanding of persuasion and commercial intent.
In a feed that never pauses, Gen Alpha isn’t merely watching content, they’re swimming in an ocean where entertainment, commerce and identity swirl together. The real question isn’t whether they can spot an ad; it’s whether the adults building the ocean can agree on where the lifeguards should stand.
