Havas Media Network UK (HMN UK) has promoted Paul Bland to the newly-created role of chief digital officer, to establish a ‘centre of excellence’ across its digital offer.
Bland will play a critical role in growing HMN UK’s digital capabilities as he creates a centralised service offering across both brand and performance media.
Reporting into chief operating officer Simon Bevan, he will lead the digital product and strategic roadmap for HMN UK to ensure clients can access the best-in-class digital infrastructure, while his teams’ work across across paid performance, paid social, programmatic, SEO and CRO will support both Havas’ UK and international clients.
Since joining Havas in 2021, Bland has helped establish a number of new digital and AI solutions in market and been a critical part of delivering award-winning work for clients including the BBC, Maersk, JDE and KIA.
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He has also been critical to the recent launch of HMN UK’s post-cookies solution Converged, as well as
Havas Accelerate, which audits and builds a roadmap to accelerated outcomes for both clients and in-house teams.
“Let’s face it, advertising is at a critical inflection point in digital transformation, shaped by AI, commerce and privacy imperatives,” said Bland.
“Against this backdrop, the role of specialist experts is ever more important to meet clients’ evolving needs in digital where there are mounting growth opportunities to unlock. We’ve brought together the best expertise from across our network to harness and navigate these trends to help clients be more customer-centric in their digital transformation.”
Bevan added: “We now operate as one digital centre of excellence across the whole of the UK, ensuring Havas Media Network UK is truly a digital-first network, fuelled by a diverse array of digital expertise.
“Under Paul’s leadership, we have got best-in-class talent to meet the ever-evolving digital needs of our clients through our breadth of products, diverse capability and fluid approach in digital.”
As part of a broader integration across HMN UK’s digital capabilities, Bland will also now sit on the board of Search Laboratory, a 100+ strong digital specialist agency HMN UK acquired in 2021.
