Havas wins creative and media mandate for JBL and Harman Kardon

Audio major HARMAN, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Company, has awarded its integrated creative and media communication mandate to Havas Creative India after a multi-agency pitch. The core responsibilities of the agency will include creating an integrated creative and digital strategy, and overall media buying and planning for both offline and online mediums.

Last year Havas Creative was awarded the mandate for Infinity, the youngest consumer audio brand owned by HARMAN, tuned specifically for India. With the latest win, Havas Creative India becomes the creative agency partner for all of iconic HARMAN’s consumer brands, such as JBL, Harman Kardon, and Infinity — brands mostly driven by the young.

About winning the appointment, Rana Barua, Group CEO, Havas Group India, said, “It is indeed a delight for us to strengthen our relationship and partner with HARMAN in India, and add the media and creative mandate for JBL and Harmon Kardon, in addition to working on Infinity. We have been doing some very exciting work on Infinity and with these two brands the challenge and expectations go up as these are very key players in the audio industry and have very clear objectives and plans. What is sweeter is that we won it with our integrated village model which further emphasises the #BetterTogether philosophy of Havas.”

Referring to the brand’s positioning in the Indian market, Yogesh Nambiar, Marketing Head, HARMAN India, said, “India is an important market for us and our brands enjoy leadership across various segments in consumer audio. We now want to take it a step further and enhance our customer experience by offering a wider landscape of unique products and experiences.”

Speaking about the creative tie-up with Havas, Nambiar added, “While finding an agency, we were looking for a talented and enthusiastic team that has a passion for music and understands the Indian market, and which could add a meaningful difference to our brands with their power of innovative thinking. I am looking forward to the exciting spaces that Havas will explore to engage with the existing and new consumers of our most popular audio brands.”

Havas Creative, formerly known as Havas Worldwide and Euro RSCG, is a French advertising agency. One of the largest integrated marketing communications agencies in the world, Havas has 316 offices across 75 countries and provides advertising, marketing, and corporate communications services.