Media's Impact on Humans, Focusing on Havas
In the dynamic world of media and advertising, Havas Media is making waves with its innovative Human Experience (HX) approach. This strategy, aimed at reconnecting brands with real people, seeks to put the human experience back at the center, counteracting the dehumanizing effects of data and automation.
Havas Media's proposition, HX, differentiates the agency and offers clients an edge by focusing on the human experience in media. The approach emphasizes understanding the person behind the click and creating communication that improves people’s lives by being more engaging and authentic, rather than treating audiences as mere data points or personas [1].
The HX approach addresses the problem that data and technology have made marketing relationships lazy and mechanical, reducing people to proxies or personas rather than real individuals. Havas Media advocates for empathy and connection, encouraging brands to craft media that feels human and relevant, using the five core human levers (growth, esteem, love, distraction, and certainty) to differentiate and give clients an edge in their messaging [1].
The creative platform for the Ocado campaign, an example of a 'human experience brand', emphasized high-attention channels like cinema and podcasts to create a connective tissue and deliver a breadth of human experience. Despite sacrificing some reach, the Ocado campaign aimed to build connection using HX mapping and focused on dramatizing reliability and life delivery [1].
The human experience approach is about genuinely thinking about what people want and need, not just appearing to care or ticking a box. It involves asking different questions, such as 'how can I be useful, how can I be entertaining, how can I improve their life in some way?' [1].
Brands that perform high on human experience outperform their category on metrics like meaningfulness, loyalty, impression, trust, quality of life, and price premium [1]. Younger people tend to trust digital ads more than older people, according to Meaningful Brands data [2].
The HX mindset in media planning involves choosing media formats that deliver an experience, not just defaulting to always-on social and digital. Distraction is about creating enriching, entertaining experiences through media, while certainty is about reliability and emotionalizing that reliability in new and interesting ways [1]. Growth is about enabling personal development through inspirational content or platforms, and esteem is about helping people feel good, attractive, and confident through brand signals and premium behaviors [1].
Commercial leaders should take HX seriously because it leads to growth and improved brand and business effectiveness. The human experience approach requires stepping back, having a bit of humility, and remembering there's a real person on the other end [1]. The rise of corporate communications and media where authenticity, empathy, and trust are prioritized reflects this trend [2][3].
In summary, Havas Media’s HX approach seeks to bring back empathy and human-centered communication into media and advertising, leveraging data and technology not as ends in themselves but as tools to better serve real human needs and experiences [1].
[1] Havas Media (2021). The Human Experience (HX). [Online] Available at: https://www.havasmedia.com/insights/the-human-experience-hx/ [2] Meaningful Brands (2019). The Meaningful Brands 2019 Report. [Online] Available at: https://meaningfulbrands.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/The-Meaningful-Brands-2019-Report.pdf [3] Deloitte (2018). The Future of Work: The augmentation of humanity. [Online] Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/about-deloitte/deloitte-uk-the-future-of-work-the-augmentation-of-humanity.pdf
- Havas Media's unique approach, Human Experience (HX), positions the agency to deliver outstanding results for clients by prioritizing the human experience in media.
- The HX strategy emphasizes fostering a genuine connection between brands and people, focusing on understanding the individual behind the data and creating authentic, engaging content to improve lives.
- In the media and advertising industry, Havas Media stands out for its commitment to being human-centric, addressing concerns of depersonalization caused by data and technology in marketing relationships.
- Brands that excel in human experience outperform their competitors, showing higher scores in metrics like loyalty, trust, quality of life, and price premium.
- Business leaders should prioritize the human experience approach as it fosters growth and enhances brand and business effectiveness, encouraging a mindset that remembers there's a real person at the heart of every communication and interaction.
