Red Havas Expands Global ESG Comms Offering with Launch of Red Impact

Red Impact will give Red Havas clients greater access to the micronetwork’s expertise in purpose, sustainability and ESG

Red Havas, the micronetwork of merged media agencies, today announced the launch of Red Impact, a new offering that brings together its environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) expertise and capabilities from across the world. The practice is the result of increasing demand for global approaches to purpose-driven strategic communications.

With 40-plus years of award-winning experience in cause, ​Red Havas has cultivated a deep understanding of purpose- and ESG-driven communications. Today, the micronetwork helps clients in different sectors and stages of growth shape, communicate and protect their corporate reputation. This work spans markets, languages, platforms and channels. It reaches stakeholders including employees, customers, communities and investors. And it encompasses comms strategy, tactical campaigns, measurement and reporting, as well as crisis counsel — when stakeholders put an organization’s purpose to the test.

In addition to working closely with global brands such as adidas, L’Oréal, ManpowerGroup and the life science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany on purpose-related initiatives, Red Havas counts among its clients the Country of Palau, United Nations Foundation, UNICEF, Team Rubicon, World Green Economy Organization (WGEO) and Project HOPE.

“If you are tackling a challenge that will help improve our world and need help decoding the cause landscape, Red Havas is proud to be known as the go-to agency,” said James Wright, global CEO of Red Havas Group and global chairman of Havas PR Global Collective. “Our work in this space continues to expand in terms of the number of briefs we receive and the increasing number of clients that need strategic counsel and assistance with tackling these issues from a global standpoint. Formalizing Red Impact across markets allows us to be more integrated about how we help our clients make a positive difference in the world. Are we preoccupied with purpose? Yes. We believe it’s at the heart of any truly great business.”

Red Impact will be driven by a team of specialists across the agency’s micronetwork, including Linda Descano, CFA^®, EVP, Melanie Klausner, EVP, and Audrey Arbogast, associate vice president, in the U.S.; Richard Clarke, executive director, in the U.K.; Matthew Thomas, executive director, and Jacqui Munro, senior consultant, in Australia; Mathilde Montel, senior communications director, corporate, in the Middle East; Ana Pico Alvarez, general manager, in Spain; Vittoria Ghirlanda, sustainability manager, in Italy; Martin Bennung, content strategist, in Germany; Mel Panabi, business director, and Janlo Cui, business director, in The Philippines; and Vineel Agarwal, CEO, Havas Village in South Africa and Africa.

Red Havas and Havas Group have a long history of exploring cause and purpose in their thought leadership materials. Havas Group’s 12-year Meaningful Brands study looks at how brands tangibly improve peoples’ lives functionally, enhance their personal well-being and contribute to wider society. And most recently, Red Havas released its newest white paper on purpose, “5 Ways Brands Can Do Purpose on Purpose.”

Said Wright, “Companies that define a purpose for their existence — and then do the hard work of aligning their strategies and operations to that purpose — stand to gain things like greater innovation, better collaboration, more engaged employees, more loyal customers and better financial performance. These are the kind of businesses Red Havas wishes to work with, and it’s most certainly the kind of business we aspire to be ourselves.”