Havas Media acquires big data & digital specialists MFG Labs

Services to be extended to India and Asia Pacific. MFG Labs established itself as a leader in its field using advanced mathematics and algorithms to build decision support solutions that make sense of 'Big Data'

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | June 10, 2013

It has been announced today that MFG Labs, the highly respected mathematics think-tank specialising in digital strategy, data science and mathematical research will join the Havas Media Group. Founded in 2009 by a team of world renowned mathematicians, MFG Labs established itself as a leader in its field using advanced mathematics and algorithms to build decision support solutions that make sense of 'Big Data'.

The acquisition is effective from today and follows on from the group's continued investment in data with the acquisition of data analytics company Elisa DBI in the UK and Spain last month.

Significantly, the company's teams of senior mathematical researchers are led by Pierre-Louis Lions, a Fields Medal holder, the highest recognised award for mathematics, and Professor at the prestigious Collège de France, and Jean-Michel Lasry, Professor at the University Paris-Dauphine with a renowned career in quantitative finance. Pierre-Louis Lions and Jean-Michel Lasry have created and pioneered the development of the MFG 'Mean Field Game' theory and its application to the world of finance and business.

MFG Labs' recent work includes the conception and implementation of Warner Bros. France digital strategy – My Warner – the first compelling social relationship management programme.

The move will also enable MFG Labs to expand its digital services to other major Havas Media Group Digital Hubs (US, UK, LATAM, APAC, India) where thanks to its integrated talent pool ranging from designers to mathematicians, it will deliver creative data driven strategies.

This instantly brings a team of experts to support the data backbone of the group, via its existing specialist data management platform, Artemis, and its trading desk network, Affiperf. MFG Labs will leverage these strong analytics capabilities by providing in-house machine learning algorithms.

Dominique Delport, Global Managing Director of Havas Media Group, commented, “As the data revolution continues, there is no doubt that these guys are at the top of their field. Two years ago we identified their impressive capabilities in the social data world. The next stage for us was to make sure we were able to bring them into the group to reinforce our solid foundations in data... and this driving force to integrate data and content is paying off well. With the increasing importance of consumer engagement platforms pushing brands beyond traditional media, the two disciplines are totally interconnected. We were the first communications company to win an Emmy award for content creation and we are now the first communications company to move into the mathematics space.”

Delport added, “We are delighted that our genuine passion for data has won the support of two of the greatest mathematical minds in the business and their talented team. We have been working with the MFG teams for many months to expand and extend our leading data and content services to our clients around the world and the feedback we have had has been outstanding.”

Pierre-Louis Lions, MFG Co founder, commented, “We join the Havas Media Group at a unique moment where quantitative methodologies and Big Data analytics are becoming the key to media performance. For an intrinsically quantitative and programmatic spirited team like us these are exciting times.”

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