HAVAS BUYS INTO NEW-MEDIA SHOP ZINC
The Havas Advertising group, the French parent company of Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper and Evans Hunt Scott, has taken a 40 per cent equity stake in the new-media agency, Zinc. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the agreement follows a two-year honeymoon period in which Zinc has worked closely with Evans Hunt Scott and its clients.
Zinc was formed in April 1996 by the former EHS new-media consultant, Georgia Hall, who is now the client services director at Zinc. The injection of fresh capital will coincide with Zinc’s move out of the direct marketing agency’s Soho offices into the former home of the alternative radio station, Xfm, on Charlotte Street. However, the 33-strong new-media shop will continue to work closely with EHS. Hall said: ’It’s very important for us to have a relationship with a big media group. We have access to all of its clients. It gives us greater substance, financial security and management, which is an area where many new-media companies fail miserably.’
Zinc is one of the few UK new-media agencies to work closely with Microsoft, which is the agency’s biggest client. It is responsible for developing the software giant’s business-to-business websites and CD-Roms.
Zinc’s blue-chip client list also includes advertisers such as Tesco, Saab, United Airlines and Vodafone. For Vodafone, Zinc this week unveiled a new global website encompassing all of the mobile phone company’s interests. Andrew Harris, chief executive of EHS, said: ’Zinc complements our strategic and creative ability in the area of new media. In the couple of years we’ve been working with them, they have done some great work.’