In the past, deals with international advertising agencies were the aim of Israeli advertising agencies. Now Israeli social media agency Blink, owned by Sagi Chemetz, is making this dream a reality, with control of the company being sold to the Havas international group. No financial details about the acquisition were disclosed.
In contrast to the usual practice in this sector, the purpose of the deal does not appear to be the providing of service to Havas's local clients or increasing its profit through a local agency through which its media budget is managed. The substance of the deal is an exchange of knowledge, as in the acquisition of startups.
Blink is the oldest social media agency in Israel, with extremely well-developed knowledge capabilities. For its part, Havas has research capability and an understanding of the worldwide web market that are very valuable to a local agency seeking to develop itself.
One of Blink's major advantages is the fact that Hemetz himself has a content background, with a specialty in digital content. He began as a media and communications journalist at "Telegraph," a now-defunct Israeli economics newspaper, and then became one of the core founders of TheMarker website before it became a print newspaper. He later joined the Publicis group and accepted a management position in Ideologic, the largest and most highly developed digital company in Israel at the time.
10 years ago, when marketing through social networks was almost non-existent, Chemetz founded Blink, which over the years became a notable and significant marketing and advertising company with clients such as Tnuva Food Industries Ltd., Osem Investments Ltd. (controlled by Nestle SA (SWX:NESN)), Shufersal Ltd. (TASE:SAE), Wissotzky, Suzuki, and others.
In contrast to most other international agencies, Havas has little business in Israel and no holdings in local advertising agencies. The group has a representation agreement with Inbar Merhav G, which also operates a media company. Havas has offices in 110 countries. Its global clients include Carrefour, IBM, Louis Vuitton, and other brands.
Hava chairman and CEO Yannick Bollore says, "Social media are one of the strongest and most significant tools that brands can utilize in order to manager their relations with customers and consumers. Joining forces with a social media agency on the scale of Blink expands the group's capabilities in this area, and will lead to close cooperation in Israel and worldwide."
Chemetz adds, "Blink is growing year by year, together with the media in which it operates, and the investment is recognition of the company's capabilities and innovation. Blink is continuing to operate in the same way and in the same management format, and I am confident that Havas's enormous know-how as a leading international company will help us in the future."
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on August 23, 2017
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