18 MONTHS AHEAD OF THE CURVE

IN CULTURE INDUSTRIES, MEDIA, TECHNOLOGY AND DATA SCIENCE

  • STRATEGY

  • RESEARCH

  • ACTIVATION

    We scout and evaluate new media and technology products to provide best-in-class solutions.

18 MONTHS AHEAD OF THE CURVE
IN THE CULTURAL, MEDIA, TECHNOLOGY AND DATA SCIENCE INDUSTRIES

  • STRATEGY

    Strategic consulting for brand, IP, and franchise development in the digital world.

  • RESEARCH

    Our team conducts market analysis and partners with universities to support strategic initiatives.

  • ACTIVATION

    We scout and evaluate new media and technologies to provide best-in-class solutions.  

TALENT EXPERTS DEEPLY ROOTED AT THE HEART OF OUR CHANGING WORLD

TO UNEARTH INNOVATIVE AND UNPREDICTABLE SOLUTIONS

In today’s world, media and entertainment are intertwined. Everyone is either a creator or curator of content and a new generation of Makers are rewriting the rules of the game.
Creative ideas evolve alongside production and distribution channels. Content is served, liked and shared in real-time. The very best content showcases unique creative, artistic, tech and data skills. This new generation is leading the way. These new kings of content are disrupting media, setting trends and forging new ground.

Brands, agencies and studios need to belong to this content-rich world. Enhanced omni-channel connectivity provides greater opportunities to communicate with hard-to-reach audiences in more meaningful ways. As platforms evolve, agile business strategies need to adapt fast.

This era of disruption refuses to stand still. Consumer relationships need to develop organically across multiple devices, ever-changing channels and new formats. To truly belong, brands, agencies and studios need the tools to adapt.

’18’ is the tool-box that will keep your strategies ahead of the game. We offer solutions that fit the future while being actionable in the present. Our thinking is 18 months ahead of the curve. Start-ups want innovation adoption, creators want monetisation strategies, brands want organic vectors, studios want engaging content and clients consumers want a seamless experience. That is our mission.

Frédéric Josué

Director of XVIII

TALENT EXPERTS DEEPLY ROOTED AT THE HEART OF OUR CHANGING WORLD TO UNEARTH INNOVATIVE AND UNPREDICTABLE SOLUTIONS

18 runs three collaborative research centers

situated in cultural, creative, academic and tech hubs

LOS ANGELES

Based in Venice Abbot Kinney, 18-LA feeds off the Californian ecosystem and sits within a collaborative work-space designed for start-ups.
Los Angeles is home to creative innovators such as Snapchat, Oculus Rift and Maker Studios. It’s a city with a focus on the future and our shared ideas around digital convergence. This facility was developed through a partnership with the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. It has since further evolved thanks to collaboration with UCLA.

TEL AVIV

Tel Aviv has the highest density of start-ups and more engineers per capita than anywhere else in the world. It is a natural hub of innovation. 18-Tel Aviv is based at the heart of this start-up nation, in Sorona, surrounded by its prestigious universities. The facility was developed around a major partnership with Technion Haifa, local start-ups, the French Embassy and a particularly dynamic human ecosystem.

SEOUL

18-Seoul is our newest facility. Korean companies are ahead of the curve in the global consumer electronic and gaming markets, its population enjoys advanced broadband Internet infrastructure, while its youth culture and fashion trends have spread worldwide.
Based in the Gangnam area, 18-Seoul is ideally positioned to grasp this tech-driven culture, engage with local innovation leaders and leverage the latest consumer trends.

Street Credibility is Key

In today’s world, media and entertainment are intertwined. Everyone is either a creator or curator of content and a new generation of Makers are rewriting the rules of the game.
Creative ideas evolve alongside production and distribution channels. Content is served, liked and shared in real-time. The very best content showcases unique creative, artistic, tech and data skills. This new generation is leading the way. These new kings of content are disrupting media, setting trends and forging new ground.

Brands, agencies and studios need to belong to this content-rich world. Enhanced omni-channel connectivity provides greater opportunities to communicate with hard-to-reach audiences in more meaningful ways. As platforms evolve, agile business strategies need to adapt fast.

This era of disruption refuses to stand still. Consumer relationships need to develop organically across multiple devices, ever-changing channels and new formats. To truly belong, brands, agencies and studios need the tools to adapt.

’18’ is the tool-box that will keep your strategies ahead of the game. We offer solutions that fit the future while being actionable in the present. Our thinking is 18 months ahead of the curve. Start-ups want innovation adoption, creators want monetisation strategies, brands want organic vectors, studios want engaging content and clients consumers want a seamless experience. That is our mission.

  • In today’s world, media and entertainment are intertwined. Everyone is either a creator or curator of content and a new generation of Makers are rewriting the rules of the game.
    Creative ideas evolve alongside production and distribution channels. Content is served, liked and shared in real-time. The very best content showcases unique creative, artistic, tech and data skills. This new generation is leading the way. These new kings of content are disrupting media, setting trends and forging new ground.

  • Brands, agencies and studios need to belong to this content-rich world. Enhanced omni-channel connectivity provides greater opportunities to communicate with hard-to-reach audiences in more meaningful ways. As platforms evolve, agile business strategies need to adapt fast.
    This era of disruption refuses to stand still. Consumer relationships need to develop organically across multiple devices, ever-changing channels and new formats. To truly belong, brands, agencies and studios need the tools to adapt.

  • ’18’ is the tool-box that will keep your strategies ahead of the game. We offer solutions that fit the future while being actionable in the present. Our thinking is 18 months ahead of the curve. Start-ups want innovation, creators want monetisation strategies, brands want organic vectors, studios want engaging content and clients want a seamless experience. That is our mission.

Frédéric Josué

Director of XVIII

INSPIRATIONAL THINKING AND DOING

FROM ACADEMIC PARTNERSHIPS

18 spearheads research and pilot projects to develop a better understanding of consumer behavior and to unlock new ways to design more meaningful connections and conversations between consumers and brands.

A collaboration between 18, USC Annenberg Innovation Lab and other sponsors
Launched in June of 2013, the Edison Project was based on the belief that the home entertainment landscape was about to undergo a revolutionary change. The contention was that the old cable bundle of 400 channels would come apart and be replaced by a new OTT on-demand media landscape, which would allow consumers to access any content, at any time, on any device.
Initially this premise was met with skepticism, but a year later the Edison Project began looking rather prescient. In June 2014, ESPN, HBO and CBS announced their move to an OTT service platform and in the months that followed, more content providers made similar announcements.
The Innovation Lab was not content to simply predict the future however. Through a mix of research and prototypes, the Lab is still working, together with several partners, including Havas, to craft a new vision of what the Media and Entertainment ecosystem will look like in the next three to five years and to accelerate its arrival.
To date, this work has included multiple “new screen” prototypes including Oculus Rift, Google Glass, 3D Printers and the Internet of Things; a new framework for understanding, dash-boarding and leveraging fan engagement using a mix of big data and cognitive computing; assembling a new collection of tools and best practices for how new creators and makers will not only survive but flourish; and an ongoing engagement with the city of Los Angeles, re-imagining it both as a smart city and as the heart of this new Imagination Economy.
With the help of its strategic partners, the Edison Project will continue to experiment and prototype the new tools of discovery that will allow its vision to be realized.
A collaboration between 18, USC Annenberg Innovation Lab and IBM
Havas Sports & Entertainment, the brand engagement network of Havas Group partnered with the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab to conduct an extensive global study into understanding how and why sports fans engage with their passions.
At the core of this research are the ‘8 Logics of Fan Engagement’, describing the various ways in which fans approach their fan-ship and the goals that drive their fannish behaviors.
The focus of this benchmark study in 2014 was to deeply understand the nuanced behaviors of International Soccer fans. 2015 sees an extension of the model into music. One of the primary goals with this study is to help brand/digital strategists gain insight into how any given media property might appeal to and retain fans, how we might help deepen fan engagement, and how it could be possible to inspire fans to extend their interest from a core passion into other, related materials and communities.
We believe this research could revolutionize the way sports and their sponsors look at fans. Rather than making decisions based on a market segment’s age, gender, and annual income, brands will be able to break a fan ecosystem down by behaviors, attitudes and perceptions and deliver campaigns that help fans engage smoothly and naturally with their passions.
A collaboration between 18 and UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television
Havas Media and the UCLA Department of Film, Television and Digital Media (FTVDM) in the School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT) agreed to collaborate on “future storytelling” innovations and to promote the intersection of scholarship, production and technology research on the future of storytelling across platforms.
UCLA professor Denise Mann leads the the UCLA TFT Digital Incubator and Think-tank (DIT), an initiative designed to allow young creators to experiment with new forms of expression and researchers to explore new forms of industry in the digital era.
Simultaneous with the classroom experiences, Mann oversees the research efforts of three UCLA TFT candidates and one MA student with a proven track record of scholarship in contemporary media industry scholarship. The team is exploring the shifting dynamics binding brands and consumer, audiences and producer-creators, and the Hollywood/Silicon Valley/Madison Avenue industries.
Together with UCLA, we also conduct yearly research on the Media and Entertainment industry’s strategy and economics. Starting with the USA, then proceeding with Asia and Europe, we want to understand who are the key market stakeholders and predict how the market will evolve within three to five years. The research is jointly published in an annual book.

DISRUPTIVE CREATION DOES NOT HAPPEN IN COZY OFFICE ENVIRONMENTS

DISRUPTIVE CREATION DOES NOT HAPPEN IN COZY OFFICE ENVIRONMENTS

TALENT SCOUTING

Street credibility is key. In each hub, our people on the ground connect with leading entrepreneurs, academics and talent on a daily basis. By developing strong relationships with start-up incubators, corporate and academic labs, as well as artistic communities in Los Angeles, Tel Aviv and Seoul, we identify the key players that have helped us source future great market makers at the intersection of media, content, technology, and data science.

THE PLATFORM

Havas has designed a semantic platform to support our global initiative to identify future trends and talent. It interconnects start-ups, innovators, trends, as well as companies and universities worldwide through one of the first web-scale applications. The resulting Enterprise Knowledge Graph facilitates instant decision-making based on new trends and talent.

STRATEGIC NOTES

Every month, each 18 hub produces a strategic note, part of a series called “Pillow Talks”, that surveys and analyzes the latest developments in the industry. Based on interviews with academics and professional insiders, these articles identify key elements of the vision and provide structured implications for our teams and clients across the globe.

ROADSHOWS AND EVENTS

Roadshows are part of the immersive experience we provide to our teams and clients. In each hub we deliver ad-hoc programs tailored to specific client requests. From business meetings with start-ups and venture capitalists, and studio execs to chats with producers and creators to academic lab meetings with well-renowned professors, we facilitate immersive connections.

TALENT SCOUTING

Street credibility is key. In each hub, our people on the ground connect with leading entrepreneurs, academics and talent on a daily basis. By developing strong relationships with start-up incubators, corporate and academic labs, as well as artistic communities in Los Angeles, Tel Aviv and Seoul, we identify the key players that have helped us source future great market makers at the intersection of media, content, technology, and data science.

THE PLATFORM

Havas has designed a semantic platform to support our global initiative to identify future trends and talent. It interconnects start-ups, innovators, trends, as well as companies and universities worldwide through one of the first web-scale applications. The resulting Enterprise Knowledge Graph facilitates instant decision-making based on new trends and talent.

STRATEGIC NOTES

Every month, each 18 hub produces a strategic note, part of a series called “Pillow Talks”, that surveys and analyzes the latest developments in the industry. Based on interviews with academics and professional insiders, these articles identify key elements of the vision and provide structured implications for our teams and clients across the globe.

ROADSHOWS AND EVENTS

Roadshows are part of the immersive experience we provide to our teams and clients. In each hub we deliver ad-hoc programs tailored to specific client requests. From business meetings with start-ups and venture capitalists, and studio execs to chats with producers and creators to academic lab meetings with well-renowned professors, we facilitate immersive connections.

“18 is an open and collaborative framework, created for Havas people to support our clients with talent, trends and innovation. Together, by adopting this new disruptive mindset, we will start a revolution!”Yannick Bolloré
Chairman and CEO of Havas
“18 is an open and collaborative framework, created for Havas people to support our clients with talent, trends and innovation. Together, by adopting this new disruptive mindset, we will start a revolution!”Yannick Bolloré
Chairman and CEO of Havas