Havas Media Network UK Establishes ‘Centre of Excellence’ in Digital

Image credit: Josh Oduse

Havas Media Network UK has promoted Paul Bland to the newly-created role of chief digital officer to grow HMN UK’s digital capabilities and establish a ‘centre of excellence’ for brand and performance media. Paul will play a critical role in creating a unified digital approach and philosophy that pushes the boundaries of innovation and drives efficiency and effectiveness as part of centralised service offering. 

Paul will be responsible for HMN UK’s digital output, team and product across all channels supporting both Havas Media Network UK and International (UK Hub) clients and agency teams. Overseeing a diverse team of digital specialists across paid performance, paid social, programmatic, SEO and CRO, Bland will lead the digital product and strategic roadmap for HMN UK across all digital disciplines to ensure clients have access best-in-class digital infrastructure. 

As part of a broader integration across HMN UK’s digital capabilities, Paul will now sit on the board of Search Laboratory, a 100+ strong digital specialist agency HMN UK acquired in 2021. 

Since joining HMN UK from iProspect in 2021, Paul has helped the team grow from 100 to over 200 digital specialists across programmatic, retail media, paid search, SEO, paid social, CRO and affiliate marketing. He has built a central team who span the UK across London, Leeds and Manchester driving excellence in brand and performance activation – establishing globally scaled capability in well over 100 markets.

 In 2024, Paul helped establish new AI solutions in market, including enabling retailers to optimise product descriptions at scale through custom-built HMN Generative AI tools. 

Under Bland’s leadership, HMN UK has delivered award winning work for clients including the BBC, Maersk, JDE and KIA, including at Global Search Awards (Best Use of Search), UK eCommerce Awards (Omnichannel Experience of the year), The Drum Social Buzz Awards (Best use of Social), UK Search Awards (Best Integrated Campaign across PPC & SEO), European Agency awards (Best Integrated Campaign) and UK Biddable Awards (Best use of Amazon Ads). 

HMN UK has also enhanced its digital capabilities including the launch of Converged (2024), HMN UK’s post-cookies solution, and Havas Accelerate, HMN UK’s approach to digital maturity in channels – designed to audit and build a roadmap to accelerated outcomes for clients and in-house teams. He has also helped launch OneSearch, an integrated PPC and SEO offering, and Meaningful Marketplaces to ensure a more sustainable ecosystem and more effective supply paths.

Paul Bland, chief digital officer, HMN UK, said, “Let’s face it, advertising is at a critical inflection point in digital transformation, shaped by AI, commerce and privacy imperatives. Against this backdrop, the role of specialist experts is ever more important to meet clients' evolving needs in digital where there are mounting growth opportunities to unlock. We’ve brought together the best expertise from across our Network to harness and navigate these trends to help clients be more customer-centric in their digital transformation.” 

Paul will report into Simon Bevan, chief operating officer, HMN UK, who said, “We now operate as one digital centre of excellence across the whole of the UK, ensuring Havas Media Network UK is truly a digital-first network, fuelled by a diverse array of digital expertise. Under Paul’s leadership, we have got best-in-class talent to meet the ever-evolving digital needs of our clients through our breadth of products, diverse capability and fluid approach in digital.”