[Interview] Kunal Chakravarty, Havas Media Network ANZ

With AI reshaping agency operations and market consolidation intensifying competition, agencies must find new ways to stand out and drive growth.

Kunal Chakravarty, recently appointed Head of New Business & Marketing, ANZ, at Havas Media Network, discusses building stronger client relationships, creating new-business opportunities and turning differentiation into business impact.

What are your first-year priorities at Havas Media Network?

My priority is to connect marketing and new business more closely. The best new-business functions don't begin when an RFP arrives; they build reputation and relationships long before a client enters the market. We're focusing on the businesses we want to work with, building relationships over time and using marketing to create reasons for them to engage with us.

We also need to make it easier to showcase our best thinking through sharper credentials, better tools, stronger case studies and a more consistent market presence. Ultimately, I want us creating the right opportunities rather than reacting to every one that comes along.

You've worked across India, APAC and now ANZ. How has this shaped your approach to marketing and new business?

It's taught me there's no universal playbook. India offers extraordinary scale, speed and entrepreneurial energy, while APAC demonstrates that geographical proximity doesn't mean markets, cultures or client expectations are similar. ANZ is another distinct environment, with sophisticated clients, strong local agencies and an industry where reputation travels quickly.

What carries across markets is curiosity: understanding the business behind the brief, the decision-makers and their operating environment. I've also learned not to confuse global scale with local relevance. Clients want world-class capabilities but also local teams that understand their business and make decisions quickly. Getting that balance right is powerful.

Havas is positioned around being “Deliberately Different”. What does that mean when engaging prospective clients?

It can't simply be a line in a credentials deck. Being deliberately different means questioning what everyone else in a category is doing and whether there's a good reason to keep doing it. Sometimes convention is right; sometimes it's simply inherited behaviour. Our job is to know the difference.

In new-business conversations, I want us to challenge an assumption about the client's audience, category or media investment and demonstrate how a different approach could deliver disproportionate commercial impact. Difference for its own sake is theatre; difference that changes outcomes is valuable.

That reflects our proposition: combining global network capabilities with independent-agency agility, data-led tools and strategically sharp, creatively charged thinking to create outsized impact.

How is AI changing conversations between agencies and clients about new business?

The conversation is moving from “Do you have AI?” to “What does AI actually make better?” Clients want to know whether it can improve decisions, speed, effectiveness or economics, and where human judgement remains essential.

Some are also looking beyond marketing to broader business transformation, including automating processes, redesigning workflows and changing how teams operate. That's positive because it positions AI as a driver of business change rather than simply another tool.

The danger is that everyone gains access to similar technology and starts producing similar answers. If AI raises the floor, distinctive thinking becomes more valuable, not less.

How do you build a stronger new-business pipeline?

A pitch is an event; new business is a system. A healthy pipeline starts much earlier: understanding where we have a genuine right to win, identifying businesses where our capabilities can create value, building relationships before procurement begins and contributing something useful when we get in the room.

It also means being prepared to say no. Not every pitch is worth pursuing. Chasing opportunities we're unlikely to win takes time away from clients, people and prospects where we can make a real difference.

I think about new business across three horizons: reputation creates consideration, relationships create opportunity, and pitches convert opportunity. You need all three. If you're measuring only the last one, you've started measuring far too late.

What does success look like for you and the ANZ team over the next 12 to 18 months?

We want to win and grow, but I also care about the quality of the engine behind that growth. Success means being clearer about where we can win, building relationships earlier, generating genuine consideration through marketing and converting the right opportunities more effectively.

I'd also like the market to understand what makes Havas distinctive. We combine the capabilities and scale of a global network with local agility, senior expertise and an entrepreneurial approach. In an increasingly consolidated market, that's a valuable position.

If, 18 months from now, we're being invited into more of the conversations we want to be part of and clients understand why Havas belongs there, I'll consider that meaningful progress.

Any additional thoughts?

I've always loved that new business forces an agency to ask difficult questions: Why us? Why now? What can we genuinely do better? When those questions become uncomfortable, that's usually when they become useful.

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