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Horizon Global: The AI Agency That Wants to Rewrite the Playbook—or Just Redecorate It
The Setup: JV Origins
Horizon Media, America’s largest indie shop and proud flag-bearer of “we don’t need no stinkin’ holding company”, has suddenly decided—well, maybe it does. Enter Havas, Vivendi’s global muscle with international reach and French flair.
Together, they’ve birthed Horizon Global, a joint venture boasting $20B in billings and ambitions big enough to make holding company CEOs sweat through their Armani.
The pitch is “local genius meets global muscle,” but the subtext is simpler: global clients keep asking if Horizon can actually run campaigns in 120 markets without duct tape.
The Pitch: AI-First, BluConverged
Every marriage needs a shiny ring. This one is called BluConverged—a mash-up of Horizon’s Blu and Havas’ Converged.ai, wrapped in words like “predictive insights” and “true transparency.”
The promise: smarter audience planning, faster activation, cleaner measurement.
The subtext: clients are tired of holding-company tech stacks that look like they were coded in Windows XP. Horizon Global wants to sell the dream of clean AI pipes instead of clogged legacy plumbing.
The Characters: Power and Prestige
Bill Koenigsberg → The indie maverick, finally chasing scale without selling the farm.
Yannick Bolloré → Vivendi royalty, betting this JV will make Havas more than “the other French network.”
Bob Lord → Ex-IBM fixer, charged with proving BluConverged isn’t vaporware in a PowerPoint deck.
Renata Spackova → Paris-based operator, responsible for turning the AI sales pitch into actual global execution.
Translation: it’s a power cast designed to reassure clients that grown-ups are running the show.
The Spin vs. Reality: Fresh Paint?
The marketing line: “the first agency built in the AI era.”
The reality: agencies have been declaring AI revolutions since programmatic was still in diapers.
BluConverged could be a genuine breakthrough—or just another Franken-dash of stitched-together tools.
Critics already whisper about:
Talent headaches (who works for whom?)
Conflicting incentives (indie roots vs. global bureaucracy)
Client fatigue (do brands even want another global “network with a twist”?)
Some clients prefer sharp boutique agencies. Others bypass agencies altogether and go straight to The Trade Desk.
The Cliffhanger: New Model or Cosplay?
So what is Horizon Global really?
The future of agency networks?
Or holding-company cosplay in a cooler suit with AI cufflinks?
The answer hinges on:
Whether BluConverged actually delivers omnichannel execution.
Whether clients migrate to this shiny new thing.
Whether Koenigsberg and Bolloré can share power without stabbing each other in the boardroom.
ADOTAT+ Analysis
👉 This is where the free ride stops. In ADOTAT+, we’ll dig into the power plays inside the boardroom, the real mechanics of BluConverged, and the client shakeups already being whispered about.
Is Horizon Global about to change the agency landscape—or just recycle it with more AI jargon?
Subscribe to ADOTAT+ to read the rest.
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