• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, February 17, 2015

Havas said Tuesday it has struck a global partnership with content marketer NewsCred. The agreement will provide Havas and its clients with access to more than 5,000 publishers worldwide including some of the biggest names in the industry such as the Associated Press, CNN, Bloomberg, Gawker, Forbes, Nielsen, and Reuters, to name a few.

The publishers covered under the agreement provide content to 100 countries in numerous formats (text, images, videos, infographics and audio files) and languages.

Dominique Delport, global managing director of Havas Media Group, said, “2015 is the year of content for Havas.” He added that NewsCred, a New York-based start-up with more than 200 staffers, has “created a simple way to understand how we can use content to build meaningful relationships with people. Brands need more relevancy and consistency than ever. Our partnership with NewsCred provides our clients with the sort agility and speed that can mean the difference between success and failure.”

Havas said the NewsCred agreement would be enhanced by an alliance the French agency holding company announced last month with Universal Music Group. It also indicated that its social platform Socialyse will integrate with NewsCred’s software to further facilitate social media monitoring, content performance tracking and audience engagement metrics.

It’s the second major announcement this week from an agency holding company striking a deal to up is game in the content marketing arena. On Monday, Publicis Groupe said it was in exclusive acquisition talks with press agency Relaxnews, which has an alliance with Agence France Presse.

The NewsCred deal comes after nine months of collaboration, according to Havas, which said that NewsCred’s cloud-based software, combined with Havas Media Group’s expertise and data analytics would provide clients with a “fully integrated management tool covering the complete content marketing”  ecosystem from strategy to production and validation to content curation and publication.

Havas is also using the NewsCred software to enhance its clients’ corporate websites, the company said, noting that all agencies within the group have access to the partnership. 

NewsCred CEO and Co-Founder Shafqat Islam said that together with Havas, "we will be rolling out the world's most advanced content marketing technology, alongside the largest content network in the world," via a single technology platform. "We firmly believe that the brands that will win in the future are the brands that think of content as a strategic asset across their organization."