• by Philip Rosenstein , January 11, 2017

More than 25% of Havas Group's 20,000 employees have taken a new certification program, "100% programmatic," run through the Havas University platform.

The global communications firm offers employees between eight and 10 hours of courses with content including text, video, interviews, quizzes and forums. The program has  three levels:

-- Fundamentals, teaching programmatic language and concepts.

-- Advanced, featuring day-to-day applications, with adapted modules depending on employee's position.

-- Elite, focused on strategic vision, and programmatic leadership skills.

So far, 96% of participants said they feel more confident when discussing programmatic, and 97% found the course had greater value than what they might have found online. Finally, 97% of participants said they would recommend the course to their colleagues.

“Programmatic is the new reality -- and whatever our role is, we must understand audiences, addressable content and personalized messages,” said Alfonso Rodes Vila, deputy CEO of Havas Group, chairman of Havas Group, Spain, and CEO of Havas Media Group.

“Programmatic is more than media,” said Andrew Benett, global CEO, Havas Worldwide and Havas Creative Group. “It reflects a total change in our industry and has vast implications for creativity as well. We have always used audience data and personalized messaging to drive creative solutions, and now we can do that through automation to achieve scale. It’s just as important for our creative teams to understand this as our media teams.”