April, 2026.- In a saturated world where billions of advertising dollars end up in what Olly Taylor calls “communication landfill,” relevance is not an option but a measure of survival. After more than a decade leading strategy in Australia, Taylor takes on the role of Group CSO at Havas ANZ with a clear mission: to eradicate the “usual.” For Olly, the greatest sin of modern agencies is not a lack of budget, but a lack of distinction. His philosophy, “Deliberately Different,” is not a slogan but a rigorous process that begins by dissecting what everyone else is doing to avoid repeating it. In this new era, Havas breaks traditional silos to integrate under one roof—the Village model—the strategic power of media and the creative spark, allowing attention mechanics and brand positioning to develop as a single organism.
In this exclusive interview with Roastbrief, Olly Taylor breaks down how the integration of media and creative teams has moved from a utopia to a real competitive advantage through the exchange of “cultural currency.” Taylor pragmatically addresses the attention crisis, arguing that the modern strategist’s role must be that of a cultural salience scientist supported by AI, while warning that technology, by definition, delivers the most probable answer, not the most distinctive one. Discover how ruthless clarity and the confidence to experiment are defining Havas’ next chapter, proving that in the business of ideas, being strategically “right” is no longer enough; to win, one must be bravely different.
- Defining “Deliberately Different” Strategy: The “Deliberately Different” positioning is central to Havas ANZ’s ambition. In practical terms, how does being “deliberately different” change the way your strategy team operates day-to-day? What is the deliberate difference in your strategic process, output, or client engagement model compared to a traditional agency group?
Olly Taylor: Deliberately Different starts from a sobering truth. Most of the work agencies put into the world goes unnoticed. Billions of dollars of investment effectively end up in communication landfill. As an industry we all know this, and yet we are still all guilty of doing it. Deliberately Different is our way of unifying our agencies around one goal, and a strategic process for creating real and unusual impact for our clients.
Strategically, the difference shows up in where we start and what we value. Having had the luxury of working in this industry for decades, I have seen how strategy has changed. There was a time when uncovering a fascinating brand truth was highly prized. There was an era when it was all about human insight. There was an era about higher purpose. Now I think the most important thing for effectiveness is simply to be different.
While that might sound unstrategic, in today’s world being strategically right does not mean it will work. So, our process starts with a rigorous analysis of the “usual”. What everyone else is doing, who they are targeting, what they are saying, and how they are showing up. What is working, and what is failing to engage. We spend more time analysing that than ever before. You cannot be different if you have not properly understood what “same” looks like.
Our belief is that distinctiveness must begin at the strategy. It might be the audience, the insight, the benefit, the channel, or the role the brand plays in culture. But the strategy must bring something new to the conversation.
Where we differ from other groups is that this belief runs across the whole group. We share a common way of working and a centralised strategy function so that everything we do across earned, media, social and creative starts from a different place. And unlike many holding companies, we do not run competing agencies of the same capability. From the start we have operated as a Village, best in class agencies growing together rather than against each other.
- The Rare Integration of Media & Creative: You describe bringing “the strategic strength of media and creative together, properly together, as one team” as rare in this industry. Why has this integration proven so elusive for most holding groups, and what specific structural, cultural, or remuneration changes have you implemented—or plan to implement—to make it work at Havas?
Olly Taylor: I’m not in a position to comment on others, but from a Havas ANZ perspective the first and most significant factor, as it often is in agencies, is the seating plan. By bringing strategists together as one group we have created an environment of sharing, belonging and learning, and what I call competitive cultural currency, the lifeblood of strategy teams.
It has created a collective that benefits from each other while individual craft is respected. We are not trying to create all in one strategists. The world is too complex for that. What we are building is an environment where media and creative strategists learn from each other and apply it to their own briefs and brands. So far it is working well.
- The Attention Imperative: You’ve long advocated that “getting noticed is harder than it has ever been” and that most messages “disappear instantly.” How does this attention crisis fundamentally reshape the strategist’s role? Is the primary job now diagnosing attention mechanics and cultural salience, rather than traditional brand positioning and messaging hierarchies?
Olly Taylor: The issue is not an attention crisis, but how attention is created and converted into something impactful for any brand. A strong strategic function therefore needs to master both attention and cultural science, alongside brand positioning and messaging. This is the very reason we have brought media and creative strategists together, so both attention mechanics and brand strategy are developed together, not in isolation.
- Measuring Strategic Impact Across the Village: With your expanded remit across creative and media agencies, how do you define and measure success for an integrated strategy function? What are the key performance indicators that tell you the Village model is delivering better strategic outcomes than siloed creative and media planning?
Olly Taylor: First, the work itself. Are we creating ideas and communications that deliver outsized impact for our clients. That applies whether the client is working with us on media, creative, earned, or more. It can be measured through effectiveness, business results and how the work performs in market.
Second, our strategists. Are they learning from each other and developing stronger strategic capability by working across the Village rather than in silos.
Third, our Village clients who share both media and creative with us. If the model is working, the thinking should be more integrated, the ideas stronger, and the outcomes better because media and creative strategy are developed together rather than separately.
- AI-Enabled Strategy: The announcement mentions continued investment in “AI-enabled strategy.” How are you deploying AI within the Havas ANZ strategy practice today? Where is it genuinely augmenting strategic thinking and effectiveness, and where are you deliberately choosing to keep the human strategist’s judgment paramount?
Olly Taylor: As a network, Havas is investing over $460 million into the Converged.AI technology platform that underpins how we work with AI and data.
As a strategy department we use AI for what it does best, speed, efficiency and stimulus. It allows us to interrogate data quickly, surface patterns and explore possibilities rapidly. It also allows us to stress test thinking and remove any cognitive bias we may have.
We see AI as an invaluable tool. But fundamentally, AI is designed to deliver the most probable answer. Because everyone has access to the same tools, the most probable answer is rarely the most distinctive one. The advantage in being distinctive still comes from human judgement.
- Legacy and Next Chapter: You’ve spent over a decade in senior leadership at Havas Australia and shaped some of the region’s most influential, award-winning work. As you step into this expanded Group CSO role, what is the one strategic capability or cultural mindset within the Village that you are most determined to evolve or leave behind for the next chapter?
Olly Taylor: From a strategic capability perspective, it is clarity. Ruthless clarity about what a brand’s problem and opportunity for cut through are.
From a cultural mindset perspective, it is confidence. Confidence to experiment and confidence to peruse Deliberately Different.
