Victors & Spoils started two years ago as a group of Crispin Porter + Bogusky alums hellbent on transforming advertising by applying crowdsourcing principles. The shop set up a tech platform to open up creative briefs to hundreds, rather than just a few. Yesterday French holding company Havas announced its purchase of Victors & Spoils. John Winsor, a co-founder of V&S and the new chief innovation officer at Havas, spoke to Digiday about why Havas made sense and whether technology dooms agencies.
Why sell now?
I met [Havas CEO] David [Jones] at TED a few years ago. He said, “All the other holding company CEOs are at the end of their career. I’m 44 and I have to change. I’ve got to be part of the future.” He’s been super aggressive. We weren’t looking for new investors. I started thinking of this in 2003. It’s been amazing to see it come to fruition. We’ve always been dedicated to changing the way advertising’s been done. With David’s vision and our vision it seemed a good fit. It will give us a strategic advantage out there.