Mercedes Erra is a French business woman who was born 23 September 1954 in

Sabadell Sabadell () is a city and municipality in Catalonia, Spain. It is in the south of the ''comarca'' of Vallès Occidental, where it is one of the two capitals, the other being Terrassa. It is located on the River Ripoll, north of Barcelona, a ...

. She is the Executive President of

Havas Worldwide Havas Creative, formerly known as Havas Worldwide and Euro RSCG, is a French advertising agency. It is one of the largest integrated marketing communications agencies in the world, made up of 316 offices located in 75 countries. The firm provide ...

(formerly Euro RSCG Worldwide), Co-Founder of BETC, and Managing Director of

Havas Havas NV () is a French multinational corporation, multinational advertising agency, advertising and public relations company, with its registered office and head office in Puteaux, France. Havas operates in more than 100 countries. The group ...

. Mercedes Erra is an expert and specialist in branding and communication building. She is famous for working on different subjects and inspiring new ways of communication for brands such as health for

Danone Danone S.A. () is a French multinational corporation, multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in 1919 in Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris, where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock mark ...

, young for

Evian Evian (, ; , stylized as evian) is a French brand that bottles mineral water from several sources near Évian-les-Bains, on the south shore of Lake Geneva. Evian is owned by Danone, a French multinational corporation. In addition to the miner ...

, or the vision of

Air France Air France (; legally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members ...

. Her "Roller Babies" campaign for Evian (played to the song

Rapper's Delight "Rapper's Delight" is a 1979 rap song that serves as the debut single of American hip-hop trio the Sugarhill Gang, produced by Sylvia Robinson. Although it was shortly preceded by the Fatback Band's " King Tim III (Personality Jock)", "Rapper ...

) made the

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

for being viewed over 75 million times. The agency she co-founded, BETC Euro RSCG, has, in 15 years, become the first French agency and the second most creative in the world (Gunn Report January 2011). Mercedes considers herself a feminist.

Biography

Born in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, she moved to France at age six. She studied at

HEC Paris HEC Paris () is a business school and ''grande école'' located in Jouy-en-Josas, a southwestern outer suburb of Paris, France. It offers Bachelor, MiM, MSc in International Finance, MBA, EMBA, executive education, professional developm ...

(Promotion 1981).

Career

Starting as an intern at

Saatchi & Saatchi Saatchi and Saatchi is a British multinational communications and advertising agency network with 114 offices in 76 countries and over 6,500 staff. It was founded in 1970 and is currently headquartered in London. The parent company of the agency ...

in 1981, she successively became Advertising Chief, Client Manager, Deputy General Manager and finally became in 1990 General Director of

Advertising until 1995. She is the "E" of BETC (Babinet Erra Tong Cuong). Erra is an advocate for women's leadership. Co-founder of the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society, she is also committed to serving

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

and the ELLE Foundation. She is an active member of the French Committee of

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

, and permanent member of the French commission on Women's image through media. Mercedes Erra was chairman of the French version of the Advertising Association between 2002 and 2004 In March 2012, Erra was named to the board of directors of the Art Media Society.

References

External links

BETC website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Erra, Mercedes 1954 births French advertising executives Living people HEC Paris alumni French chief executives 20th-century French businesswomen 20th-century French businesspeople French people of Catalan descent Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 21st-century French businesswomen 21st-century French businesspeople

Biography

Career

See also

References

External links