Publicis - Omnicom merger costs would have better spent on a digital investment, says Havas CEO and Mark Zuckerberg adviser David Jones

“That is number one [focus] because it is very easy to grow in digital and slow in traditional advertising. But we need to be able to change faster.

“My whole focus is to get us to act like a smaller, more entrepreneurial, more dynamic, more agile business, not a bigger one.

“People might say I’m just jealous, but I say, 'No, if I had that kind of money I’d be looking to buy something like Instagram or Twitter or Tumblr because I think that is where the game is changing.”

The CEO said record profits for the agency in the first half of this year and a 14-year share price high was evidence that the markets had more confidence in the advertising industry in Europe as it recovered from the effects of recession.

Jones – an occasional adviser to Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook’s growing advertising business - added that Havas would be looking to identify gaps and opportunities left by the merger between New York-based Omnicom and French company Publicis because, he believes, the core of the business will inevitably move to the US.

“It was orchestrated and happened in Paris so it looked like the French had the upper hand, but in two years the power will all be in New York.

“Do I think it will be a disaster? Not at all, but there will be talent and clients dropping out so there are opportunities for the rest of us, too.

Publicis and Omnicom announced plans to merge in July, creating the biggest advertising agency in history. The terms of the deal are expected to be finalised in the first quarter of 2014.