Havas Media has launched a new unit that packages and resells online inventory to clients, putting it into the media brokerage business.

According to MediaPost, the AdNetiq unit is partly an online advertising network and partly the byproduct of a database management system Havas has developed to identify surplus online ad inventory that matches client brands with consumer targets.

"What we've seen here is an opportunity for media trading," Coleen Kuehn, chief strategist for Havas Media said during a presentation at the UBS media conference in New York.

Kuehn said Havas does not see itself as competing with established online advertising networks and behavioral targeting firms, and plans to continue working with them, but said the media agency believes its system creates new value in the marketplace by applying unique marketing intelligence to the equation.

"We are not in business to compete with them. We want to work with them," Kuehn told MediaDailyNews following the Havas presentation, "Why can't we get a piece of the pie?"