For the first time in 20 years, Havas has streamlined its brand architecture and updated its look, making it more modern, meaningful, and easier to navigate for clients, partners, and talents.
The team at London-based Conran Design Group, Havas’ leading strategic branding agency, helped realise the project, producing a new, unified brand that is powerful, iconic, and timeless, to better reflect the group’s integrated model, and further establish its unique positioning around meaningfulness and entertainment.
Marking a defining moment in Havas’ almost 200-year history the refreshed look and reimagined brand architecture will support the acceleration of its strategy rooted in integration. The move will bring all Havas branded networks and operating companies under one new, shared brand identity, which will amplify the true nature of Havas: a client-centric, creative powerhouse that is part of the Vivendi Group, at the crossroads of entertainment and communications. Non-Havas branded networks and operating companies will maintain their individual identities but will add an endorsement that clearly links back to Havas.
In Australia, Havas’s brands include Host/Havas, Red Havas, Havas Media, Havas Blvd, H/commerce, Havas People, One Green Bean, Organic, Frontier Australia, Pulse and its most recent acquisition Bastion Brands. Specific changes to these brands will be communicated and rolled out later in the year.
The refresh kicks off globally from 13 June 2023 (Paris time), with Havas’ headquarters in Paris and Havas Villages around the globe starting in London, Madrid, Mumbai, and New York, before rolling out companywide, including Australia, in phases. The update encompasses all Havas physical and digital branding worldwide, including a new corporate website organised by core services, providing a more client-centric experience.
As one of the six largest groups globally with more than 22,000 people in over 100 countries, a single, modernised, dynamic brand elevates Havas’ offer and unlocks value for clients and talent alike. The new brand is all about positive upward momentum, expressed visually with a dynamic edge that represents the creativity and forward-looking mentality at the heart of Havas’ business.
“Havas is unique in being the most integrated, meaningful, and entertainment-oriented group in our industry. Our new identity is much more than a logo change. It reinforces our difference and gives us a competitive advantage by simplifying our service lines and highlighting our core values.” said James Wright, CEO of Havas Creative Group Australia and global CEO of Red Havas.
“This refresh ensures we are treating our brand as a powerful, meaningful business asset and capitalising on our integrated approach to deliver seamless communications strategies that exceed our clients’ expectations,” said Virginia Hyland, CEO of Havas Media Group Australia.
For Thom Newton, global CEO of Havas-owned Conran Design Group, meaning lies at the heart of the new brand. “Making the Havas brand a meaningful business asset, meant addressing two fundamental challenges. The first, to improve client-centricity by integrating the brand architecture system and optimising the navigation of services. The second, to make the Havas brand truly distinctive through a new visual identity built around a characterful, modern logotype and signature assets that represent positive momentum. The new visual identity and endorsement system will present all Havas networks and operating companies as ‘One Havas’, making the group more meaningful as a multiplier that adds value across the portfolio,” Thom said.
