REVEALING THE HAVAS REBRAND Charlotte Rambaud, Global Chief Communications Officer, Havas, sits down with Christian de la Villehuchet, Global Chief Integration Officer, Havas, and Thom Newton, Global CEO, Conran Design Group, to learn more about refreshing our iconic brand. Christian de la Villehuchet: This is a Thom Newton: In our initial meeting, we all Charlotte: The visual identity looks pretty special moment in Havas’ history, agreed that we needed to make the Havas brilliant, too. Seeing that coming to life isn’t it? An updated and modernised brand brand a more meaningful business asset is going to be really exciting… and a simplified brand architecture model. – it had lost its way and wasn’t working as hard as it could to help clients navigate Thom: Yes, definitely. We’ve elevated Charlotte Rambaud: It really is. To unveil services and to demonstrate to clients the visual identity in a number of ways: our new brand marks a defining moment and talent why Havas is one of the world’s we’ve optimised the distinctive Havas in our almost 200-year history. It’s been leading global communications groups. Red, created a new characterful but modern a huge project involving many stakeholders logotype, introduced new supporting – starting with Yannick Bolloré, Donna Christian: This wasn’t about changing typefaces and revised our approach to the Murphy and Peter Mears– and has been our positioning or our culture but about use of graphic elements like photography delivered at lightning speed by the team magnifying these as brand differentiators, and colour. We’ve also introduced a at Conran Design Group. But it’s one that along with our name and the Village 25-degree angle into the system that was imperative from both a business philosophy, which is the embodiment signifies positive momentum; the angle and brand point of view. We have the of our collaborative spirit. stems from the marque itself but runs into most integrated and collaborative offering the wider design system, giving agencies of the industry; we have one name, Havas, Thom: We needed to elevate and protect and creative departments more to work and 70+ Villages around the world. We share the Havas brand, the Havas networks and with in design terms. From a Village one vision around meaningfulness and the differentiating components like the Village perspective, we now have one global same entrepreneurial spirit. And we’re very model. These were being obscured by Havas Village brand to unify the 70+ Villages, proud to be part of Vivendi, a global leader so many different variations of the Havas but with the flexibility that allows teams to in media, entertainment and communications. brand, as well as sub-brands and promotional personalise by city or region, according to But our existing brand and brand architecture initiatives. Havas was struggling to present local culture, market context and influence. weren’t communicating this. itself as a singular global entity and struggling to be clear about its difference Charlotte: The new brand is all about Christian: We’d become fragmented and in the marketplace. We needed to create positive upward momentum, which I think confused to internal and external audiences a unified brand architecture to put the has been conveyed in a way that’s simple, – possibly because we’ve always wanted focus back on Havas, clarifying the structure iconic and timeless. The brand marque Havas agencies and operating companies of our offer – both internally and externally. is a multiplier – it speaks to what we offer to maintain their entrepreneurialism and through the Village philosophy, our positioning have their own sense of self-expression. If I’m honest, it wasn’t the most straightforward around meaningfulness, and our link But clients were struggling to understand of brand architecture projects, partly because to Vivendi. how to navigate us as a network – of definitions that had become blurred over struggling to know about the different time. Before we did anything else, we had Thom: And getting to this point was services we offer and how we work to make sure we were all aligned on achieved within a tight timeframe. together as one organisation. And we’re terminology. Then, it was about moving We shared four initial concepts with the a client-facing communications group away from a world where everything steering group and the Havas Executive – our brand has an active relationship with needed a new logo – to a world where Committee in December; the chosen route clients, which is a big differentiator for us. the Havas brand DNA is suffused through was felt to balance the premium quality everything we do. The new approach and sophistication of Havas with a sense Charlotte: As well as needing an optimised brings coherence to the group and allows of dynamism and modernity. navigation and brand architecture, we also key differentiators such as the Village and needed to increase our differentiation and Meaningful Brands to stand out. Christian: I think it’s fair to say that we’ve ensure the Havas brand strongly projects got big ambitions for the brand: it’s going its ‘meaningful’ positioning and focus We talked to over a dozen CMOs of Havas’ to play a crucial role in helping us become on content, media and entertainment. biggest clients to get their thoughts on the the most meaningful and integrated clarity of service offering. Now, rather than communications group in the world. Christian: Yes, and the first challenge was being presented with a confusing mix of And it’s an exciting collective responsibility around simplifying our architecture and business divisions, networks and operating that we now share: getting behind the new positioning – and becoming more client- companies on Havas.com, clients will be brand to harness its potential to make us centric as a result. That was what compelled able to navigate to the Havas partner they even more client-centric and differentiated us to reach out to Thom and the Conran need via nine core services. Easier to – and treating it as the business asset that Design Group team in July last year. understand for clients, partners and talent. it needs to be. And we’ll soon start to see it consistently brought to life across Village environments – from Madrid to Singapore, New York to Mexico – which really will be special! THE IDENTITY ISSUE 11 Q + A