UK-based Wilderness will join Havas Play, supercharging Havas’ global social offering and enhancing existing capabilities to help clients better connect with their audiences through meaningful content and experiences. 

Havas today announces the acquisition of Wilderness, bringing deep social marketing expertise to Havas globally and enhancing the existing social media services offered within Havas Village London, its PR agencies, and Havas Play, Havas’ global network dedicated to connecting brands to consumer passions through experiences that put brands at the crossroads of culture, entertainment, and sports. The acquisition is the latest strategic move by Havas to evolve its operating model to accelerate clients’ transition to become more customer-centric organisations. Wilderness will join Havas Play gaining access to the network’s global scale and client base and contributing to its growth story.      

Founded by Tom Jarvis in 2015, Wilderness rose to prominence working as an in-house partner to major entertainment brands including Sony Pictures, 20th Century, and Universal Pictures where the firm built deep specialism in strategic and creative excellence through its services including branded content, shoppable experiences, always-on production and more. Wilderness has quickly scaled this entertainment-led approach to social to new verticals such as food and drink, FMCG, travel, fashion, and technology, among other consumer sectors and, today, counts the likes of Disney+, BBC Studios, Ticketmaster and NOW, among its clients. In 2023, Wilderness also added projects for Sky Mobile, Sykes Holidays, Heineken, and Dolby, among others, to its work portfolio.    

In under a decade, Wilderness has been recognised at Digiday Europe Awards, Marketing Week Awards, Digital Impact Awards, The Drum DADI and the Promax awards. It was also named as a top 50 agency by The Drum (2021) and nominated for a Webby (2021) for Best Social in the Lifestyle, Health, and Wellness category for its work with Fresh Fitness Food. Among Wilderness’ most iconic work is its campaign supporting HBO across the final season of Game of Thrones, for which it won Best of Twitter (now X) at the Drum Social Media Awards.   

Wilderness’ London-based staff will move to Havas Village London in March 2024 and form a 30+ strong dedicated social media team as part of the Havas Play Network which was launched globally by Havas in 2023. Nick Wright, Chief Growth Officer of Havas Media Network UK, will be responsible for the strategic integration of Wilderness into Havas, putting in place a rapid growth plan for the agency. Wright will work closely with Rosie Holden, President of Havas Play UK, to ensure that Tom Jarvis, Managing Director of Wilderness and his team quickly hit the ground running.     

About Havas

Founded in 1835 in Paris, Havas is one of the world’s largest global communications networks, with more than 23,000 people in over 100 countries sharing one single mission: to make a meaningful difference to brands, businesses, and people. Havas has developed a fully integrated model through its 70+ Havas Villages around the world, covering all communication activities. The teams of the three business units, Havas Creative Network, Havas Media Network and Havas Health & You, work together with agility and in perfect synergy to offer tailor-made, innovative solutions to clients that support them in their positive transformation. Havas is committed to building a diverse culture where everybody feels they belong and can be themselves and thrive. Havas integrated into Vivendi, a global leader in media, entertainment, and communications, in December 2017. Further information about Havas is available at www.havas.com.

About Wilderness

Wilderness is the multi-award-winning social media transformation agency, transforming the strategy, management, and operations of some of the world’s most beloved brands. Founded in 2015 by Tom Jarvis the agency has teams in London and across Europe and Africa servicing clients across EMEA. The agencies current clients include Disney, Ticketmaster, BBC Studios, Dolby, Paramount, and financial services brand CheckMyFile.  For more on Wilderness visit:  www.wilderness.agency.