‘There’s appetite for what we’re doing’: how Havas Entertainment doubled billings

Bethesda, the publisher behind Elder Scrolls Online, is one of Havas Entertainment’s clients / Bethesda

Just two years after its launch, Havas’s entertainment and gaming-focused integrated media agency is bringing in over £150m ($180m) in billings.

Havas Entertainment, set up by the French holding company in 2020, sought to combine expertise in pop culture, gaming, music and cinema within a single media agency. The move aimed to capitalize on a number of emergent consumer trends – particularly the upsurge in time spent with gaming media during the pandemic – and has been a success, according to managing director Nick Wright.

“We’ve managed to find a real appetite for what we do. People wanted things differently; they wanted to behave more like entertainment brands and they needed an agency that ‘got’ them,” he tells The Drum.

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Though it offers the standard set of integrated media services, the agency focuses exclusively on clients in the broader entertainment space, from games publishers and developers to toymakers, film distributors to headphone manufacturers and TV networks.

“Marketing and comms around entertainment had got quite lazy. Every entertainment vertical was in transition, as well. We managed to hit with the right proposition and with the right narrative,” he says.

The agency now has a client roster numbering 96 brands, a headcount of 150 and doubled its annual billings last year to bring in £153m ($184m); revenues are up 60% on last year. “There’s not an agency in the UK that can boast a client list within our space like Havas Entertainment can,” he says.

Gaming growth

In particular, it numbers some of the biggest names in gaming on that roster – such as Elder Scrolls publisher Bethesda, Square Enix and Sega.

Stalling momentum among top gaming companies, however, could present an obstacle to Havas Entertainment’s goals. A strong seasonal period saved Activision Blizzard’s otherwise anemic sales last year, while Microsoft – which owns Bethesda – made a series of job cuts in its gaming divisions recently.

Wright isn’t perturbed. There are enough AAA games studios for agencies to share, he says, and as the sector matures further, smaller publishers will have marketing budgets to swing around too.

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“The growth we have seen in gaming has also come from a lot of smaller publishers. We’ve got 15 games publishers and the growth we’ve seen there is at the top and bottom and everything in between.

“I’m not worried about hitting a ceiling in gaming. You’ve got lots of publishers and we’re very well set up to accommodate lower billing clients; we can still make them quite profitable because we’re delivering more than one service offering,” he says.

Though Wright says the agency was in a “pitching frenzy” as it sought to dig out a niche in the market, much of that growth has come from taking regional or national clients global. For example, he claims the agency helped drive 30% organic growth at Square Enix and increased organic growth at indie developer client 505 Games by 1,200%, after bringing the latter to audiences in Asia Pacific, North America and the rest of the EMEA region.

That strategy hasn’t just worked for its gaming clients. Though it’s based out of London, the agency operates in most of Havas’s territories and around a third of its accounts are now international briefs.

“We can deliver media from the UK, globally, and expand into other markets and therefore grow our opportunities for revenue,” he explains. And that specialist knowledge used to pull in entertainment clients can also benefit CPGs and automakers, he notes. “Our knowledge and expertise within gaming can service the rest of the media group. If there are clients in Havas Media who want to activate within gaming, we can put those brands into gaming because we have the knowledge of that space.”

Furthermore, the agency’s integrated model has helped juice organic growth, he says. “What would be normally regarded as a cross-sell comes naturally to us. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re trying to sell clients things they don’t want, we’re just delivering solutions based on the strategy, the ideas and the thing they’ve bought into right from the off – a different way of approaching media and comms.”

Save and refresh

The agency spent much of the last year on the front foot for new business, bringing in 17 fresh clients. Though some of those came in through the side door (its Badoo account was won on the back of sister brand Bumble’s recommendation), Wright puts that down to an emphasis on the chemistry round of reviews.

“We’re not a make-up-the-numbers media review agency,” he says.” I would rather be knocked out in the chemistry because we’re not the right agency for you, and save all that time and that pressure and stress. We’ve done a lot to pick the right opportunities and be as efficient with our time in pitching.”

But now the business is established, Wright is changing tack on its growth strategy. With almost 100 clients to service, there are only so many more that can be brought on board.

“The focus for us this year is putting a lot of those learnings into practice, making sure our systems are in place, making sure teams are supported… to develop the products and further ensure that we focus on the clients we’ve got in the fold.”

The business is now in a position to be pickier, he says. “Going into this year, we’re going to be more selective. We’ve reached a tipping point where we can make sure we’re picking the right things that reflect the agency.

“It’s got to be the right client for us, with the right ambition, the right connection and chemistry. That’s when we can really flourish.”

Got a story for me? Give me a shout: sam.bradley@thedrum.com