From ‘not wanting to get out of bed’ to a ‘missing piece’ deal: Virginia Hyland and Matt Houltham on Havas Media’s indie acquisition
Last week, Havas Media made a big announcement: It had snapped up reputable indie, Hyland. Here, Matt Houltham and Virginia Hyland – chief executive of Havas Media and founder of Hyland respectively – tell Mumbrella’s Brittney Rigby why the deal is a sign of strength during market weakness from Havas, and a sign of hope for other independent agencies that are ‘slogging it right now’.
While Havas Media’s acquisition of independent media agency Hyland was only announced last week, the deal was two years in the making. Havas chair Mike Wilson and Hyland founder Virginia Hyland have known each other for 20 years – Wilson had to move desks when Hyland asked Mediaedge, now Wavemaker, “Could I please have one desk?” to set up her business – but started talking about the possibility of a sale a couple of years ago over coffee.
The “conversations got louder and stronger”, Hyland explains, at the end of last year; the two agencies had been working together on the Kitchenaid account for a number of months and realised “we really had, culturally, two very similar teams”. But a few months later, COVID-19 hit, and Hyland was suddenly confronted with the possibility that the business she’d spent 15 years building up could vanish, along with the Havas deal.
“I’ll never forget the end of March, when one hundred percent of my clients called me and said ‘We’re canceling our advertising’,” she recalls.
Heartfelt congrats Virg and well deserved. DJ