Havas Announces Acquisition of Ledger Bennett, A UK-Based B2B Marketing Agency

Havas has announced the acquisition of Ledger Bennett, a global B2B marketing agency with headquarters in the United Kingdom. This move will expand Havas’ capabilities in the rapidly expanding B2B market in the United Kingdom and abroad. Ledger Bennett will now be affiliated with the Havas Media Network and branded as “Ledger Bennett, a Havas Company.” Havas recently made a strategic acquisition of Ledger Bennett to modernize its operating model. It is in response to client demands for faster organizational transformation toward greater customer focus.

Havas announces acquisition of Ledger Bennett

Established in 1985 by Nicholas Ledger, Ledger Bennett has established itself as a formidable force in business-to-business (B2B) marketing thanks to its comprehensive ‘Forever Customer’ offering. This proposition generates enduring value and a smooth brand encounter throughout the B2B marketing process, in line with Havas’ customer-centric evolution strategy. Ledger Bennett currently serves clients in the industrial, tech, and B2B services sectors, including GE Digital and LinkedIn, and is active in EMEA, APAC, and North America.

Fastest growing B2B agency

Since Andrea Glenn took over as CEO in 2022, Ledger Bennett’s revenue has increased by 50%. This is thanks to acquisitions such as Expleo, Aptean, and Indeed. Ledger Bennett was named the fifth fastest-growing B2B agency in the United States in 2023 by the B2B Marketing Awards, which were held under her direction. With its progressive “Fluid Talent” model, marketing talent is seamlessly integrated into a client’s organization. It gives them the scale and skills they require as demands come and go. Its concept has brought it recognition across the industry for projects like its GE Digital “Mastering the Balance” campaign, among other things.

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Expanding B2B capabilities with the acquisition

Havas made the acquisition as the most recent move in its effort to broaden the range of services it offers. Additionally, to better serve its clients’ evolving digital and data needs as they become more customer-focused. To strengthen its capabilities in performance marketing, dynamic creative and content services, and ecommerce, Havas has acquired Search Laboratory, additive+, and Expert Edge (now Havas Market UK) over the past two years. Along with Havas Play, a global creative cultural partnerships and activations agency, the company also brought Havas Media Network’s audience and data platform, Converged, to the United Kingdom in 2023. This is because agencies are rushing to implement cookie-less cross-platform planning-to-activation solutions.

Since two-thirds (66%) of B2B marketers expect their budget to increase or remain the same over the next 12 months, Ledger Bennett gives Havas’s B2B capabilities even more scale and depth to meet the exponential. Moreover, it gives ongoing growth in B2B marketing requirements and budgets. The fully integrated offering from Ledger Bennett also enhances the B2B services provided by Havas Media Network members Maitland and Gate One, two other Havas Village London agencies. Ledger Bennett intends to explore the untapped potential of current Havas Village functionalities. These include CX and e-commerce, for business-to-business applications.

B2B journey in U.K

To officially begin its B2B journey, Havas Media Network UK established a specialized division in 2022 called Havas Business. Havas Business currently works with companies like 3M, JDE Professional, and Maersk. Furthermore, it was awarded the Grand Prix at WARC B2B effectiveness for the past two years. Under Ledger Bennett, Havas Business will unite, creating a B2B specialty within the Havas Media Network with over 100 employees.

The London-based employees of Ledger Bennett will relocate to Havas Village London in March 2024. Andrea Glenn, the CEO of the agency, will lead it and report to Patrick Affleck, CEO of Havas Media Network UK, and Ireland.

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Here’s what they said

Yannick Bolloré, Chairman and Global CEO, Havas, said,

We are excited to welcome Andrea, the Ledger Bennett team and its impressive list of clients into our Havas family. Bringing together marketing, sales, customer and product teams under the goal of maximizing customer lifetime value is going to be critical for the best brands in the next five years. Ledger Bennett brings a go-to-market solution to our Village that perfectly supports our One Havas strategy. The growth of B2B marketing continues to accelerate and will be important for B2B brands as well as B2C brands with B2B potential.

Patrick Affleck, CEO, Havas Media Network UK & Ireland, commented,

B2B marketing is ripe for disruption and Ledger Bennett are genuine disruptors within this space. Its ‘Forever Customer’ proposition, which focuses on creating lifetime value is both unique and differentiating and will bring further sophistication to our existing B2B offering. Andrea has done an incredible job at turning Ledger Bennett into a fast-growing business with immediate expansion potential and a compelling highly scalable solution. Importantly, Ledger Bennett is trusted by some of the world’s most ambitious, progressive and sophisticated global businesses, and I’m excited about what we can further build and achieve together.

Andrea Glenn, CEO, Ledger Bennett, a Havas company, added,

When we started this process, we wanted to disrupt B2B marketing. Our conversations with Havas have been energising and there’s a palpable ambitious appetite to scale B2B within Havas Media Network and throughout Havas. That’s convinced us Havas would be a great place to accelerate our growth with a combined offering of progressive B2B capabilities from Ledger Bennett and B2C firepower from Havas.

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