This week Havas acquired a majority stake (51%) in Uncommon Creative Studio, the most awarded and fastest growing independent creative company in the UK, reinforcing Havas’ longstanding commitment to investing in creativity to develop meaningful brands. The Uncommon founders will retain a material stake in the business (49%), maintaining their entrepreneurial zest, growing their brand globally and sharing best practice across Havas and parent company Vivendi, a world leader in media, entertainment, and communication.

This landmark deal reflects the entrepreneurial approach of Havas and bucks the industry standard deals – valuing the future potential of Uncommon at £80-120 million considering their projected growth plans. Uncommon will retain its brand, vision and freedom to make its own decisions across its client partners, internal team and creative output in this exciting next stage of growth for the studio.

Uncommon has already attracted some of the world’s biggest and most influential companies, building ‘brands that people in the real world actually wish existed’. The fast-growing agency has twice been named Creative Agency of the Year in the UK, as well as being recently named AdAge’s International Agency of the Year in only 5 years of existence and remains the only majority female-founded company of its scale in the industry.

The addition of Uncommon is yet another clear signal that creativity is at the forefront of what Havas delivers to their clients every day. Alongside Havas London, whose creative reputation continues to grow, it will further strengthen Havas’ presence in the UK. It will also offer an important opportunity to expand the creative network in the United States, building and accelerating on Uncommon’s already robust roster of major US clients won thanks to the agency’s global and diverse mindset, creative reputation and unique studio approach unmatched elsewhere. This deal will supercharge Uncommon’s growth globally and its continued expansion into new capabilities.

Uncommon will retain and grow its brand globally, while collaborating with Havas’ powerful network and world class entertainment brands thanks to Vivendi, such as Canal+, Universal Music Group and Gameloft, to drive creativity across a bigger canvas.