Full-year - Chime Communications PLC

Advertising and Marketing ServicesAdvertisingand MarketingServices DivisionChime’s Advertising andMarketing Services Divisionincludes the agencies of theVCCP Group, the sportsmarketing agency Fast Trackand specialist financial servicesagency Teamspirit.Across the Advertising and Marketing Services Division,Chime’s agencies have found opportunities to maintain orgrow revenues, despite the growing pressure on marketingbudgets. Prospects for the short and medium term remainstrong, supported by increased exposure to public sectorbudgets, innovative integrated offerings and growth in sportsmarketing activity in part resulting from the approach of the2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London.VCCP GroupA strong new business performance and an expandingfootprint amongst public sector clients are helping VCCPGroup to meet targets and deliver stable revenues. VCCPhas also expanded internationally, recently opening anoffice in Berlin to stand alongside the presence in Qatarand Abu DhabiVCCP won and launched a major Government campaignon alcohol awareness under the campaign message‘Alcohol: know your limits’, which provides ongoing workacross three separate departments. High profile and hugelysuccessful, the campaign involved the agency developingdifferent iterations of a central campaign theme to fit the keychallenges and messages of the Department of Health,Home Office and Department for Children, Schools andFamilies. The integrated campaign includes TV, print anddigital advertising, with one viral advertisement generatingover a million hits within six weeks. Early research showsa strong impact on attitudes resulting from the campaign,which is aimed at delivering long-term behavioural changeacross a number of key demographics.Further exposure to the public sector comes through VCCPGroup’s work on the Get Real campaign for the School FoodTrust, which integrates advertising across print and digitalmedia with roadshows created by the Group’s promotionalmarketing agency, BMT. VCCP also won the account forthe Food Standards Agency during the year, as wellas a campaign for the National Health Service promotingHepatitis C testing.Despite the downturn, VCCP succeeded in securing severalnew accounts in the financial services sector, launchinghigh-profile through-the-line campaigns for Standard Life andHiscox Insurance. The Group’s direct marketing agency SFWwon a place on the global roster for RSA and the Europeanroster for Visa. VCCP Blue, which was initially designedto offer advertising to clients on challenging budgets, hascontinued its rate of growth by both attracting new clientsand developing its smaller clients into large clients.The success of ongoing work for established clients addsmore stability to the Group’s revenues. VCCP led a hugelysuccessful brand update campaign for O2, which introducedthe campaign message “we’re better, connected” andis continuing to raise the brand’s profile across the musicindustry, building on the success of The O2, now the world’smost popular entertainment venue. BMT and SFW, ourpromotional marketing and direct marketing agencies, gainstability from the 25% of their revenues that are sharedacross the Group, providing a pipeline of ongoing, contractedwork in project-led sectors.Advertising and MarketingServices DivisionThe VCCP GroupVCCPBMTBMT BusinessVCCP BlueVCCP DigitalVCCP HealthVCCP SearchSFWSomeOneSpecialistsFast TrackFast Track SailingFast Track SpainPure MediaStuart HigginsCommunicationsTeamspiritThe Sports BusinessXandY Communications16Chime Communications plcAnnual Report & Accounts 2008