VCCP: Always evolving

As the second biggest advertising agency in the UK by Nielsen billings and by working across a diverse range of brands in different sectors, VCCP touches the nation in ways that most agencies cannot. As a result, this year its influence was felt practically everywhere.

Constantly in a state of evolution to stay ahead of the game, VCCP brought in a range of new talent across its divisions. James Shoreland joined VCCP Media as CEO alongside Will Parrish who took over the role of CSO, while the creative department (led globally by Darren Bailes) continues to expand.

The new business team, led by global chief growth officer Stephanie Brimacombe, marked up some meaty wins, including Hovis and Co-op, for the creatives to get their teeth into.

Creative Salon spoke with CSO Michael Lee about VCCP London’s year.

Michael Lee, chief strategy officer, on the agency's 2024

What have been the major highlights for your business in 2024?

Winning the Co-op business was a great achievement. We're really proud to have been chosen, they are a truly unique company. Our mission is to ensure they reap the full commercial benefits of being such an outstanding socially responsible business. At the same time, I love how the work we've created for Virgin Media Broadband has just got better and better, with the latest walrus on a speedboat film. I was in the cinema when it came on screen and unlike all the other ads, everyone stopped to watch it, utterly bewitched by what they were seeing.

What is your proudest achievement from the last 12 months?

In my strategy role for our creative AI agency faith, we've been developing the O2 Daisy scambaiters idea for a good few months. It was always one of these ideas that I thought would achieve real cultural cut-through if we managed to make Daisy convincing enough to keep scammers trying to convince an AI to hand over her details.

The fact that it did is down to the exceptional commitment and skill of our incredibly skillful creative technologists Ben Hopkins and Morten Legarth. The unbelievable worldwide media coverage we've had for Daisy is quite fantastic.

What are you most looking forward to next year?

I'm looking forward to a bit of stability in the world, but at the same time, I'm realistic enough to know we might have to carry on successfully improvising our way around the various unforeseen world events that are coming our way! At an industry level, I think the marketing community is finally acknowledging the extraordinary commercial value of something we've always believed in, which is compound creativity. It's brilliant to see System1 and the IPA put some meat on the bone in terms of evidencing this effect.

What do you feel have been the greatest industry challenges for agencies this year and why?

The political and economic uncertainty has definitely impacted the industry as a whole. I can't tell you the number of people I've spoken to across the whole marketing ecosystem who've said it's been an incredibly tough year. Having said that, I think tough years are the ones where as an agency you get to prove your resilience and resourcefulness and we have achieved a lot in the last 12 months that I'm very proud of.

Has the addition of any AI solution made the profound impact on your business that was expected? If so – what?

It was always a leap of faith (obviously), to proclaim our positive belief that Gen AI could be a springboard for great creative originality, not simply a technology that would automate jobs out of existence. I would say that the profound impact it's had in VCCP hasn't been down to a specific AI solution, but more to the launch of faith and the culture it created across the business. People have embraced its creative potential as a tool rather than feared it, and developed the craft skills to get exceptional results from training the various models we've produced. All the most successful ideas that have emerged from faith, be it Daisy, the O2 Bubl generator, or the Cadbury 200-year anniversary poster, all have in common the fact that they would not have been conceived without first knowing what was now possible through Gen AI.

What one change would you most like to see happen in the ad industry next year?

I would love to see more clients willing to do joint creative and media pitches. It has been so obvious for some time that media and creative should be fully joined up again. We work very closely with our counterparts in VCCP Media on quite a few projects, and the creative and effectiveness synergies are bigger than ever. Partnerships, platforms and co-creation are so essential to reaching audiences and building brands for any business targeting Millennials and Gen Z. It's such a relief to be able to start off in the same room, working from the same blank sheet of paper and have one conversation.

Creative Salon on VCCP London’s 2024

VCCP continued to evolve in 2024, starting with the hiring of James Shoreland and Will Parrish from Initiative Media to head its VCCP Media division. This was only the precursor to a year of investment in talent across the agency.

This investment was particularly noticeable on the creative floor; January saw Frances Leach join as creative director from adam&eveDDB, Filipe Birck and James Lucking-Pham join as senior creatives from Mother; and the midweight creative team Alice Goodrich and Lara Baxter join from Anomaly. A few months down the line it added to this talent pool with Nikki Lindman joining as creative director from Anomaly London where she was group creative director; Sam Adio and Ken Abalos joining from Havas London alongside Alice Marani and Katy Stanage from Ogilvy UK

Away from its creative departments, VCCP hired Lindsay Turner as managing director of VCCP Media from LADbible. 

It announced two new business wins early into the year, with VCCP becoming creative lead for Hovis and creative and strategy lead for Co-op. 

From existing clients, VCCP's worked impressed - as always. Its ‘Secret Santa’ campaign for Cadbury from Christmas 2023 landed an IPA Effectiveness Award.

VCCP also helped Cadbury celebrate its 200th birthday with an integrated campaign championing the British public and its love for the iconic chocolate bars. ‘Yours for 200 Years’ continued throughout the year which saw nostalgic remakes of posters all the way back to 1915 to using Gen AI to allow consumers to celebrate its heritage. 

Its European Championship campaign for Müller saw the England and Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice front the ‘Rice + Protein’ work - a continuation of its ‘Rice, Rice Baby’ campaign. The OOH posters aimed to show the power Müller Rice Protein has to help people in everyday scenarios, with Declan Rice showing off super-human strength in a comedic fashion.

Ahead of Dua Lipa’s Wembley Stadium Tour and the announcement that she would be a Glastonbury headliner, O2 promoted the pop star with its ‘Walk Ad’, returning for the first time in six years. The film showcased Lipa's journey into stardom and gave fans behind the scenes footage of her walk onto the stage. Previous artists who have carried out the walk consist of: Beyoncé, Coldplay and Lady Gaga.

During the European Championships, VCCP created a Euros 2024 brand platform for Walkers with ‘No Walkers, No Game’.

As well as ads featuring David Beckham and Thierry Henry sharing a crunch, tactical print and social work attempted to capture the feelings of the nation at key moments, such as Ollie Watkins’ last-minute winner against the Netherlands and England’s eventual loss in the final. Posters were accompanied with: ‘Thank You England. You Did Us Proud’ and ‘In The Bag’.

‘Walrus Whizzer’ for Virgin Media brought back the concept of an animal travelling at high-speed accompanied by a nostalgic soundtrack to showcase the freedom that better broadband can bring.

Creative Salon says… Being one of the biggest agencies comes with its own challenges that can restrict growth. It was pleasing then that VCCP landed two particularly choice accounts - Hovis and Co-op - while providing an excellent level of service to its existing client base that was evident in its work.