How VCCP’s ‘challenger’ spirit is helping brands build market share

Pitching itself as a challenger agency for challenger brands, VCCP has been on a roll this year, securing 45 new clients including the Co-op, Primark and National Lottery operator Allwyn.

Seeking to challenge the norm, the agency collaborated with Primark on its first US brand campaign, took football legends David Beckham and Thierry Henry to the British countryside with Walkers and put Mini Eggs on a 3cm billboard to celebrate Easter.

VCCP’s longstanding relationship with Cadbury contributed to a 22% rise in value sales for the chocolate brand to £1.4bn. The agency also helped White Claw grow market share by 13% year on year to become the number one hard seltzer brand in the US, UK, Canada and Australia.

Elsewhere, VCCP is embracing the potential of artificial intelligence. Last year the team launched AI creative agency Faith, working with clients such as Sage and Virgin Media O2. A member of the Advertising Association (AA) Taskforce for Generative AI, VCCP is helping to shape new policies.

There is also work ongoing internally to build a diverse culture. VCCP’s DE&I Collective has driven a 78% increase in entry-level ethnic minority hires and helped the agency reach 50% women in its senior leadership teams.

Winner of Marketing Week and the AA’s inaugural 2023 Talent Trailblazer Award, VCCP’s Stoke Academy worked with over 200 diverse students last year alone on its mission to make the industry more accessible and socially diverse through work experience, mentoring and paid internships.

This year has also seen the agency launch global thought leadership programme ‘Challenger Series’, a move which contributed to VCCP scooping the 2024 Marketing Week Award for Agency of the Year.