Just over 23 years ago, VCCP launched its first campaign for O2, the mobile network created following its demerger from BT. VCCP started working with the company in its first year of business, making the telco a founding partner of the agency.

The partnership began when the brand approached Charles Vallance, founder and chairman of VCCP, about pitching for the business because of the team’s work launching mobile network Orange in the UK.

“Orange was seen as a defining moment in launch terms, in the category and the wider category,” Vallance says. “O2 had similar ambitions to not launch into the category, but almost redefine the category.”

A lot has happened since then, not least the merger with Virgin Media to create the Virgin Media O2 business in 2021. But over two decades later, the partnership with VCCP is still going strong.

Speaking on Marketing Week’s This Much I Learned podcast, Vallance and VMO2’s marketing director Simon Valcarcel tell host and Marketing Week editor-in-chief Russell Parsons about the qualities needed to maintain a long-lasting relationship.

Redefining the category and working as a team

In the early days, Vallance notes that the main challenges were “redefining” the category, reorienting the customer and reinventing the organisation to be more “customer-led”.

“It was a market that was acquisition-obsessed,” he says. “It was a market that grabbed customers and then overcharged them. There was massive churn and massive levels of dissatisfaction and cynicism.”

Valcarcel began working as an advertising manager at O2 and alongside VCCP 14 years ago. He remembers the words of the person who hired him, which changed his perspective on the role of agency relationships: “We treat our partners as an extension of our marketing team,” she told him.

It’s a perspective that has governed his mindset as he’s progressed through his career.

“You can’t just fire your finance team. You can’t say, right, let’s go and get another one off the shelf, we’re not happy with them anymore. You have to work at it and improve it over time,” he notes.

Now the two teams provide two-way feedback every four months on a range of areas, from account management to how “bold” the businesses are in the types of ideas being signed off. Meanwhile, Vallance says VMO2 is customer-driven, meaning the agency can “push harder” than in a classic transactional relationship. “If your agendas are aligned, relationships flourish,” he says.

Honesty and keeping things ‘fresh’

The ability to be honest, trust each other, and push back when ideas differ contribute to the longevity of the relationship.

Vallance cites an example when a former O2 CMO initially resisted an idea that turned out to be one of the brand’s most famous ad campaigns. On the other hand, Valcarcel discusses how he went against the agency’s recommendation to use a different piece of music in its most recent ad. Despite the conflicting opinions, the key is having no “resistance or resentment”.

“At the time, I stuck my neck out and was pretty nervous. But given the strength of trust that we’ve built over the years, it was just that we’ve made the decision. Let’s move forward together,” explains Valcarel.

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“No one has a monopoly on being right,” adds Vallance. “It’s almost essential to be wrong on quite a regular basis if you’re prepared to keep that open mind.

When asked about keeping things fresh while maintaining consistency in a long-lasting relationship, Vallance says the key is “continually” refreshing with a “coherently recognisable space in people’s minds”.

According to Valcarcel, VCCP’s understanding of the business is second to none, as is its willingness to tackle issues of the future. For example, instead of shying away from AI developments, the agency created AI agency Faith and has used it to tackle business issues, like creating an AI tool to deter scam callers.

“It was a proactive idea from VCCP that we took a punt on,” he says. “The way that they remain fresh is by challenging themselves.”

A good brief

Meanwhile, brief writing can be a sore point between brands and agencies, but Valcarcel says that isn’t the case for them as the agency is an extension of the marketing teams. Despite it being a vital part of the process, the brand and agency often co-create the brief together.

“Quite often, VCCP will push back on propositions that have gone through many internal rounds,” he says.

“That challenge is something that we really value as part of the brief writing process. But ultimately, a good brief starts with strong customer insight, a problem you’re trying to fix, or a behaviour you’re trying to shift, so that’s where we tend to focus.”

However, Valcarcel notes that in 2017, the brand gave VCCP a “pretty terrible” brief about insurance for a new phone.

“It was just a soup of stuff. There was no real clarity of thought,” he says. However, the agency recognised that the most interesting thing was the free screen replacement as part of the insurance plan. The campaign that came off the back of that insight became the third most-awarded campaign globally that year.

“It was a bad brief, but the strength of the relationship moulded that into a good brief that then led to great outcomes.”

From opening up about mental health issues to closing the career confidence gap, you can listen to previous episodes of Marketing Week’s This Much I Learned podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud and Spotify.