About VCCP Full Service Digital company in London, United Kingdom
We are the challenger agency for challenger brands. Put simply, we exist to transform the fortunes of our clients by challenging and disrupting the categories they operate in. With offices in Berlin, London, Madrid, New York, Prague, San Francisco and Syd
At VCCP our challenger attitude transforms the fortunes of our clients. For example we helped O2 become market leaders within three years of launching. And once we started working with easyJet their share price flew up from £4 to £14.
We have a motto: It only works if it all works which is why we involve ourselves in far more than just advertising. With a thorough understanding of each clients business we can challenge whats around it and then transform it.
Of course its not all about business. We love to be lauded with creative awards and are proud of our ever-increasing haul. Time and time again weve seen a direct link between our award-winning work and the upturn in the fortunes of clients who ran it. So heres another little motto: Good work works.
Charles is a brand strategist who began his advertising apprenticeship at Burkitts working subsequently at BBH and WCRS. In 2002 he decided to start working for himself and along with his three partners (Rooney Carruthers Adrian Coleman and Ian Priest) set up VCCP. Their founding client was O2 to whom they are eternally grateful. Over the last two decades Charles has worked on and in some cases helped launch a diverse range of brands including O2 ING Hiscox easyJet Canon Cadbury Dominos Dyson Nationwide and Vitality.
Outside of work Charles doggedly pursues a variety of sports including cricket tennis football golf shooting and snooker all at a consistently low standard. Charles is a Trustee for both The Change Foundation and The Fred Foundation and is co-author of a book called The Branded Gentry.
Adrian started out as a client with Esso Petroleum before moving to the agency side. In 1986 Adrian began work at the below-the-line agency IMP and he then moved to Chime-owned HHCL in 1993. During his seven-year stint at HHCL the agency was named Agency of the Decade. In 2000 he moved to Chime-owned AMD becoming its Chief Executive.
On the 24th January 2002 Adrian co-founded VCCP around Charles Vallances kitchen table where Vallance Coleman Carruthers and Priest were united by their desire to un-do the bad habits of big agencies. VCCP is now 16 years old and has grown from an agency of four to over 1100 people.
Adrian is Co CEO of Chime Communications and is a member of the Marketing Society.
Michael joined VCCP on its first day of business in 2002 becoming Managing Director in 2006 CEO in 2012 and VCCP Partnership CEO in 2018. Michael is also responsible for VCCP New York. In recent years VCCP has built itself a reputation for business transformation as evidenced by O2 comparethemarket.com EasyJet Nationwide and Cadbury.
Michael started his career at Claydon Heeley before moving to HHCL. During his career hes been privileged to work on brands such as O2 Google Microsoft Telefonica T-Mobile Unilever Coca-Cola Formula E and Macmillan among others. The proudest part of his career is being part of the team that has built VCCP from an idea to a 1000-strong agency in 8 offices around the world.
Michael is also a Director for the charity Health Improvement Project Zanzibar and the start up Different Dog. Outside of work amp; family Michael has raced motorbikes across the Sahara raced on foot to the magnetic North Pole and led expeditions across the Himalaya Andes and Tanami desert.
Darren started his career at WCRS creating award-winning work for Speedo funny work for Butterkist and launched Sega Dreamcast across Europe. He then moved to DDB London. But not for long. Next was a seven-year stint at Mother. Pimms ITV Digital PG Tips Schweppes Magic FM and Yellow Pages were all hits.
In 2008 Darren moved to be the creative lead of VCCP with the desire to create more famous and much loved advertising that populated culture.
VCCPs comparethemarket.com launched in 2009 and is still the nations favourite campaign. He encouraged everyone to be more dog for O2. Nationwide Building Society lets the nation speak about the issues that matter most with our Spoken word work. And more recently hes put Cadbury back in the nations hearts with theres a glass amp; a half in everyone. The Cadbury work is rolling out around the world to great effect.
Maggie qualified at KPMG whilst working on advertising clients. She left KPMG to join a privately owned agency called Clark amp; Taylor Plc as its Finance Director where she stayed for eight years until the agency was sold to AMV/BBDO. Following that Maggie joined Chime as Finance Director of its advertising and marketing services division AMS. She then moved to VCCP in 2006 as joint Finance Director when the company had 200 employees.
In July 2012 Maggie became Group CFO and now oversees all things Financial HR Legal Facilities and IT as well as overseeing the finances of VCCPs International offices.
Maggie is a Fellow of the IPA and is Honorary Treasurer of the IPA. She spends any spare time playing Candy Crush much to the disgust of her 6 year old daughter!
Michael joined VCCP in 2003 as its 26th employee after a varied previous life working in the music industry and for The Football Association. He was lead strategist for some of VCCPs most famous award-winning government advertising for the Department of Health (Sexual Health) and Home Office (anti-binge drinking) and carved an outstanding new business record including pitch wins for Hiscox Insurance Hyundai and easyJet. He was appointed Head of Planning in 2008 and helped VCCP secure its first ever Agency of the Year title in 2009 for Marketing magazine.
In October 2012 after a brief stint at AMV BBDO he was lured back to VCCP as our Executive Planning Director with strategic responsibility across the entire VCCP Partnership. Michael works across a number of accounts including Canon TfL and easyJet playing a key role in easyJets commercial transformation which led to the Marketing Society awarding easyJet a record 5 prizes including Brand of the Year and Long-Term Marketing Excellence.
He has a degree in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University.
David started out in advertising at Young and Rubicam working on accounts such as Heinz Baked Beans British Gas Smirnoff Royal Navy amp; Royal Marines Recruitment and Legal and General. After seven years he went to McCann-Erickson where he became a Managing Partner of the London office for nine years and won and ran clients such as Esso Bacardi Coca-Cola and the Irish Tourist Board as well as working on Nestle CGU and Bacardi.
He then joined Lowe worldwide for five years where he was the Global Business Director on Nokia and Electrolux before joining VCCP where he is the Group Managing Director. He is married and has three teenage children.
David went to the University of Durham where he studied Greek amp; Roman Civilisation Russian Studies and Anthropology.
Stephanie started her career in headhunting before moving into the Marketing and PR industry in 2003 specialising in the travel and lifestyle sector for six year. In 2010 Steph raced to the North Pole becoming the fastest woman to have ever done so whilst raising £50000 for Mencap. It was on this trip that she met Michael Sugden CEO VCCP Partnership and Andrew Peake CEO VCCP London.
Steph joined VCCP in late 2010 as Marketing and New Business director. VCCP was Marketing magazines Agency of the Year in 2011 and topped the industrys most in-demand agency rankings for seven years. Steph now sits on the VCCP Partnership management team as Group Chief Marketing Officer and is Group MD of its parent company Chime. She also sits on numerous boards including PR firm Good Relations the sports marketing agency CSM and The Marketing Society.
Peter graduated with an MBA in his native Vienna and has worked ever since in the communications industry mostly on the agency side.
He is a true cosmopolite who has lived and worked in Vienna Los Angeles Amsterdam Paris and London where he managed numerous global and pan-European brands.
Not least because of his background he has a great knowledge of what it takes to succeed as a brand when crossing borders and transcending cultures while being relevant to local markets.
Peter joined VCCP in 2004 and is responsible for the international business of the agency.
Julian Douglas or Dougie as he is better known is the Vice Chairman of the VCCP Partnership. He joined the agency in 2008 having previously worked at WCRS BBH TBWA and Grey London twice. With over 20 years experience he has created some of the worlds most successful campaigns both in the UK and internationally for brands including Audi Lynx O2 Telefonica Dominos Nationwide and Shell.
He holds a BA and MA from Jesus College Oxford an MBA from Warwick Business School and is a Fellow and Council Member of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. As the Chair of the IPAs Talent Leadership Group he originated Advertising Unlocked the annual joint industry open-day welcoming thousands of young people into the industry from right across the UK.
Outside of advertising he is a Founder of Lucky Voice the UKs premier chain of karaoke bars and online karaoke. His latest venture is Parent Pool a social enterprise on a mission to transform the childcare market through collaborative parenting.
Dougie was awarded 2018 Account Person of the Year by Campaign Magazine.
Our in-house capabilities include, advertising, social and content, search, media, digital, data, branding, content, invention, shopper, direct, health, luxury and business.
