LOCOG appoints Chime Communications as marketing communications agency

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has appointed The Chime Group as its retained marketing communications agency after a comprehensive pitch process. The appointment covers advertising, promotion, public relations and digital communications and is for a year, until March 2009, including the handover ceremonies in Beijing.

Chris Townsend Commercial Director of LOCOG commented: "The brief was to come up with an integrated marketing communications strategy and plan for the first year of the London 2012 Olympiad - which begins this year when the Beijing Games end in August. Chime came up with a marketing communications strategy that we feel perfectly suits the overall strategy of London 2012 and our vision to make this 'Everyone's Games.' We saw some terrific pitches and the standard of responses made it a tough decision but Chime's overall integrated approach was best suited to our plans."

Chris Satterthwaite Chief Executive of Chime said: "Briefs like this come round once in your lifetime only. LOCOG's vision of what the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games can do for UK is inspirational and we picked up on that. It's not just about sport it's about the spirit of the Games and the legacy they will leave. Our team of VCCP, VCCP Digital, BMT, Bell Pottinger, Fast Track and Chime knew it was an incredibly competitive brief so we kept coming back to the spirit of the Games and the vision of LOCOG and we are truly delighted to have won."

The LOCOG selection panel consisted of Chief Executive, Paul Deighton, Commercial Director, Chris Townsend, Communications and Public Affairs Director, Jackie Brock-Doyle and Head of Marketing, Chris Denny.

There may be a requirement for additional agency support, particularly in the arts and culture sector, and this will be tendered separately.

The appointment of Chime commences with immediate effect.

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For further information please contact the London 2012 Press Office on +44 (0)203 2012 100 or visit the website at www.london2012.com. Find out the latest from London 2012 HQ on our blog http://blog.london2012.com