Do inventive company billings matter? Or, within the period of mission work and all kinds of ancillary actions – buyer expertise is the present fave – is revenue all that issues?

Whether it is, it’s onerous to get a steer on particular person companies because the holding firms by and huge don’t escape such particulars. However billings nonetheless give an fascinating perception into scale and scope and Marketing campaign’s just lately printed Nielsen billings (subscription required) present one factor fairly emphatically: within the UK VCCP is by far the most important. And it’s solely more likely to get greater.

In 2022 VCCP’s billings elevated by 34% to to £483m (£100m or so forward of nearest rivals Saatchi & Saatchi, McCann and former yr chief adam&eveDDB. Its declared revenue was £142m and it employed 1154 employees, an unparalleled quantity amongst UK inventive companies today. It received 37 accounts, dropping solely Paddy Energy (as you do.)

It has since misplaced Nationwide to New Business Arts, pulling out of the pitch, however is at the moment contending for Sainsbury’s and has received a bit of recent Nationwide Lottery proprietor Allwyn. To get to £483m billings with out a grocery store account is extraordinary. In a yr’s time it might effectively be even greater.

VCCP, MAA’s 2022 Company of the 12 months (surprisingly it did not make Marketing campaign’s shortlist), started life as Vallance Carruthers Coleman Priest in 2002 (all beneath). Positioned because the challenger community for challenger purchasers, it received 02 early on and hardly appeared again though it did survive a spell of possession by Tim Bell’s Chime who purchased it for a reported £30m after a earlier foray into promoting had come unstuck with as soon as high-flying HHCL. This introduced Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP into the combination, which led to extra turbulence. Now it’s owned by Windfall Fairness.

VCCP might hardly be extra totally different to HHCL which crashed and burned after a quick spell of fame and (largely) fortune. Over the previous decade or so it’s appeared ever the bridesmaid however now it would maybe get the popularity it deserves. Our Company of the 12 months gong, after all, however sitting on prime of the company billings league will even be observed within the wider world, no matter you factor of inventive company billings as a forex.

That is an amended model of an earlier story.