Marketing firm Chime Communications, which owns ad agency VCCP, "reported profit before tax" of £9.6M ($15.9M) in the first half of '14, "more than 15 times what it made a year earlier, after the World Cup and other tournaments boosted its sports arm," according to James Swift of CAMPAIGN LIVE. The group's revenue was £198.5M ($329M) in the first six months of '14, up an "impressive" 41.5% year on year in a "period that
included a World Cup, Winter Olympics and the run-up to the Commonwealth
Games." Headline profit before tax at Chime for the first six months of the year
was £16.2M ($27M). This was 43% higher than the £11.3M earned "in the same period" in '13, but the "increase drops to 19
per cent if acquisitions are stripped out" (CAMPAIGN LIVE, 8/27). PR WEEK's Daniel Farey-Jones reported Chime claimed its sports division, which grew operating profit by 116%, delivered "29 separate projects at the World Cup, of which eight were directly for FIFA and 21 were for sponsors." It added that "some contracts for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games were already being negotiated" (PR WEEK, 8/27). THE DRUM's Ishbel Macleod reported that Chime "also predicted" that the UEFA European Championships in '16 would "also help growth." Chime CEO Christopher Satterthwaite said, "We have had a strong first half driven by our involvement in the
Winter Olympics, the FIFA World Cup and the Commonwealth Games" (THE DRUM, 8/27).
