PHD and ZenithOptimedia to share HM Revenue and Customs

The two agencies, owned respectively by Omnicom and Publicis, were the only competitors in the review, handled by the Central Office of Information.
Naked’s work on campaigns aimed at individuals, such as Tax Credits and Child Trust Funds, will be unaffected by the review.
PHD will be charged with communicating with small-to medium-sized enterprises about PAYE, Corporation Tax, VAT, a helpline for newly self-employed people and the Construction Industry Scheme.
ZenithOptimedia will raise awareness of issues such as illegal meat and fuels, smuggling and Alcohol Strategy projects.
A major part of the alcohol task will be the October 1 launch of the UK Duty Stamps Scheme, which will tackle spirits duty fraud by ruling that spirits or wine containing more than 30% alcohol must carry a Duty Stamp.
HMRC head of marketing Simon Vessey said: “We decided to consolidate our communications planning agencies after holding the pitch. The agencies were selected on the strength of their planning proposals to engage our target audience and influence behaviour.”
HMRC was formed in 2005 by the merger of Customs & Excise and the Inland Revenue. Its creative agency is Cheetham Bell JWT.
The COI’s £148m strategic planning roster consists of BLM, Carat, Experience, Ingram, Manning Gottlieb OMD, MediaCom, Mediaedge:cia, MindShare, Naked, PHD, Rise Communications, Starcom, Universal McCann and ZenithOptimedia.

This article was first published on Media Week