The Identity and Passport Service has signed up an advertising agency to develop campaigns for its services.

Abbot Mead Vickers BBDO won the contract following a three-way pitch organised by the Central Office of Information against CHI & Partners and VCCP. It will work in all media across the agency's entire area of work, including identity cards, passports and the General Register Office (GRO).

The contract is set to last three to four years and has no firm value. A spokesperson for the IPS told GC News that the agency is not on a paid retainer, but will obtain a commission from the advertising it places for the IPS.

No firm plans are yet in place. The spokesperson said: "The next step is working to develop a campaign to support all the products the IPS offers."

James Hall, IPS chief executive, said: "IPS needs an agency to support the development of a creative strategy targeting a variety of audiences across all our work, including the National Identity Scheme. Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO has shown a high degree of creativity and some excellent long term strategic thinking."

Meanwhile, immigration minister Phil Woolas has said that by 26 February 2009 the IPS had issued 10,596 identity cards to foreign nationals in the UK since it began the process in December. He was responding to a parliamentary question from Conservative MP Michael Ancram.

This article was originally published at Kablenet.

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