Chime Communications Limited (also Chime Group) is a marketing services company headquartered in

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

, London, England. Chime is the holding company for companies which include sports marketing, public relations, advertising, digital, marketing, research, corporate responsibility and healthcare communications. Chime was founded as a private company in 1989 following a management buyout from Lowe Howard Spink and Bell to form Lowe Bell Communications and subsequently floated in 1994 as Chime Communications plc before going private again in late 2015. Chime comprises five divisions, 54 companies and over 2,000 people. Until July 2012 the now defunct PR firm,

Bell Pottinger BPP Communications Ltd., which did business as Bell Pottinger Private, was a British multinational public relations, reputation management and marketing company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. On 12 September 2017 it went into admini ...

, was wholly owned by Chime Communications.

Operations

The group comprises the VCCP Group in marketing communications and VCCP Business for communications in specialist marketplaces.

Executive management

The company is governed by an executive management team, consisting of Adrian Coleman and Matthew Vandrau (co-chief executives), Jo Parker (chief operating officer), Stephanie Brimacombe (managing director) and David Crowther (chief financial officer). Notable former directors include Lord Davies of Abersoch (who left the board following Chime's takeover in October 2015), Lord Hannay of Chiswick and Dame Sue Tinson (who both left the board on 31 December 2006), and Lord Bell (who left the board in June 2012 following a MBO by Bell Pottinger's management team).

Good Relations group

The Good Relations Group, owned by Chime Communications Limited, has 215 staff, 172 based in the UK. As well as Good Relations, the group also includes agencies Harvard, MMK and Ptarmigan; some regional offices of

Group were also rebranded as Good Relations following Bell Pottinger's MBO in June 2012. The Good Relations Group CEO is former London Olympics communications chief Jackie Brock-Doyle.

Clients

Group clients include Sky,

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and EADS. Until July 2012, it also managed PR for Nintendo. Prior to the MBO split, notable Bell Pottinger clients won by Good Relations included: * BPEX. In September 2007 Good Relations was briefed by BPEX, previously the

Meat and Livestock Commission The Meat and Livestock Commission (MLC) was set up by the UK Government under the Agriculture Act 1967 with government money with the remit to promote the sale of red meat. The MLC was previously an independent non-departmental public body, but ...

, to run a campaign to raise consumer awareness of the issue. The objective was to show that messages about the plight of pig farmers were reaching consumers in order to persuade supermarkets to increase the price paid to farmers. They came up with a 'Pigs are worth it' campaign. * PowerPerfector: an energy-consumption reduction technology company appointed Good Relations in September 2009, ahead of the UK government's 2010 push on carbon reduction. * Almac Group: a provider of integrated drug development to the

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

and pharmaceutical industries, appointed Good Relations in March 2010.

London Stock Exchange de-listing

Chime was de-listed from the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

on 16 October 2015 and re-registered as a private company following a takeover by

Providence Equity Partners Providence Equity Partners L.L.C. is a specialist private equity investment firm focused on media, communications, education, and technology investments across North America and Europe. The firm specializes in growth-oriented private equity inves ...

(81.1%) and

WPP plc WPP plc is a British multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company headquartered in London, England. It is the world's largest advertising company, as of 2023. WPP plc owns many companie ...

(18.9%). Chime was re-registered as a limited company on 19 October 2015.

References

{{Reflist Companies based in the City of Westminster Public relations companies of the United Kingdom Mass media companies based in London