SwapitShop picks AMV for £2m Christmas campaign

Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO has been appointed as the advertising agency for children’s website SwapitShop.co.uk. The site plans to spend up to £2m on advertising in the run-up to Christmas, after which AMV will focus on developing the SwapitShop business in the US.

Since its launch in October, the site has attracted more than 100,000 members with hopes that this figure will more than double by the end of the year. SwapitShop brand director Paul Simonet says: “With AMV we intend to be the biggest thing on the Internet for kids this Christmas.”

The company is already in talks with McDonald’s and US television companies in the hope of raising finance for expansion across the Atlantic. SwapitShop is owned by Internet incubator GorillaPark and has backing from broadcasting company Granada Media.

The site lets children buy and sell toys, compact discs and games using a virtual currency called “swapits”. Members are given an account to build up using swapit tokens that appear on snacks and other products. The average price of a CD through the site is 200 swapits.

Swapits are currently available on 45 million bags of Golden Wonder Wotsits, carried as part of cross-promotional campaign.