Saatchi wins volunteer recruitment drive task

Saatchi & Saatchi has won the &£1.5m advertising account for the Experience Corps, a &£19m scheme set up by the Government to encourage people aged over 50 to become volunteers.

The agency was appointed following a pitch through the AAR against two undisclosed agencies. A media agency will be appointed in the next couple of weeks.

The group has appointed Richard Lancaster, a marketing consultant who has worked with Age Concern for the past four years, as its interim marketing director.

The Experience Corps is an England-wide scheme established in January to develop ways in which people aged 50-plus can pass on their skills and experience to help others, for example by advising young parents or helping out in schools.

An advisory group, chaired by Baroness Sally Greengross, a former director-general of Age Concern, will appoint up to 100 local co-ordinators to encourage people to volunteer.

It is understood that Saatchi will create a TV, radio, press and poster campaign aimed at 50- to 65-year-olds who have no previous volunteering experience. The first ads are likely to break in November.

The Government has allocated &£19m over a three-year period to the initiative, which is part of a wider strategy to meet the Government’s target of getting 1 million more people to be active in their communities by 2004.