Codemasters begins pitch for £5m account

Codemasters, the video game company, has invited ad agencies GMC Edge and Blue Total Advertising to pitch for the creative account for a &£5m above-the-line ad campaign.

The successful agency will be appointed later this month and will work alongside Target Media, which was appointed without a pitch to handle the media account last week. It is the first time Codemasters has appointed an agency to oversee advertising across its product range.

Codemasters’ range of video games includes TOCA World Touring Cars, Colin McRae Rally, Prince Naseem Boxing and World Championship Snooker.

The company is also planning to develop an online gaming strategy and games for interactive television. It is hoping to launch a number of WAP games before the end of the year and is currently in discussions with phone operators and Internet portals.

David Solari, marketing manager at Codemasters, says: “We looked at other agencies but invited Edge GMC and Blue Total Advertising to pitch. The ad spend will be for the initial campaigns and may rise in the future.”

Codemasters was founded by two brothers, David and Richard Darling, who started out by launching a video game mail order business as schoolboys. Last year Codemasters made profits of &£22m.