LONDON — Integrated marcomms and digital content agency The 10 Group has won a rolling annual brief from Marks & Spencer to support a partnership between its Eat Well healthy food label and the football associations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The 45-strong agency is working with M&S Food on a PR and social media campaign under the ‘Eat Well, Play Well’ banner, featuring leading male and female players from across the four nations. M&S Food’s intention is to “use the power of football and the influence of some of the UK’s biggest footballing heroes to help families make healthier choices.”

As part of the campaign, this month the agency launched M&S Food’s first 'Plate of the Nation' report, which looks at the UK public’s relationship with food and health.

Other recent competitive wins for The 10 Group include Sage, challenger broadband operator Hyperoptic, and press office for EV car brand Polestar. The agency’s roster also includes space tourism business Virgin Galactic, luxury switch watch firm IWC and payments company Visa.

On the back of its growth – estimated to be around 20% in fee income over the past year – The 10 Group has bolstered its strategy, creative and social teams with a number of senior hires.

Greg Lappage joins the agency as executive creative director, having previously worked at the Economist as head of creative design and production, leading the strategy and insights team. He worked with clients including YouTube, ASOS and EY.

In addition, Nils Tomkins has joined The 10 Group as head of social. Tomkins has worked with social and sports clients such as EA Sports, FIFA and William Hill at agencies including MediaCom, Grey and Square in the Air.

The 10 Group was founded in 2010 by CEO Elaine Stern, who previously set up content, digital and social agency TVC in 1998. TVC, a pioneer in broadcast communications, was acquired by private equity in 2008, then bought by the Economist in 2012, which closed the agency in June 2020.

Stern said: “Greg and Nils join us in a year of unprecedented growth at 10. I believe they will both augment and enrich results we continued to deliver for our clients and I am truly excited to have them both on board.”

The 10 Group’s commercial director James Myers is also a former TVC/Economist colleague; he re-joined Stern at the agency in 2020, having left TVC in 2019 after 17 years. Myers told PRovoke Media the agency’s next moves would be “building out an investment division and scaling outside of the UK”, potentially through satellite offices in Europe and the US.