Saatchi & Saatchi wins £8m Chip&PIN ad task

Awareness of Chip and PIN among the UK's 42 million payment cardholders will be boosted next year by a national advertising campaign that will cost about£8 million.

The push, devised by agency Saatchi & Saatchi, is scheduled to kick-off in March - although this could be delayed slightly - and will incorporate national TV, national and local press, radio, and posters.

It is timetabled to run throughout the year, when cardholders will receive their first Chip and PIN-enabled cards from their banks.

Stephen Sinclair, communications director at the Chip and PIN Programme Management Organisation, said: 'It is a mixed-media plan, running in two phases. An announcement phase will tell people why we are doing Chip and PIN, and a second phase will tell them what they need to do and arrest any concerns they might have.'

Saatchi & Saatchi's appointment was a result of the success of its campaign for the Chip and PIN trial in Northampton.