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Sophie Maunder, chief executive of VCCP’s direct and CRM division VCCP me, has been appointed to head a new division, VCCP Ignite, that formalises VCCP’s customer journey-mapping offering.

VCCP Ignite will generate inspiration from detailed studies of the complete journey customers go through when dealing with a brand. Successes using this method include the "Oops" screen-replacement initiative for O2 and the Look&Book feature for easyJet.

Maunder will lead a core team of 11 customer experience strategy specialists who will work closely with the rest of VCCP.

Reponsibility for VCCP me is passing to its managing director, Louise Morgan. VCCP chief executive Michael Sugden said there would be "developments in the next two to three weeks" on VCCP me and the chief executive role, but declined to comment further.

Describing VCCP Ignite, Sugden said: "The world doesn't need another innovation agency, but it does need innovation agencies that are better at implementation and actually getting ideas from concepts to real products and services."

He cited VCCP’s discovery of the extent of O2 customers’ frustration when they damaged the screens on their mobiles and how that was the genesis for the network introducing a free screen replacement for new customers in 2017. The service was promoted by the "Oops" campaign.

"Our strength is identifying business transformation strategies which are not just comms," Maunder said, offering Look&Book as a second example. This was a function introduced in easyJet’s app last year that can be fed with an Instagram picture of a location to serve up the best easyJet route and flight options for reaching it.

In total, VCCP has provided customer journey mapping for about 20 clients, including recently landed accounts Shell, Novartis and Cathay Pacific.

"We decided it was high time to make it a product in its own right," Maunder said, adding that VCCP Ignite would help VCCP respond to the increasing number of briefs in the market calling for high levels of integration and understanding of the customer journey.

Sugden said VCCP took the decision to introduce a new sub-brand because it needed to be marked as a specialism. He added: "We are most recognised for our advertising output, but that sometimes means our other capabilities aren’t taken as seriously."