M&C Saatchi

International advertising and communications group; joint-venture partner with Breakthrough Media in Horizon PR (used on the RICU contract); awarded large Home Office counter-extremism / Prevent communications contracts; CSSF creative services sub-contractor (Tunisia); former head of Middle East operations later became head of RICU

M&C Saatchi
Type	Advertising and communications group
Founded	1995
Headquarters	36 Golden Square, London, W1F 9EE
Key people	Moray MacLennan (Worldwide CEO); Jeremy Sinclair (Chairman); David Kershaw (Chief Executive); Maurice Saatchi (Executive Director)
Website	mcsaatchi.com

M&C Saatchi is an international advertising and communications group founded in 1995. It has held major UK government contracts for counter-extremism and Prevent-related communications, was the joint-venture partner with Breakthrough Media in Horizon PR (used on the Home Office Research, Information and Communications Unit contract), and has provided creative services under CSSF-funded projects. A former head of its Middle East operations later became head of RICU.

Background

According to the company, “M&C Saatchi is founded on the principle of Brutal Simplicity. It is the only agency to be international from birth. It was born in 1995 in London, Sydney, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore.” In 2004 it floated 49% of the agency on AIM. It has maintained multiple offices internationally.

In February 2009 Matthew Freud acquired a 3.3% stake, making him the largest individual shareholder after the four founders (each holding 6.44%).

Prevent, RICU and counter-extremism work

In 2015 Breakthrough Media set up Horizon PR as a joint venture with M&C Saatchi. A Saatchi spokesman told The Guardian: “Horizon was created to support the public relations of civil society groups, voluntary organisations and NGOs who want to drive positive social change.” Horizon promoted the work of community groups as part of Breakthrough’s contract with RICU. Journalists contacted by Horizon were not told that the company was representing the groups as part of the RICU contract; Breakthrough is reported to have said there was no obligation to disclose the government’s involvement. Horizon PR Limited was incorporated on 16 March 2015 and dissolved on 20 August 2019; its directors included figures from both Breakthrough and M&C Saatchi (including Scott Brown, formerly an M&C Saatchi account director).

In May 2016 Campaign reported that the Home Office was set to appoint M&C Saatchi to handle a £60 million counter-extremism account. The brief covered the creation of up to ten campaigns a year, including awarding and evaluating community groups’ involvement as well as production of videos, websites and posters. The paper noted the existing Horizon PR joint venture with Breakthrough. A spokesman for M&C Saatchi declined to comment. Subsequent reporting has referred to a large multi-year communications-services contract with the firm (figures in the region of £50 million have been cited in trade and transparency coverage for the period from 2019).

In February 2017 The Guardian reported that M&C Saatchi was working with the UK government to tackle racist myths perpetuated online by the far right, as part of a broader £60 million fight against extremism.

CSSF and international work

In a 2018 parliamentary answer, the Cabinet Office stated that M&C Saatchi had been competitively appointed to offer creative services on a CSSF project providing technical assistance to support the Tunisian civil service to communicate transparently with citizens. The value of the sub-contract was up to £275,000; Cabinet Office civil servants undertook implementation and M&C Saatchi did not work directly with the Tunisian government.

In 2013 NATO’s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps hired M&C Saatchi to help counter terrorist propaganda on Twitter and increase online influence. Two of the firm’s consultants participated in a large-scale exercise at RAF St Mawgan involving a simulated Twitter environment (“Critter”).

M&C Saatchi (UK) Limited has appeared on the CSSF Framework Agreement supplier list.

The firm’s World Services division has described itself as delivering communications in fragile, conflict and climate-affected contexts for governments, multilaterals and NGOs, drawing on behavioural insight and data-led strategy.

Covert Iraqi psychological operations (Yalla)

Leaked documents published in 2024 describe M&C Saatchi as the “ultimate controller” and intelligence cutout for Yalla, a Baghdad-based youth-oriented news and social media platform used for British psychological operations in Iraq. According to the material:

“M&C Saatchi is the ultimate controller of Yalla… £4,300,000 was spent in 2019/20 and £4 million allocated for the next year, covering website, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook pages in Arabic, Kurdish and English.”

Submissions to the Foreign Office highlighted the company’s “significant experience… implementing sensitive unattributable programming for government clients.” The documents state that M&C Saatchi establishes separate business entities as fronts, builds in-country networks of influencers, journalists and content creators, and recruits “production staff who speak local dialects” and “down-range cultural advisors.” For the Iraq operation it used VPNs linked to the Iraqi and Kurdish diaspora to maintain unattributability, with payments routed through intermediaries so that ground teams could not be linked to the company.

The leaked material describes a “far-ranging influence campaign” via Yalla intended to promote “personal agency and increase community cohesion” in former ISIS territories. Methods included social videos, infographics and themed series (for example a travel series featuring comedians from the South, the North and Baghdad to highlight multi-ethnic heritage). M&C Saatchi is said to have worked with “youth psychologists and training experts” to produce “evergreen modules” that mimic “mentoring or life-coaching,” hosted on Yalla platforms and cross-promoted. Content was also repackaged through local media partners to maximise reach and drive “attitudinal and behaviour change.” Targeting was granular, identifying “audience segments and even specific individuals” for sustained messaging.

The same documents record that M&C Saatchi managed operations that exploited “tribal leaders and religious clerics” to promote “Sunni Arab self-governance,” training them in the production of articles, speeches and events. Globally the company is described as operating sites such as Imams Online in order to influence Sunni clergy sermons. The activity sat within a broader British intelligence-led psychological-warfare apparatus that had remained active in Iraq after the 2003 invasion and that drew on a 2015 target-audience analysis advocating sustained messaging through local channels, including exploitation of ethnic and religious divisions and countering of Iranian influence.

Yalla itself was presented as having been launched by local journalists in 2015 and claimed more than five million followers (92 per cent inside Iraq). The leaked files show it was British-controlled, producing content in Kurdish and Arabic while publicly asserting editorial and financial independence.

People

• Moray MacLennan – Worldwide CEO; one of the founding members; former President of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.
• Tom Dery – Executive Chairman, Asia Pacific & US.
• Maurice Saatchi – Executive Director.
• Jeremy Sinclair – Chairman.
• David Kershaw – Chief Executive.
• Bill Muirhead – Executive Director.
• Molly Aldridge – Global CEO (later).

Former executives

• Richard Chalk was head of Middle East operations in 2008; he later became head of the British government’s RICU (2012–c.2016).
• Scott Brown (later chief executive of Breakthrough Media / Zinc Network) previously worked as an M&C Saatchi account director.

Political donations

Recorded by the Electoral Commission:

Date	Name of donor	Amount	Donated to	Subsidiary (parties only)
06/05/2010	M & C Saatchi PLC, M & C Saatchi PLC	£60,000.00	Conservative Party	Central Party
12/05/2009	M&C Saatchi, 36 Golden Square	£2,281.75	The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP

Contact

Address: M&C SAATCHI, 36 Golden Square, London, W1F 9EE Phone: +44 (0)20 7543 4500 Fax: +44 (0)20 7543 4501 Website: http://www.mcsaatchi.com/

CSSF Framework 2023–27 and published CSSF awards

M&C Saatchi is one of the named suppliers appointed to the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund Framework Agreement (2023–2027) let by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, on Lots 1 and 3. The framework, procured under the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011, serves a fund described in the award notice as having "an annual budget in the region of 867 000 000 GBP"; the names of the 37 suppliers appointed to Lot 2 (counter-terrorism, countering violent extremism and strategic communications) were "redacted on National Security grounds".

See also

• Horizon PR
• Breakthrough Media / Zinc Network
• RICU
• Prevent
• Scott Brown
• Richard Chalk

External links

• The Guardian, 2 May 2016 (Horizon PR and RICU)
• Campaign, 24 May 2016 (£60m counter-extremism brief)
• The Guardian, 6 February 2017
• Civil Service World, 3 May 2022
• Companies House: Horizon PR Limited