Havas is in the final stages of buying London-based digital agency Work Club. The deal is expected to close within six weeks, but will not see the agency integrated within Havas Worldwide. Instead it will keep its present offices and name, although the owners and management team will report to Havas Worldwide London. Work Club is tasked with using Havas to help it grow internationally while also seeking new growth in the UK. The deal is in contrast to Lean Mean Fighting Machine being integrated in to M&C Saatchi last week.

Creative agencies are being approached by Sport England to create a campaign to encourage women ages 18 to 40 to take up sports.The non-departmental public body is believed to be putting GBP5m behind the project. It does not have an incumbent agency but worked with Team Saatchi between 2004 and 2006. It appointed Big Picture Interactive to overhaul its Web site last year after a competitive pitch.

House of Fraser is looking for a creative agency ahead of a major new campaign. The department store is believed to be speaking to three agencies and is expected to make a decision this month. The new campaign will follow on from an 89% stake in House of Fraser being bought last month by Chinese conglomerate, Sanpower, which owns retail and property assets, in a GBP480m deal.

Nearly two in three shoppers would like to receive targeted offers in-store on their mobile phone. A study of of 1,000 shoppers by Savvy Marketing revealed that a similar near two in three (64%) found receiving offers on their mobile appealing. The big brands such as Tesco and Sainsbury's are trusted by more than two in three (68%) to deliver vouchers and loyalty schemes, such as Nectar, are accepted by more than half of shoppers (58%). Only 17%, however, gave the thumbs up to receiving mobile vouchers via Groupon.

Bloomberg has unveiled its biggest brand initiative to date -- a tech hub in London City Airport. After being pitched traditional advertising the media company's CMO, Maureen McGuire, decided to revamp the airport's lounge in four branded areas to reflect Bloomberg's offices. There is a media panel of four large screens displaying tailored messages according to the time of day, a media ticker, a media wall and WiFi sponsorship, as well as free access to computers and tablet devices.

After next week Omnicom-backed outdoor agency Goodstuff will be handing media buying internally. The move ends a ten-year relationship with Posterscope, owned by Dentsu Aegis. Goodstuff claims the decision was taken so it could speak directly to media owners to handle deals in which clients could be more closely involved.

Double-digit Q1 growth in the UK has contributed to an overall revenue increase of 3% for Paris-based Havas. UK revenues were up nearly 12% year-on-year to GBP43m. However, alongside stable performances in France, Germany and Italy, the group's figures were dragged down by the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland which, Havas says, are struggling to recover after recession. Latin America has also only grown organically by 1.8%. However, Havas claims to be optimistic about growth in Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

HMRC is approaching London agencies to take on its media planing and communications channel strategy brief. The work will cover self-assessment and tax credits and the six agencies contacted are believed to be Dentsu Aegis Network's Carat; Omnicom's Manning Gottlieb OMD; WPP's MediaCom, MEC and Mindshare; and Interpublic's UM London. The selection process is expected to take six months.

Following in the tradition of TV Upfronts, in which broadcasters show their wares to advertisers, the IAB has launched UK Digital Upfronts. The initiative will take place from October 13th to 17th, spanning the IAB's Mobile Engage event on October 15th. The showcasing opportunity will allow members to promote their best creative inventory packages to give brands a better idea of what is available on digital. UK Digital Upfronts has so far been backed by AOL, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo.

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has changed tack, switching its mission statement away from technology and more to encouraging the innovative use of mobile among brands. Although mobile ad spend rocketed 95% to hit GBP1bn last year, brands are not yet convinced of the channel's ability to engage consumers, Marketing Week reports. So the MMA has launched a new Web site to communicate the benefits of mobile and encourage marketers to use the channel in more innovative ways, backed up by a best practice guide.