BrandRapport, the specialist sponsorship and associative marketing agency, has acquired the London and Manchester based sponsorship consultancy Arena International.
Arena will be renamed brandRapport Arena.
Commenting on its latest acquisition, brandRapport’s managing director Andy Dwyer said, “The acquisition of Arena is a key step in developing our overall offering to clients and in particular our football expertise. As well as developing a strong presence in mainland Europe, it is important that we strengthen our expertise in areas where we feel there will be real growth opportunities in the sponsorship market. The recent appointment of Sir Steve Redgrave has already had a major impact on our work around the Olympics and we have absolutely no doubt that football and the Olympics will be the key influencers on our business over the coming years”.
Founder of Arena, Keith Pinner added, “We are very excited about the opportunity to become part of brandRapport. We already have a very close working relationship through our mutual client, E.ON. and there are a number of major projects that we have identified as growth areas and on which we will be focusing in the coming months. The consolidation of brandRapport and Arena’s expertises and teams is a unique opportunity and will undoubtedly benefit our clients”.
Specialising in UK football sponsorships, Arena has worked extensively with the Premier League, The FA, The Football League and most other football governing bodies over the past 20 years. The agency was responsible for setting up a number of the ground breaking sponsorship agreements in football and has developed major programmes for clients such as Carling, Tennents and Worthington. Arena also negotiated and now activates Barclays global sponsorship of the Barclays Premier League as well as E.ON’s award winning FA Cup sponsorship and Football League partnership.
