As part of what the two parties have called a “multi-year agreement”, WPP and IMG will establish a joint team and share resources to provide licensing services to clients from WPP’s portfolio of agencies. The new WPP venture is an “additive unit” to IMG Licensing's existing operations and the latter will continue to serve existing and new clients without change.
“More than ever, licensing is emerging as one of the new creative ways of developing brands and sales,” said WPP chief executive officer Martin Sorrell. “It is a capability we see as increasingly important to our clients.”
Sorrell added: “We wanted to offer this important discipline in a global execution and with the market leader – that is IMG. In our view, there could be no better partner to help us achieve our goals in this area.”
George Pyne, president of IMG’s Sports and Entertainment Group, added: “WPP’s agencies have an impressive roster of clients coupled with the brand knowledge and consumer insights that come from years of experience working with them.”
Pyne added: “We believe that our global execution capability and specialised expertise in the licensing business coupled with their deep-rooted knowledge and relationships with certain client companies can yield some very beneficial and successful partnerships. This is a really natural collaboration that was waiting to happen.”
