S&E Sponsorship Group has been acquired by Dentsu Aegis and will be integrated into Dentsu Aegis' experiential/event marketing agency MKTG. The new company will be branded as MKTG Canada. "It came down to people and fit, and they (MKTG) have a real culture of inclusion that's built for collaboration," said S&E President & CEO Brian Cooper, a former MLSE VP/Operations & Business. Since joining S&E, Cooper has helped build its client roster with some of Canada's biggest sports marketing spenders, including Canadian Tire, Scotiabank, Sport Chek, Boston Pizza and Molson Coors. Cooper will become CEO of the newly established MKTG Canada. S&E partners Matthew Logue and Cori Woolley will be COO and Senior VP, respectively.
Cooper said S&E had been meeting with larger sports agencies, including "all of the usual suspects" over the past 14 months. The deal with Dentsu Aegis took around four months to complete, he said. The Toronto-based S&E traces its roots to '73, when it was known as Sports & Entertainment L.P. It has 37 employees in Canada. MKTG has around 1,400 employees in 22 countries. Meanwhile, fellow sponsorship agency Team Epic will increase the head count to 1,550 next year when it comes under MKTG's purview.
