U.K.-based sports marketing agency Synergy "is setting up shop" in the U.S., according to Terry Lefton of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Synergy CEO Tim Crow said that the 30-year-old sports agency’s first office outside the U.K. "will be within and under the aegis" of the N.Y. offices of Engine Group, the U.K. agency's holding company, which was acquired last year by Chicago-based private equity firm Lake Capital. Synergy's U.S. operation "will open with Standard Life Investments as its flagship client, and Synergy will leverage Standard Life's Ryder Cup sponsorship." Highlighting Synergy's leading capabilities as creative, digital, experiential, logistics and public relations, Crow said, "Forty cents of every sponsorship dollar in the world comes from the U.S., so we have to be here." Synergy "is renowned for its breakthrough creative efforts," including putting Jack Nicklaus' face on a U.K. 5-pound note as part of a Ryder Cup campaign for RBS, and having 39-inch-long radio-controlled "mini-Mini" cars deliver javelins, hammers, shots and discuses to athletes competing in the 2012 London Olympics. Heading the new American unit as CEO will be Dominic Curran, "who will report to Engine Group N.A. CEO Rick Eiserman" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, issue 11/2).
