Editor's note: This story is revised from the print edition.
CAA Sports has expanded the reach of its corporate consulting and experiential marketing business by acquiring London-based BrandRapport, a sports marketing firm that counts Jaguar Land Rover and Nestlé among its clients.
Those brands, as well as Allianz, Prudential and Samsung, will become clients of CAA Sports Consulting as part of the acquisition of BrandRapport. Financial details were not disclosed.
The purchase broadens CAA Sports’ footprint in London: All 25 of BrandRapport’s employees have joined CAA Sports and work out of the agency’s London office as part of the deal. Andy Kenny, managing director of BrandRapport, has joined as head of CAA Sports Consulting London. Kenny will report to Greg Luckman, global head of consulting.
“BrandRapport is one of the most well-respected consulting shops in London and our collective clients will clearly benefit from this merger,” Luckman said. “Many of our clients are global companies. With BrandRapport joining our rapidly growing team, it allows us to immediately expand our international capabilities.”
CAA Sports Consulting clients include JPMorgan Chase, Emirates Airline, Time Warner Cable, Farmers, Zurich, and Mondelez.
The acquisition of BrandRapport came after extensive meetings between the two companies. Executives got to know each other about 18 months ago, after Brand-Rapport client Jaguar Land Rover hired European soccer manager Jose Mourinho, who is co-represented by CAA Sports and PolarisSports as a Jaguar ambassador.
Luckman said that the companies sensed a cultural fit.
“We knew immediately that Andy and his team at BrandRapport share our entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to working as one integrated team to best serve our clients,” he said.
Kenny has worked at BrandRapport for 17 years and said all of the clients know about the acquisition and are supportive of it. CAA’s expertise in entertainment, as well as sports, was attractive, Kenny said.
“Our clients … want from their agency the very best support advice and insight primarily across sports … but also across music, fashion, film and entertainment,” Kenny said.
BrandRapport was founded in 1981, and it could have stayed an independent agency, Kenny said.
“There has been a lot of consolidation in the sports marketing and sponsorship industry, and because it’s such a fast-growing area, there are a lot of advertising agencies and other agencies that have developed a global capability,” Kenny noted. “So, if we were to remain as a stand-alone, I think our ability to generate profits and bring in profits would have been more and more challenged.”
CAA began its corporate consulting business in the fall of 2011, and since then, it has acquired seven companies that round out its offering to corporate clients. Other acquisitions include hospitality firms Goviva, Inside Sports and Entertainment Group, and Beyond Sports and Entertainment; experiential firm PGW; Munich-based consulting firm PGM; and MGSM, an advisory company with a focus on golf.
CAA Sports Consultancy experienced 83 percent year-over-year top-line revenue growth in 2015, after 225 percent year-over-year growth in 2014, Luckman said.
“We now have 300 people managing over $2 billion in sponsorship deals for 30 corporate brands,” Luckman said.
