Elevate officially announced this morning that it has acquired Fenway Sports Management’s Consulting Group for an undisclosed price. Elevate acquires Fenway’s book of business and nine Fenway people will join Elevate, working out of a new Elevate office in Boston. Elevate’s brand client roster, which already included Procter & Gamble -- including Crest, Dawn and Old Spice -- Duracell, UKG, and Globant, adds Fenway clients like Moderna, Santander Bank, Wasabi Technologies and Monster.com.
Talks between Elevate and Fenway about a deal gained momentum roughly six months ago, said Elevate Chair Al Guido. Allied Sports, Playfly and Horizon Sports & Experiences were other agencies interested in picking up Fenway’s brand business. Chief Client Officer Cameron Wagner will continue to lead the Elevate Brand division. Fenway Sports Management Consulting Group veteran BriAnne Newman has been named SVP of Elevate Brand, reporting to Wagner. SBJ’s Terry Lefton first broke the news that a deal was close back in February.
“We knew that there were multiple agencies that were involved ... and we moved quick,” Guido said. "We have good feelings about the people we’re picking up here.”
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The move comes at a busy time in the brand consulting world. Wagner noted that brands aren’t pulling back on spending -- a potential outcome of an uncertain economy -- but are taking more time on the front end to figure out which sports properties will meet their needs most. "And that's something that we’ve seen evolve rapidly over the last year or two.” Wagner said. During the last three years, Elevate Brand has activated client campaigns across F1, the English Premier League, the 2022 and 2023 FIFA men’s and women’s World Cups, as well as the NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, NWSL, PGA, LPGA and NASCAR, to name some.
Fenway's exit from the fiercely competitive brand consultancy space in which it operated for 11 years isn’t wholly surprising given much of its business is owning and operating properties. Elevate Brand, founded in June 2021, regularly competes with a host of companies, including Octagon, Wasserman, GMR, Allied, and others for brand consultancy and activation work.
“We have a lot of versatility because we can provide so many different services,” Wagner said, "so sometimes on pieces of business we find ourselves competing with a competitor set that looks quite different than when we may compete for a piece of activation business."
