Omnicom is "merging GMR Marketing and SportsMark to form a single agency with expertise in strategic consulting and hospitality services,” according to Tripp Mickle of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. The agency will “go by the GMR Marketing name and be headquartered in Milwaukee but have more than 850 full-time employees.” SportsMark Founder and The Radiate Group Exec VP JAN KATZOFF will "oversee the merger and work out of its San Francisco offices." The new firm’s senior leadership -- consisting of Exec VP/Sports Marketing MIKE BOYKIN and Exec VP/Client Management GREG BUSCH, and SportsMark CEO STEVE SKUBIC and President KEITH BRUCE -- will report to GMR CEO GARY REYNOLDS. A new senior leadership structure "is being developed and their titles and responsibilities may change." The move was “encouraged by Omnicom’s executives and agreed to late last year." It also "represented a chance for the agencies to work together to win business rather than compete against each other.” Katzoff “described a post-merger agency with hubs in London, Brazil, Russia and Milwaukee that could develop work in one market and pass it along to the other in the same way GMR’s Madrid office did when it worked with BBVA on its NBA sponsorship.” He said that the merger “wouldn’t trigger any layoffs," and that he “expects to add staff in the coming months” (SPORTSBUSINESSJOURNAL.com, 1/28).
