CSM Sport & Entertainment has acquired experiential and event agency LeadDog Marketing Group, the latest action by the U.K. agency holding group, which is building its American capabilities.
With around 170 staffers, LeadDog doubles CSM’s U.S. workforce. The New York City agency, which was founded by Dan Mannix in 1999, specializes in cause marketing, with events including the Avon Walk to End Breast Cancer. LeadDog’s other competencies include corporate and property consulting, digital marketing, hospitality, promotion, design and branding.
“I was thinking about big-picture strategy and trying to figure out where we could get some scale in the U.S.,” said Harlan Stone, chairman of CSM North America, when asked about the deal. “The strategy has to make sense and the numbers have to work, but at the end of the day, it’s about chemistry and reliability, and we have a solid match there.”
LeadDog clients include Audi, for which it is experiential and sports marketing agency of record, as well as PGA of America, Adidas/Reebok, WWE, Intel and a plethora of media properties, including ABC. As has been the case with CSM’s earlier American acquisitions, LeadDog will retain its name, offices and much of its autonomy.
Mannix launched LeadDog after working in the NBA’s events department for 5 1/2 years, and over the years the agency has developed a strong reputation for event activation as well as a leader in diversity hiring. With all the agency consolidation over the past 15 years, LeadDog has been courted by many suitors, including Stone, who made a run at LeadDog when he worked at Velocity Sports & Entertainment in the early 2000s.
After around a 15-year hiatus, Stone tried again, reaching out to Mannix in February through an email with the subject line reading “Love to Say Hello.”
The more recent conversations got serious quickly.
“There’s an entrepreneurial/challenger mindset at CSM I didn’t feel when I was approached by all those agency holding companies,” Mannix said. “The people there [at CSM] are still hungry and competitive.”
The LeadDog acquisition is the latest in a series of moves this year by CSM in the U.S., where it’s adding capabilities and senior executive talent. Since February, it has acquired LeadDog, along with live event agency JHE Production, and hired former Octagon President and COO Jeff Shifrin as North American CEO, along with former Jack Morton President Rob McQueen to build a consulting practice as president of CSM North America. Other CSM agencies in the U.S. are property representation specialists SJX Partners, headed by Stone, and motorsports marketing shop Just Marketing International.
“In a relatively short time, we’ve put together a group which just loves doing the work above all else,” Stone said. “With LeadDog, we have largely got the key pieces in place, so I don’t think you’ll see us doing any more major acquisitions, at least for the short term.”
