Experiential agency Engine Shop is launching a global business effort as it acquires Olympics bid consultant and international sports marketer T Burns Sports Group.
TBSG is run by the longtime Olympics marketer Terrence Burns, who recently created the agency after working for Teneo Holdings and serving as a consultant to the Los Angeles Olympics bid.
The deal, which closed on Feb. 13, gives Engine Shop an entry into the global sports market given Burns’ decades of international experience that includes sponsorship consulting and sales, Olympics and World Cup bidding, and global sports branding. As a strategic consultancy, Engine Shop will now compete with the likes of IMG and Octagon for global business.
Burns
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Burns becomes executive vice president of global at Engine Shop and will be based in Atlanta.
“Global has been on our radar for 12 months or so,” said Engine Shop CEO Brian Gordon. “To enter the global sports space with Terrence, I don’t think we could have found a better partner. The vision is to tap into his decades of experience not only in the rights holders world but working with brands and working in different territories and understanding the nuances in operating in those territories. We think that between us and what Terrence brings, we’ve got a really compelling offer to do some innovative things not only around the Olympics space but beyond.”
Burns entered the Olympics space as Delta Air Lines’ managing director for Olympic programs, when that airline had the rights for 1996 Games in Atlanta. He later served as senior vice president of marketing services for the International Olympic Committee, senior vice president of marketing for Meridian (the marketing agency for the IOC), and co-founded Olympic consultancy Helios Partners. Burns joined L.A.’s 2024 Olympic Bid Committee in 2016 as CMO, and later was co-president of Teneo Holdings.
“Terrence is a bona fide [Olympic] bid specialist, and he clearly will have a great deal of knowledge specific to L.A.,” said longtime Olympic sponsorship consultant Bob Heussner, now hanging out his own shingle as StrongBridge Sponsorship. “So for an agency entering the space, he’s a great get.”
Burns said the alignment with Engine Shop gives him a new approach to global sports marketing. “Engine Shop has proven to be the best in the business and they are imaginative,” he said.
Burns is no stranger to Engine Shop or to its parent, Bruin Sports Capital. He worked with Bruin founder and CEO George Pyne when both executives worked at NASCAR in 2003.
“So many of the big global events are driven by the needs of U.S.-based marketers; it is clearly a growth path for Engine Shop,” said David Abrutyn, executive vice president and principal of Bruin. “When you look at the L.A. Olympics and the possibility of a Mexico/U.S. [FIFA] World Cup, this gives us the capabilities to really compete for that kind of business as well.”
Engine Shop counts Mercedes-Benz, Under Armour, Anheuser-Busch and American Family Insurance among its client list, but it currently has no activations globally. Engine Shop is expected to announce several hires over the next few weeks that will be part of the new acquisition.
The deal for TBSG is the second recent major acquisition for Engine Shop. In December, it acquired The Gamer Agency, a New York-based gaming specialty shop.
Lang
“What we are talking about today is a continuation of what we have been doing but the next phase of it,” Gordon said. “The next part of the story is scale and growth.”
Engine Shop made another major move by hiring former Octagon executive Gord Lang as chief growth officer. He joins the agency this week.
“It was time for a new challenge,” Lang said. “I combine my background with Brian’s strategic growth vision and the Bruin Sports Capital guys and it’s a recipe for substantial growth.”
Said Gordon, “Gord has the experience within big agencies and global agencies, but the critical piece for us is that he has an entrepreneurial spirit and is a guy who wants to do innovative things. To surround ourselves with people who can bring our agency the right institutional knowledge and to be innovators, those are the people to launch our global sports business and to chart the path of continued growth.”
Staff writer Terry Lefton contributed to this report.
