• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 7, 2010

Aegis Media today will unveil Team Epic, a new event and experiential marketing agency combining its Velocity Sports & Entertainment and Vivid Marketing units, and integrating them with the digital media operations of Isobar and the research, tracking and evaluation capabilities of research consultancy Sponsorship Research International (SRi). Longer term, Team Epic plans to integrate with other elements of Aegis Media, including out-of-home specialist Posterscope.

"What we're finding more and more, is that brands are looking to get closer to consumers," said Mike Reisman, Velocity Principal, and head of Team Velocity.

Reisman said the new organization grew out of a planning session the Aegis Media team conducted earlier this year, and was inspired by an image the team came up showing two women hugging an oversized can of Heineken at a promotional event.

"We asked ourselves, 'What could we do to get consumer to hug our brands with information that's about the product, and enriches their lives'," Reisman recalled, adding, "In the world of sports and entertainment we really have a great opportunity to help brands do that, because we're delivering content that consumers want and are passionate about."

The goal of Team Epic is to extend the reach of those experiences by combining traditional event and sponsorship marketing with grassroots experiential marketing and digital media options such as online social media and mobile media.

Elements of those programs, Reisman said, might include product sampling and "brand ambassadors."

By linking the process to SRi's methods and analysis, he said the programs can be measured in a way that is accountable to Aegis Media's clients, and helps prove their return on event and experiential marketing investments.

Some of the clients represented by Team Epic include FedEx, IBM, AT&T, Toyota and Infiniti.