Group M Sports' Kristick To Run ESP

John-Kristick

With billions being spent in the sector, GroupM has hired veteran sports marketing executive John Kristick to run its entertainment and sports consultancy unit as global CEO.

Earlier this summer, the shop hired Bryce Townsend to run the North American division of the operation, known as GroupM Entertainment and Sports or ESP.

Recent examples of ESP's work include serving as a consultant on Farmers Group's estimated $600-million naming rights deal with a proposed NFL stadium in downtown Los Angeles. Farmers is a client of sister media shop Mindshare.

ESP also negotiated Mindshare client Unilever's NCAA corporate sponsorship deal, which covers all NCAA-sanctioned collegiate sports events. It also handled Volkswagen's national auto partnership with Major League Soccer and VW's jersey sponsorship with the D.C. United MLS team in Washington, D.C. VW is a client of GroupM's MediaCom.

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Sports is seen as one of the more engaging entertainment genres, which is why marketers are attracted to it. According to the Sports Business Journal, the top 50 companies in the space spent $6.6 billion on sports marketing last year, up 27%.

Kristick will be based in New York and will report to Irwin Gotlieb, global CEO of GroupM, the WPP media asset management arm.

Most recently, Kristick served as a managing director of Premier Partnerships, the sports and entertainment sales and marketing firm. Earlier, he was managing director for the USA Bid Committee, the organization that led the United States' bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

In addition to working with Townsend, Kristick will also collaborate with executives that run sports marketing operations at individual GroupM agencies, including Marcus John (MediaCom), Sean Jefferson (Mindshare) and Jeremy Clark (MEC). They will continue to report to their regional leaders, GroupM said.

With so much marketer interest in sports, other shops are also bulking up on their efforts in that arena. Last month, Havas named Mark Rothenberg to the new position of senior vice president for sports in the U.S. as part of its expansion of subsidiary Havas Sports and Entertainment. Horizon Media and Interpublic Group also have dedicated sports marketing units.

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