• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, November 2, 2015

UK-based Engine Group has expanded its sports marketing and sponsorship agency, Synergy, with the opening of a New York office. It’s the first office the agency has opened outside the UK since it began operations more than 30-years ago. 

The New York office will be led by Dominic Curran who has been appointed CEO. Curran had been a managing director at Synergy in the UK where he served for 15 years before being named Global Sport Director at Bacardi in October of 2014. 

In his new role Curran will report to Rick Eiserman, Engine Group’s North American CEO. 

Synergy’s U.S. offering will include strategy, creative, digital, experiential marketing and public relations. 

Standard Life Investments, Worldwide Partner of the Ryder Cup, will be on board as a launch client of the new U.S. office, the agency said.

Other clients, handled of out the U.K., which is overseen by CEO Tim Crow, include BMW, Coca-Cola, Emirates and MasterCard. Synergy has showcased the brands in major sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup, the Olympics_, and the Rugby World Cup. 

“The agency landscape around sports marketing is ripe for disruption in the U.S. and Dominic is the perfect person to lead that charge,” said Eiserman. “Brands are frustrated by the lack of media neutrality in the U.S. and the obsession with paid media thinking and rights. Synergy’s approach is to create powerful campaign ideas that have ability to play out across all media, with digital at the core." 

Engine Group has been expanding rapidly in the U.S. since its acquisition by Lake Capital in August of last year. It recently announced the U.S. launch of customer engagement agency Partners Andrews Aldridge in September, and the expansion of digitally-led agency Deep Focus to London and Los Angeles in June. 

The Group now has 2,000 employees across the U.S., UK and Asia.