NEW AGENCY FOCUSES ON SPORTS
By Adnews Staff
The Sports Agency recently opened its doors in Toronto. The firm finds corporate sponsorships for amateur sporting events and amateur athletes between the ages of 10 and 16. The Sports Agency focuses on soccer, field hockey and volleyball, but will get involved in other sports as well. "I've had a lifelong passion for sports," agency president and owner Richard Symes told Adnews yesterday. "My children, now grown, have always benefited from their participation in amateur sports. As a marketer, and in view of the serious cutbacks to amateur sports funding, the concept is to integrate the two areas providing tangible marketing and fundraising opportunities that make sense. Amateur sports will benefit as the recipients of needed sponsorship dollars, critical to the continued existence of their programs, and it will also raise the profile of their varied community activities. Corporations and marketers will benefit by involvement in grassroots marketing programs with sports-themed campaigns enabling them to maintain and strengthen core audience relationships." The Sports Agency will also handle all the advertising elements for the sponsorships through Symes design and production company, Caterpillar Graphics of Toronto. Symes has also worked as an art director at J. Walter Thompson, McKim Media Group and MacLaren: Lintas (now MacLaren McCann).