Brandrapport Acquires Arena International

Sponsorship agency brandRapport has acquired rival firm Arena International with the newly merged entity to be rebranded brandRapport Arena – a move that substantially increases the former’s football sponsorship offering.

brandRapport Arena will continue to operate out of its existing offices meaning that the company now boasts 3 UK operations in London, Manchester and Guildford.

Given both companies operate on behalf of clients, the agencies claim that the agreement will create the largest non rights-selling agency in the UK.

Arena was founded in 1988 and has worked extensively with the Premier League, The FA, The Football League and most other football governing bodies over the past 20 years. The agency was responsible for setting up a number of the existing sponsorship agreements in football and has developed major programmes for clients such as Carling, Tennents and Worthington.

Arena also negotiated and now activates Barclays global sponsorship of the Barclays Premier League as well as E.ON’s FA Cup sponsorship and Football League partnership. 

In the last 12 months brandRapport, which was acquired by QobliQ in December 2007, has added a number of new clients to its portfolio which includes Vodafone, E.ON, Nationwide, Thomas Cook Sport, LV=, UBS, AXA, Betfair and Magners.

The merger is the latest in a number of similar agency acquisitions to have occurred in the sponsorship industry in the last 12 months.