Ex-M&C Saatchi Chief join MSQ to form MSQ Sport + Entertainment

After 20 years of building the acclaimed M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment agency, Steve Martin and Jamie Wynne-Morgan have joined MSQ to form MSQ Sport + Entertainment, a new leading agency group focused on sport and entertainment.

With a range of services including sponsorship strategy and activation, social content strategy and production, PR, and communications, live experiential events, and talent management, the new global agency will leverage the power of sport and entertainment to forge deeper connections for brands, talent, and rights holders. For strategic consulting services, Callaway Golf Europe has become the agency’s founding client; further details will be revealed in the upcoming weeks.

Callaway Golf Europe will be the founding client

With a focus on attracting top talent and agencies through strategic acquisitions and organic growth, Steve and Jamie will have the support of creative, technology, and media company MSQ, its private equity funder OEP, and MSQ’s 1,200-person talented team of strategists, creatives, data analysts, and channel activation specialists. Several acquisition targets in the US and Europe have already been identified, and discussions with industry experts are in progress. The offering of MSQ Sport + Entertainment will be set apart by innovation, enhanced by technology, and made possible by data. TRIBES, a proprietary data and insight tool created by MSQ agency Freemavens, will power the agency.

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Leveraging TRIBES’ advanced analytics

Utilizing cutting-edge analytics, TRIBES tracks and maps digital interactions, content, and curiosity at the speed of culture. With the right content at the right time, place, and energy, clients can better connect with their audiences and gain a deeper understanding of what drives them. ​

With MSQ executive director Kate Howe, Steve and Jamie will work to realize the agency’s vision. M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment was founded in 2004 by Steve Martin, who served as its global CEO, and Jamie Wynne-Morgan, who served as its UK CEO, until their departure in November 2023. They have won a record seven times at the FEVO Sport Industry awards for Agency of the Year.

Here’s what they said

Jamie Wynne-Morgan added,

“Technology will be integrated into our offering to intelligently accelerate insights, understanding and approaches to enhance the skills of our team, by working closely with the best minds and tools in this space within MSQ. “It’s MSQ’s people and its culture – it’s strong belief in investing in specialisms, its B-Corp accreditation and its incentivised model that delivers effective internal collaborative working and growth – that really appealed to Steve and I.”

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Steve Martin said,

“The sport and entertainment industry is an emotionally charged, fast paced world.  This is a huge opportunity for Jamie and I to build an agile invested agency for the modern era. An agency that fuses technology and human expertise to keep pace with ever-evolving fan culture and behaviour in real-time to make sure brands never miss a moment. We believe it will be an attractive place for clients to work with and the best talent to work for.”

Peter Reid, global CEO of MSQ, commented,

“We’ve been looking at developing a world-leading sport and entertainment proposition for some time, that builds on the work currently going on within our agencies in tapping into talent and brands in this space. For us it was finding the right people with the right cultural fit and in Steve and Jamie we have that in abundance. They are two of the industry’s leading operators with a significant global track-record operating in an experience-driven space that is increasingly attracting greater consumer spend. We are thrilled to be working with them to create an agency that builds authentic connections between brands and cultural trends that are expressed through sport and entertainment. It is an area that is becoming increasingly critical for forward-looking brands and this new agency will deliver a significant increase in our capabilities in this area which is incredibly exciting.”

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