US media company Turner has launched a sports marketing agency which aims to “change the paradigm” for sports and lifestyle marketers.
Turner Ignite Sports will complement the existing Turner Ignite team, which for the last year has helped clients develop branded content, social optimisation, audience targeting and other capabilities on Turner’s entertainment, news, and youth properties.
Turner Ignite Sports will feature four areas of expertise in the shape of intellectual property, live events and experiential marketing, creative services and data solutions.
Turner’s new agency will be able to develop intellectual property associated with its networks’ broadcast rights with North American basketball league the NBA, Major League Baseball, esports competition the Eleague or college basketball’s March Madness showpiece.
The unit will also be able to help develop live events around sports games, along with commercials tailored for particular sports broadcasts and proprietary data that will help target the ads to specific audiences.
In a blog post, Will Funk, executive vice-president of sales and property sponsorships at Turner Sports, said: “We believe in creating powerful, long-term marketing partnerships rather than being confined by transactional relationships that stop and go because a sport’s season, event or show ends.
“Brands have a huge opportunity to be ‘always on’, in a genuine, contextually relevant way that adds value to the consumer experience and generates greater results for their business.”