Business on the Move including McLaren Racing, Coca-Cola, ESPN and LTA

By Imogen Watson, Senior reporter

March 12, 2020 | 4 min read

Welcome to The Drum's Business on the Move column, where we collate agency account news, reviews, agency launches, rebrands and acquisitions.

Business on the Move is a weekly column. Email imogen.watson@thedrum.com if you want to be included.

This week includes moves from McLaren Racing, Coca-Cola, ESPN and the Lawn Tennis Association.

This week's acquisition

Havas Group has acquired the Cicero Group, which will be integrated into AMO, Havas Group’s global strategic advisory network, and will rebrand as Cicero/AMO.
Kantar has acquired digital marketing and analytics consultancy Mavens of London as it looks to expand its digital consultancy services.

EMEA wins

McLaren Racing has extended its partnership with The Coca-Cola Company, naming Coca-Cola as its official soft drinks partner of the McLaren Formula 1 team for the 2020 season. In 2020, McLaren and Coca-Cola will continue 'Coke Driven to Deliver', a content series in collaboration with Coke customer Amazon. The news comes amid a new chairman for the car brand in the form of Paul Walsh – the former chief exec of Diageo.

ESPN has extended its deal with Major League Baseball for live rights on Fox Sports Netherlands and ESPN in Africa for the 2020 and 2021 MLB seasons.

The&Partnership has been appointed as the creative agency of record for the Lawn Tennis Association. The Kite Factory has been appointed to handle media. The pitch process was handled by Creativebrief.

Leo Burnett has been awarded the creative business for Vision Express.

Linwoods has appointed Krow Ireland to handle its advertising account across the UK, Ireland and Europe.

SYZYGY London has been appointed by the V&A as its digital media agency partner for a two-year contract following a competitive pitch.

APAC wins

Wirecard has secured a payments partnership with Grab that will see its processing card transactions for GrabPay via its digital financial commerce platform in Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore.

Taproot Dentsu has been awarded the creative mandate for Mobile Premier League’s 2020 IPL campaign.

WM Motor has appointed BBH China as its creative partner after a pitch process.

Americas wins

360i has been selected as the North American media partner for the McCormick North America Business.

Mars, Incorporated and WWE have expanded their long-standing partnership for 2020 in which Snickers will serve as the exclusive presenting partner of WrestleMania. The expanded partnership will include three pieces of custom creative featuring WWE Superstars promoting Snickers 'Fix the World' campaign.

Billups, an independent, privately-held advertising technology company specializing in OOH, has acquired MacDonald Media. The company’s growing footprint now covers 16 US markets.

Launches

WPP AUNZ has launched Big, a new offering aimed at fostering growth in the Australian market through new product development.

Got a story or tip for Business on the Move? Send your acquisitions, reviews, account wins and launch news to imogen.watson@thedrum.com.

Business on the Move Marketing