BDA ACQUIRES UK-BASED SMG TO EXPAND GLOBAL SPORTS EXPERTISE
Merchandise Agency Expands Sports Client Roster, EMEA Offerings With UK Acquisition
Woodinville, Wash– October 3, 2017 – Bensussen Deutsch & Associates, LLC (BDA), the premier Merchandise Agency™ serving Fortune 1000 companies worldwide and the leading provider to the sports and entertainment industries, today announced that it has acquired the UK’s leading provider of specialist sports merchandise, Sports Merchandise Global (SMG).
“Combining forces with the leadership of Jonathan Bailey and the great team of people at SMG in Manchester and Paris offices, immediately makes BDA the most prominent global agency and provider of co-branded merchandise for football,” said Jay Deutsch, cofounder and CEO of BDA. “Together, BDA and SMG bring tremendous buying and distribution power, market-specific expertise, and a model designed to support the unique needs of fans, teams, leagues and sponsors.”
SMG brings a deep roster of clients and valuable relationships to the BDA sports division. Its expertise lies in activating team and sponsor opportunities for the Premier League and La Liga including Manchester United F.C., Tottenham Hotspur and FC Barcelona as well as governing bodies such as the French Football Federation and British Olympic Association. The football division will be supported in the US by Matt Chavlovich, who recently joined BDA from Major League Soccer (MLS) where he was VP of Licensing and Consumer Products. In his role, Chavlovich will leverage his years of experience to provide meaningful input to BDA’s new football clients.
“Over the past three decades, we have learned what it takes to create a meaningful platform for how targeted merchandise-based programs help achieve our sports clients’ goals. From ticket sales, employee engagement, to direct to consumer promotions, we are the best one stop shop for our partners, who already include MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS, and over 100 professional teams in Canada and the United States,” continued Deutsch. “However, as we continue to build our presence in the UK and EMEA, we are smart enough to know we have more to learn about each team and market. With the addition of the SMG team and resources, we are well-positioned to serve all existing and future clients in the best way possible.”
“We are the natural choice for those that want to raise the bar for sponsorship activation and fan engagement,” said Jonathan Bailey, cofounder and managing director at SMG. “Now as part of the BDA team, we can do just that by offering an increased level of service to our clients. It will be exciting to offer BDA’s extensive team and global distribution network. Working together I am confident we will become the best partner a sports team, league and sponsor can have.”
The merchandise agency currently has offices in London, Manila, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and 32 locations in North America. With this announcement it adds Manchester, UK and Paris, France to the growing list of locations.
“BDA UK is experiencing tremendous organic growth, on top of our recent acquisitions and I know there is much more to come,” said Deutsch. “As we open up new clients and welcome great new people to our team, I anticipate we will be one of the top distributors in the UK by 2018.”
For more information visit the new BDA website, www.bdainc.com
About BDA Bensussen Deutsch & Associates, LLC (BDA), the premier Merchandise Agency™, provides marketing services and customized branded merchandise to Fortune 1000 enterprises, major sports leagues and global entertainment holding companies. Clients come to BDA to extend their reach through custom branded merchandise campaigns, integrated eCommerce marketing, and sports and entertainment sponsorship activation. Global brands such as AT&T, Bank of America, Dell, Johnson & Johnson, ExxonMobil, FedEx, Major League Baseball and the NFL are but a few of the household names that rely on BDA to bring their marketing campaigns to life through merchandise. BDA attained the coveted Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) certification in 2008 and launched the non-profit Quality Certification Alliance (QCA) organization in support of the industry’s advanced quality assurance practices for importing products overseas. For more information on the power of merchandise, visit www.bdainc.com.
About SMG
SMG is a Manchester, UK-based sports merchandising company delivering a comprehensive solution for the provision and delivery of merchandise across leading sporting brands, leagues, commercial partners and sponsors on a global level. Its client base stretches across all major sports including football, cycling, rugby, and basketball.
