BRANDRAPPORT - CHESHIRE

brandRapport was previously known as The GEM Group, and prior to that as Craigie Taylor International (CTI). CTI was formed in 1982 and became GEM in 2002 following its acquisition by CSS Stellar PLC. Andrew Dwyer and Rob Pope had also sold their company, The Sponsorship Workshop (TSW) to CSS in 2000, and joined GEM in 2002. A team of directors initiated the management buy-out of GEM from CSS in October 2005, with the help of investors Kaye Enterprises. The company relaunched as brandRapport in January 2006.

The new consultancy repositioned itself to focus on associative marketing and sponsorship; brandRapport is firmly dedicated to this field, employing experts in strategy and activation, who truly know sport, entertainment, arts, environment, media and the community. The company opened a full-service operation in Hong Kong in August 2005. The five staff there, plus consultants in Singapore and Japan, service clients across the Asia-Pacific region. In December 2007 brandRapport was bought by QobliQ Ltd, itself backed by Ingenious Media Active Capital Ltd (IMAC).

IMAC is an investment company which aims to provide investors with capital growth from equity related investments in predominantly unquoted media and entertainment companies. IMAC, and its investments, are managed by Ingenious Ventures Ltd which is the private equity division of Ingenious Media plc. In May and November 2008 the Group was further expanded by the acquisition of SponsorClick France which is to be renamed brandRapport France and Arena International which will become brandRapport Arena. SponsorClick France was founded in 2003 and provides expertise in the design and the implementation of sponsorship marketing strategies, activation platforms, evaluation tools and measurement plans to a wide range of blue chip clients.