Empire Entertainment and TBA Announce a Strategic Alliance Focusing on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Sports Sponsorship Activations
July 2018. Hong Kong
(Hong Kong, 24 July 2018) TBA announced today that it has formed a strategic alliance with Empire Entertainment Japan K. K. and Empire Entertainment, Inc. (“Empire”), a dynamic brand experience and entertainment group based respectively in Tokyo and New York City.
This strategic alliance fuses the strengths and resources of TBA and Empire, creating a powerful synergistic offering for brands seeking to activate brand strategies in Japan and around the world, with particular emphasis on opportunities relating to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The alliance takes TBA’s rich sports mega-event activation experience, renowned logistics abilities, and the resources and network of the Pico Group and combines them with Empire’s deep expertise in live and broadcast events, experience design, creative-driven activations, talent management, and innovative event technologies. This alliance will offer customers the collective strengths of these highly successful organisations.
TBA and Empire will collaborate closely to create, design and deliver exceptional inbound and outbound brand activations in Japan, China, the U.S. and other international markets. The alliance will apply a focused approach to experience design which will be based on seven core fields of expertise: activations, interactive, spaces, social, film, entertainment and hospitality; enabling alliance clients to deliver outstanding brand experiences through powerful storytelling, creating broader and deeper engagements and memorable brand interactions with their customers.
From early in the bid process, the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (TOCOG) stated that their aim was to use the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as a showcase for Japanese technology, with many sponsors investing in innovation in the lead up to 2020. The TBA-Empire alliance is poised to help Olympic-related sponsors and corporations realise this aim through the combined power of its unique, sophisticated and exciting hospitality-and technology-based services, which will include recognition technologies and data intelligence. These will deliver customised content experiences and post-games engagement.
Gregory Crandall, Director of Brand Engagement, Pico+ and TBA Hong Kong commented, “Since 2000, at eight Olympic Games, Pico has provided infrastructure, sponsorship and hospitality, torch relay logistics and other event management services. Working closely with Empire will allow us to deliver optimal services for both Japanese clients and clients seeking to activate in Japan through Empire’s deep understanding of Japanese culture, intimate local knowledge, and access to locations and resources.”
Ted Miller, President and CEO, Empire Entertainment Japan K. K. said: “Tokyo has already eclipsed all previous Olympic Games in terms of sponsor support, with reports of almost USD three billion committed and more partners expected. The people, expertise and resources of the Empire-TBA alliance position us to support Olympic sponsors, from Worldwide Partners to Local Official Supporters; helping them to make the most of their investments during the Olympic Games and beyond as they ride the wave of interest in the Games with engaging and memorable brand experiences.”
About TBA
TBA is part of the Pico Group. A Pico+ company, this full-service creative brand activation agency specialises in below-the-line engagements for events, exhibitions and experiential marketing, delivering results from strategy through to execution. TBA uses an insight-based approach to inspire their clients’ target audiences, create interest in brands and deliver innovative solutions to maximise returns.
Pico+ addresses the challenges arising from a constantly shifting marketing landscape. Through integrated engagement methodologies, Pico+ seamlessly blends digital, mobile, gaming, social media and other technology-based modes of engagement with real-life experiences to deliver impressive ROI.
About Pico
Pico is a global leader in Total Brand Activation specialising in engaging people, creating experiences and activating brands. Innovative, insightful and inspired, Pico brings brands to life and creates experiences – from strategy to execution. Leveraging a track record in experience design that spans half a century, Pico creates immersive audience engagements which harness the power of technology, content and many production services – delivering extraordinary experiences to millions of people around the world.
The Pico Group was named Asia Pacific’s Best Event Agency at the 2018 CEI Readers’ Choice Awards. The Pico Group won the Bronze award in the B2B Agency category and Bronze in the Event Agency category at Marketing Magazine’s Agency of the Year Awards 2018 in Hong Kong. The Group was the Best Marketing Website winner at the WebAwards 2017, organised by the US-based Web Marketing Association. In North America, the Pico Group has been listed as one of Special Events magazine’s 50 Top Event Companies since 2012.
Pico Far East Holdings Limited has been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 1992 (HKEx Stock Code: 752). Our associate company, Pico (Thailand) Public Company Limited was listed on Thailand’s MAI in 2004 (Stock Code: PICO).