Leading Sports Marketing Agency Fast Track Celebrates Ten Years

Sports marketing expert Alan Pascoe today predicted continued record growth of the sports sponsorship industry over the next five years.

Despite difficult global economic conditions, Pascoe believes that, with the advent of the London Olympiad and The Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014, brands will continue their support for sport.

Speaking ahead of Fast Track’s celebratory 10th birthday party at Madame Tussauds in London, Pascoe said:

“The sports industry has grown tremendously over the past ten years and I am delighted that we have played a substantial role in that growth. The London Olympic and Paralympic Games and The Commonwealth Games present a further incredible opportunity for the industry and we at Fast Track are well placed to continue our successes over the next period in our history”.

Tonight Fast Track celebrates its tenth Anniversary having been voted the leading sponsorship agency in the UK by Marketing magazine for four years running.

Since its beginnings as the commercial arm of UK Athletics, the company has grown to a multiple award-winning agency working with leading clients such HSBC, The National Lottery, Emirates, G4S, Heineken, HSBC, Land Rover, Lucozade Sport and Camelot.

Fast Track operates in four core areas: Consulting, Events, Communications and Rights Marketing across all aspects of sport.

Following Alan Pascoe’s international sporting career, which spanned 13 years and included winning Commonwealth and European gold and Olympic silver medals, Alan founded API, which grew to become one of the top three sponsorship, television and sports marketing companies in the world.

In 1998, after selling API to the Interpublic Group, Alan formed Fast Track with Olympic sailor Edward Leask as a specialist sponsorship consultancy. In 2003 Alan joined Britain’s successful bid for London 2012 as vice-chairman.

Speaking ahead of the celebrations for the 10th anniversary at Madame Tussauds, Managing Director Jon Ridgeon said:

“Tonight we are celebrating the tremendous successes within British sport and Fast Track’s continued growth over the past decade which has been made possible thanks to all our clients’ support.”

Managing Director Jim Glover said:

“The last ten years have been a great success story and we look forward to delivering further world-class campaigns for our clients over the next period in our history.”

Through the decade, Fast Track has acquired Glover’s former agency, Lighthouse Communications, Stuart Higgins Communications and The Sports Business.

Last year Fast Track joined Chime Communications plc, the marketing services group chaired by Lord Bell.

Fast Track is based in London and has two overseas offices in Madrid and Abu Dhabi.

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Notes to Editors

1. Fast Track

Fast Track was formed in 1998 and has established itself as the leading independent sports marketing agency in the UK. Operating in four core areas - Consulting, Events, Communications and Commercial, it was recently ranked the leading sponsorship agency in the UK by Marketing magazine. Since its inception, Fast Track has created world class sports marketing campaigns for a variety of clients across a multitude of sports from football to athletics, rugby to rowing. This has led to a number of prestigious awards for our clients and for the agency, which recently became the first company to win back to back Sport Industry Awards. Fast Track is based in London and is part of Chime Communications plc. Fast Track is also a founding member of the United Agencies Network.

2. Fast Track Sailing

Fast Track Sailing is a sailing-focused division with a dedicated team from a wide range of sporting, marketing and sales backgrounds.  The team specialises in sponsorship activation and sales, event management, PR and marketing.
 
Fast Track Sailing focuses on implementation and exploitation of global sponsorships, PR and media activation, creating commercial sponsorship platforms to enable cities to sponsor key events and become hosts to major sporting events, event management, co-ordinating unique corporate hospitality events and sponsorship sales.
 
3. Stuart Higgins Communications

Stuart Higgins Communications was formed in 1999 as a PR company with the specific aim of offering a different kind of PR service. The combination of expert journalistic input and the traditional PR disciplines fuse into a winning combination. SHC is driven by success and has chosen to work with clients who share its goal. In 2003, SHC added a talent management division to the business.

4. The Sports Business

The Sports Business is Scotland's leading sports sponsorship agency.
Backed by the most experienced team of professionals we have delivered results on almost every major football and rugby sponsorship since our creation in 1995. The Sports Business offers a range of services dedicated to the successful management and activation of sports sponsorships, events, sponsorship searches, media relations and publicity linked to sport.

5. Chime Communications plc

The Chime Group helps clients create, manage, monitor and market their businesses, brands and reputation both in the UK and internationally.

Chime is the holding company for the UK’s leading public relations group, Bell Pottinger, the UK’s leading research and engagement group, Opinion Leader; and one of the fastest growing advertising and marketing services groups in the UK, that includes VCCP, Teamspirit, TTA and the leading sports marketing business, Fast Track.

Chime is made up of three divisions, 36 agencies and over 1000 people with offices in London, Ashford, Liverpool, Macclesfield, Edinburgh and Cardiff in the UK, Munich and Hamburg in Europe, New York, Boston and Washington DC in the USA and Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar in the Middle East.