Omnicom Media Group’s sport and entertainment agency Fuse has hired its first international new business and marketing director as part of plans to move into new markets to capitalise on big sporting moments, from the 2024 Paris Olympics to the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup.
Sophie Forrest (pictured, far left) joins with an extensive background in commercial sport and sponsorship strategy, having spent more than a decade working in the Asia Pacific Region.
She started her career in the UK at Experience Worldwide, and following spells at WSM Sponsorship and Futureproof, spent four years at CSM Sport & Entertainment in Hong Kong, leading some of its biggest regional accounts,
Forrest then joined East Asia Super League to help build its regional business and proof-of-concept basketball tournaments and in 2020 switched to Football Marketing Asia, where she worked her way up to senior vice-president of commercial strategy.
In her new role, Forrest will oversee marketing and new business internationally, helping Fuse strengthen its sport and entertainment offering across 16 current international markets; the agency’s international clients include PepsiCo, Nissan, Enterprise, Google, FedEx, and JustEat Takeaway. She will report to CEO Louise Johnson.
Fuse has also promoted Ellie Mainwaring (pictured, right) to head of new business and marketing in the UK. Responsible for driving new business strategy, Mainwaring will oversee processes from lead generation and prospecting to pitch conversion.
She has over 20 years’ experience on both agency and client side and has extensive connections across the wider OMG agency group. During her eight years at Fuse, she has served as director of Fuse OMD UK, and latterly director of business development. Mainwaring will report to UK managing director Sarah Kendall.
Both appointments follow Fuse’s launch in Spain in January, with Juli Ferre joining Omnicom Media Group as head of Fuse Spain.
Louise Johnson said: “Sophie and Ellie are hugely important members of the Fuse team. Sophie’s background in commercial sport and sponsorship strategy in international markets and Ellie’s eight-year stint in business development at Fuse means they bring a wealth of experience and expertise as we ramp up our services in new and existing regions.”
Fuse’s board is 66% female and now 61% of the senior leadership team and 58% of the overall team is female, resulting in a salary gap in favour of women.
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