UAE. The sporting events industry in the UAE is highly promising especially nowadays. This outlook has created the country’s first sports events marketing and advertising partnership between Venture Communications and Asia Sports Marketing. The two agencies will provide turnkey solutions to local, regional and international companies.
Venture Communications CEO Gabby Bechara Chamat announced: “Our agency is always looking at opportunities not only for business growth but also for pioneering efforts in the marketing and advertising industry. We believe the sports events sector in the UAE is fundamentally strong and that Asia Sports Marketing is a well-experienced and reputed sports marketing company.”
According to Chamat, the partnership is in line with his company’s thrust in 2009 to offer more communication services, effectively making Venture Communications more than a one-stop shop agency. It has already opened its Abu Dhabi and Beirut offices and has affiliates in Europe such as France and Switzerland.
For his part, Asia Sports Marketing General Manager Chucri Rizk added: “This partnership is a welcome development for us as it brings greater stability to our operations. We don’t need to talk to different agencies whenever we have a new project.
With Venture Communications being a full-service advertising agency around, we will be more focused on delivering the best results expected from us.”
According to Rizk, the sports event management and marketing field is a big business that has grown enormously in the last two decades. He noted, however, that the industry in the Middle East is still young.
“From small participatory programs to mega hallmark events seen by millions across the globe, this industry has mirrored the explosive growth of the media, entertainment and tourism industries around the world and is worth between US$ 110 billion and US$225 billion.
Sports marketing is virtually everywhere and will continue into the future,” Rizk explained.
Since 2003, Asia Sports Marketing owns the advertising rights of the Dubai football clubs related to the UAE National League.
“In particular, we were handling the President Cup organization and have the commercial rights. We used to manage the sports events of local and regional corporate brands,” Rizk further said. Asia Sports Marketing has also managed other sporting events like tennis, horse racing, golf and basketball.
The general manager has over 15 years of experience in sports marketing and has managed over 200 events, including Asian events like the World Cup Qualifiers, Olympics Qualifiers, GCC Cup, and West Asian Championship, as well as the Asian Basketball and Asian Golf.
Chamat said he is excited about the prospects of engaging in big events. “We had managed major events in the past like the Dubai Balloon Festival, Italian Festival Week, Mont Blanc 250 Years of Mozart, Sparkling Korea, and with our previous agency, the Dubai Ramadan Festival for two years, Ice Surprises, Formula One Boat Race in the UAE, Muscat Festival in Oman, and fashion shows around the world,” he added.
Venture Communications was established in September 2005. It provides media buying, branding, creative, production, and public relations, including event management such as major events and festivals.