The TwentyTen Group has announced the launch of Torque Strategies, an agency that aims to change the way marketers approach sponsorship.
Andrea Shaw, TwentyTen founder and managing partner, told Marketing that where TwentyTen is focused on helping organizations such as Kidsport, Whistler/Blackcomb and Simon Fraser University use sponsorship as a revenue stream, Torque Strategies will focus on the strategic side of sponsorships for the corporate sector.
“We know in Canada that six out of 10 companies invested in sponsorship aren’t strategic about it in terms of relating back to their business objectives,” said Shaw. “Torque Strategies will really focus in on ensuring companies become strategic about their investment.”
Bart Given, managing director and chief innovator at Torque Strategies, said that while the two companies will share the same infrastructure, they will operate as separate entities.
“Sponsorship is one of the most sophisticated and effective tools a marketer has to build their brand when leveraged effectively,” said Given, who was a senior partner with the TwentyTen Group. “Torque Strategies is going to focus on the story building side of things.”
TwentyTen was born in 2011 out of the Vancouver Olympic Committee’s sponsorship brain trust. With the Sochi Winter Games now in full swing, Marketing wondered if the Torque launch announcement was timed to coincide with the event.
“The timing for the company is right,” Shaw said. “The pride in Canada is being unleashed yet again. Are we capitalizing on that energy to announce the opening of our new company? Absolutely.”
Shaw and Bill Cooper, chief operating partner, will oversee both TwentyTen and Torque Strategies. Shaw said the TwentyTen Group doubled in size this past year and they will be looking at expansion into Montreal and Calgary.
Torque’s head office will be in Toronto with another location in Vancouver.
