Brandedmedia muscle with IMG deal (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Brandedmedia muscle with IMG deal

9:29am Tuesday 30th June 2009

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MEDIA replication and packaging experts Brandedmedia has secured a three-year licence deal for The World’s Strongest Man competition.

Based at Lutyens Industrial Centre, in Bilton Road, and headed by managing director Sean Fergusson, the company signed the agreement with IMG Sports Media, which is part of IMG Worldwide.

Sean said: “The deal allows us to go into 30 years of archive footage and create DVDs from it, which we can then distribute through our global retail and distribution network.

“We thought that as it’s the 30th year of the competition, it would be great to release the first official DVD and call it Thirty Years of Pain.”

Brandedmedia released the DVD documentary last week. It follows the competition, shown every January, from its very first event at Universal Studios, in California right up to the 2008 finals in Charleston, West Virginia.

The DVD brings the action to life with interviews with some of the competition’s biggest names including Britain’s Geoff Capes and the likes of Bill Kazamaier and Magnus ver Magnusson as well as the event’s founder, Barry Frank.

Last year, the competition, which was broadcast in the UK on Five, was watched by more than 220 million people worldwide.

Sean said: “For anyone into the World’s Strongest Man competition, it’s a real must-have DVD and it includes stuff that hasn’t even been seen on TV before.

“Also within the DVD there is a chance to win two tickets to the World’s Strongest Man 2009 finals and get some DVDs signed by Geoff Capes.”

Last week, Sean met Geoff Capes at the home of European drag racing, Santa Pod, in Northamptonshire, where he was coaching BBC Sports presenter Mike Bushell on how to pull an eight-ton truck. This feature will be shown on Breakfast on Saturday.

With an annual turnover of £6 million, and boasting clients such as The AA, Virgin and accounting giant KPMG, Sean said this new deal with IMG is another feather in its cap.

He said: “We’ve worked together for the last three years on specific projects and this first signing as licensee is a really good opportunity for us.

“As well as the DVD rights, Brandedmedia is working in partnership with IMG to extend this success into other areas of licensing.

“The great thing is, because of the business that we run here, we have some really good expertise within our team we can draw on which we can manage internally all under one roof.”

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