Octagon (sports agency)

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Octagon

Type	Subsidiary of Interpublic Group
Founded	1982
Headquarters	Stamford, CT
Number of locations	50
Website	www.octagon.com

Octagon is the global sports and entertainment content marketing arm of the Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE:IPG)^[1] In 2017, Octagon moved their global headquarters to 290 Harbor Drive in Stamford, Connecticut.^[2]

History[]

Octagon was founded on April 1, 1983 as Advantage International with its headquarters in Washington, DC.  From the beginning, its founders (including Phil de Picciotto, Frank Craighill and Lee Fentress) soon opened offices in major markets including London, Paris, Melbourne and Tokyo.  It has been owned by Interpublic since 1997 and has operated under the Octagon brand name since 1999.   

In 1970 Donald Dell, Frank Craighill, Lee Fentress and Ray Benton founded the Washington, D.C. law firm, Dell, Craighill, Fentress & Benton, one of the first sports law and sports management firms in the world.^[3] Dell's friendships made through his U.S. Davis Cup captainship allowed him and his University of Virginia law school friend Craighill, and partners, to begin their sports agent careers with clients such as Arthur Ashe and Stan Smith. Dell was also instrumental in the founding of the Association of Tennis Professionals and is considered one of the fathers of sports marketing and the sports agent business.

The firm enjoyed great success during the formation of the ATP and would become ProServ in 1976. As ProServ evolved, difficulties between partners arose and in 1982, Craighill, Fentress, and W. Dean Smith left to found Advantage International. Craighill became Managing Director and the firm rose to become an industry rival of fellow full service agency IMG in the 1990s.^[4] Craighill came to realize that Advantage's historical 20% growth rate since its founding would not be sustainable in the long run, due to the increasing complexity and competition in the athlete representation industry, without the addition of greater capital and resources.^[5] This led to the sale of Advantage and its leadership including President, Phil de Picciotto, Mickey Lawler, and Jeff Austin to Interpublic Group.^[6] In 1997, Interpublic group successfully completed the merger of Advantage and other agencies to form Octagon, overseeing athletes from Steffi Graf of WTA to Moses Malone of the NBA.^[7]

IPG[]

In 1970 Sir Frank Lowe was the head of the advertising agency Collett Dickenson Pearce (CDP). In 1979 Lowe arranged sponsorship of the Queen's Club Championships which became known as the Stella Artois tournament, an arrangement that lasted almost 30 years.

After leaving CDP in 1981 to form his own agency, Lowe Howard-Spink, which eventually became , he sold his agency to one of the world's largest advertising and marketing communications groups, Interpublic Group (IPG) and joined the board of the US Giant. In 1997, Sir Lowe convinced the IPG board to build the first "marketing-led sports agency." To do this, IPG bought a group of sports agencies which included APA and Advantage International.^[8]

Recent years[]

Octagon currently operates with over 1,000 employees and 50 offices around the globe, with an equal number of athlete and personality clients, and manages upwards of 13,400 events per year.^[9]

On April 5, 2021, John Shea was named CEO of Octagon Sports & Entertainment Network (OSEN). de Picciotto remained in his position to co-manage the agency. Former CEO Rick Dudley continues to serve as Chairman.

References[]