Publicis Groupe today announced the expansion of its Publicis Sport & Entertainment (PSE) offering into Australia, with Lion Dairy & Drinks’ Dare Iced Coffee engaging PSE to drive the brand’s e-sports strategy.

Publicis Sport & Entertainment is a global Publicis Groupe solution that helps brands and rights holders use sport and entertainment to optimise their return from sponsorships, and broader sports media channels.

Working alongside Publicis Media agency, Starcom – which counts Lion Dairy & Drinks as a client – Publicis Sport & Entertainment has been charged with developing Dare Iced Coffee’s approach to reaching the highly-engaged fans in the e-sports and gaming industry.

With a burgeoning e-sports and gaming audience around the world, Lion Dairy & Drinks is aiming to broaden the drink brand’s target audience from competitive e-sports fans, to include casual gaming fans.

As part of the new strategy, activity will include the local sponsorship of ESL, the world’s largest e-sports platform, and the engagement of gaming influencers later in the year.

Lion Dairy & Drinks marketing and innovation director, Darryn Wallace said: “We’re excited to be working with Publicis Sport & Entertainment and Starcom to evolve our e-sports strategy and supercharge our engagement with this hard-to-reach audience.”

In Australia, Publicis Sport & Entertainment is being led by director, Ashley O’Rourke (pictured below).

He reports into Patrick Whitnall (pictured below), Publicis Media’s head of content and sport ANZ.

Whitnall said: “This new offering allows us the opportunity to create an integrated sport and entertainment solution, providing our clients with a full portfolio that includes strategic consulting, research, creative leadership, content production, PR, social, digital and experiential execution across the group.

“To do this we have hired one of the rising stars in the sector, Ashley O’Rourke, who has led some of the best-in-class sports partnerships in market.”

Publicis Groupe ANZ COE, Michael Rebelo added: “As a group, one of our strengths is our ability to provide clients end-to-end solutions through the diverse capabilities of our agency businesses.

“While we continue to do a lot of work in sponsorship, the addition of Publicis Sport & Entertainment will further boost our ability to make sure that clients are maximising the return from their sponsorship investment within the context of their overall media and marketing strategy.”

Rebelo concluded: “Publicis Sport & Entertainment is already starting to work with agencies within our group as we continue to drive more collaboration for our clients, including through our unique Power of One model.”

Publicis Sport & Entertainment operates in key markets including the US, UK and Europe, offering brands and rights holders in sports and entertainment access to all Publicis Groupe capabilities.