As agencies grow by acquisition, Playfly brings in Neuman, Parise to start consulting practice
Michal Neuman (left) and Dan Parise (right) will join COO Craig Sloan at Playfly Sports.Courtesy of Playfly
Three-year-old sports marketing and media agency Playfly Sports is continuing to gild its marketing lily, launching a New York City corporate consulting practice under veterans Michael Neuman and Dan Parise, who will be co-heads of the new Playfly Sports Consulting.
Over the past 12 years at Horizon Media, Neuman launched and grew Scout Sports & Entertainment, prior to his March departure. Parise was most recently CMO at Rival.
Neuman begins at Playfly with a mission to replicate his success at Scout with clients like Geico, FanDuel and Burger King, and an additional charter to grow by acquisition. Over its three years (actually, 34 months), Playfly has reached around 1,000 employees through myriad acquisitions, including most recently Bernie Mullin’s Aspire Group ticketing agency.
“This is an organization focused on the future, and they are all about sports,” said Neuman. “We exited a place [Horizon] where I believe we built something special, but they were not always focused on sports. Now, we have a white canvas, access to capital and support, along with a shared vision that will allow us to leverage our industry relationships to drive revenue across this company.”
Said Playfly COO Craig Sloan: “The most exciting thing about this is that they [Neuman and Parise] built an industry-leading sports and experiential agency within another company. That shows collaboration, which is not easy. We think we can do that bigger and better, using their leadership. We also put a premium on people and culture. They’ve done great work there, and that area is vital. It’s what moves a business forward as much as anything.”